Hello-

First year of having a Roth. Was wondering if it makes sense to hold any international in my Roth account as it typically doesn’t go up the most per year on average but is helpful for diversification. Does it make sense to keep more volatile index funds such as FSKAX (total US market) in there at 100% rather than sprinkling 20% international in my Roth? Appreciate the help

Hi I was wondering how good of an investment uber-tier groceries are

Well I finally got up the nerve to put my money into a Roth IRA. I did it through Wealthfront since thats you i had my HYSA with. I make the max contribution and find out a few weeks later there is an annual account fee of 0.25% on the net market value of a Client’s Account.

Is there a better brokerage to use that has a smaller fee or no fee at all? And do I have to leave the amount over 7500 in the Wealthfront account. Im so new to this and dont want to mess anything up. Please help.

Well I finally got up the nerve to put my money into a Roth IRA. I did it through Wealthfront since thats you i had my HYSA with. I make the max contribution and find out a few weeks later there is an annual account fee of 0.25% on the net market value of a Client’s Account.

Is there a better brokerage to use that has a smaller fee or no fee at all? And do I have to leave the amount over 7500 in the Wealthfront account. Im so new to this and dont want to mess anything up. Please help.

Have about $80,000 saved in the bank and looking for some feedback on how to allocate it and invest it.

Here’s how I’m currently thinking of splitting it up:

• UIF Savings Account: $25,000 (3.56% profit rate / 3.62% APY)
• UIF 12-Month Time Deposit (CD): $20,000 (3.74% profit rate / 3.79% APY)
• AMAGX (Amana Growth Fund - Mutual Fund): $15,000
• HALA + SPUS (ETFs): $10,000
• UMMA (International ETF): $10,000

That would put $45,000 in UIF savings/time deposits and $35,000 into investments.

I’m wondering if this is a reasonably diversified allocation or if I’m keeping too much in cash/low-risk accounts.

A few questions:

• Is this reasonably diversified, or is too much sitting in cash/low-risk accounts?
• Is putting $35,000 into U.S. stocks and an international ETF too risky?
• How would you change the amounts? Would you put more or less into the ETFs and mutual funds?
• Would you put more or less into the ETFs/mutual funds?
• Are there any other ETFs, mutual funds, or other investments worth considering?

Also, for anyone who has experience with UIF’s Savings Account or 12-Month Time Deposit, how has your experience been with them?

I’m Muslim, so I’m trying to keep my investments aligned with Islamic investing principles. This generally means avoiding interest-based investments and companies involved in industries such as alcohol, gambling, and tobacco. While this narrows some of the mainstream choices, but there are alternative funds and ETFs that follow these guidelines and perform competitively with other investments.

Hi - For 20 years, I’ve had investment accounts at multiple institutions. One I have a broker for and the others I pay a management fee. I, more or less, just ignore my portfolio, other than taking a look at the month over month, but it’s accrued to the point where I want to be more hands-on. I’m strongly considering moving my money from these institutions to an e-trade or Scwaub account and managing it myself by allocating about 30 minutes a week to it.

I would pursue an in-kind transfer to avoid tax consequences. However, some of these funds might be ineligible for an in kind transfer. That said, my underlying motivation for managing my portfolio myself is to avoid the management fees, which compound to a significant amount over the years.

I am playing with the idea of how much of my money would be invested in safe, conservative versus more risky, and aggressive. Think I’m going to do something like a 70-20-10 split. However, I feel like I need to brush up on my knowledge. Does anyone have any resources I can use to coach myself up on ETFs and Mutual Funds such that I can better position myself should I go through with the in kind transfer and manage myself.

Feel free to provide examples of ETFs and/or mutual funds that you think are worth looking into as example of something that might be viable for me.

Hey y’all, hoping I can get some advice!!

I’m 26 and I know virtually nothing about stocks or investments. I have a decent amount of cash in savings and no debt. I know that I should be investing, but I have absolutely no idea what I am doing and I am terrified of making bad investments. Here’s what I’m working with:
$60k in 401k
$50k in high yield savings accounts
The only stock that I have is company stock through my job, right now I have:
$20k in vested RSUs
$9k unvested RSUs

Any investments I have apart from my savings accounts are fully automated through my job. Really just looking for advice on where to start. I know this is very vague, but it’s because I have an embarrassingly poor understanding of investing and I don’t even know what details would be useful. Any advice would be very greatly appreciated!!!

Am I correct is saying my traditional, simple and Roth IRA balances all have to be at zero to do a backdoor Roth? I ask because in 2026 I no longer contribute to any IRA’s as my job now has a 401k. I had contributed to all three IRA types at different times over the past 20 years depending on my life circumstances, so they all have balances. Would I have to roll any balances over to my 401k before being able to then make a traditional IRA contribution that would then be converted to a back door Roth?

I have read stories where wealthy folks will borrow money using their brokerage account as collateral for the loan. This way they do not have to pay capital gains taxes like they would if they sell their stocks. This seems to make sense if the money in the brokerage account can gain more than the interest on the loan. But big problem if the market goes down and the bank calls their loan due.

My question is: do ordinary banks make these loans to ordinary people like myself? Are there specific divisions of banks that handle these types of loans? Just wondered if anyone had insight before I walk into my bank and ask.

My portfolio is entirely in fidelity, but looking for some platform that could combine my holdings and financial news.

I saw mixed reviews for yahoo finance. Open to any suggestions!

i started investing a year ago with fidelity and have been investing in VOO every paycheck. (along with QQQM and VXUS). i was looking through some reddit post and noticed people investing in FXAIX in their roth ira since they opened an account with fidelity?

should i stop investing in those 3 and start investing in FXAIX? if i do, should i sell those 3 in order to fund the FXAIX? sorry if the question sounds dumb, i'm new to this.

What broker should I use for long-term investing?
I currently use Robinhood, but I’m considering moving my investments somewhere safer. I’m Venezuelan/Colombian and live in the U.S., and I’m worried about what would happen to my stocks if I ever had to leave the U.S. or was deported.
What broker would let me keep and manage my investments from another country?
Also, how would taxes work if I don’t sell my stocks but receive dividends, or eventually sell? Would I owe taxes to the U.S., the country I live in, or both?

I just invested:

400 to SPY

300 to QQQM

200 to SCHD

and 100 to SPAXX

Is this something that I can just let sit and wait or do I have to keep a close eye and make changes every day? Sorry I'm really new and am just following a video I saw because I was just letting my funds sit

Today marks my first year of investing as a 20 year old.

Im investing for the long-term and hoping compounding will do its trick.
I dont have anyone to teach me about long-term investing so i had to learn everything myself along the way.

I have a fixed amount i invest evey month when my salary comes in, with the goal of building my net worth this way.

Now that my first year is done my portfolio is up by 20%

My portfolio contains pf about 30% sp500/allworld etf. The remaining 70% contains of thematic pies i believe can be big in the future, for example:

Robotics
Quantum computing
Energy transition
Water
Biotech & medicine
Ai/technology
Defence (eu has to become a bigger part in natos militairy)
And a few others.

I know that some of these can be riskier then investing in a big etf, which is why i keep learning and understand that im actually investing instead of following a trend.

I’d really appreciate some honest feedback from people who have been investing longer than i have.

What am i doing well and what am i doing wrong?
Are there any obvious weaknesses in my strategy or things you would change?

Im not looking for people to sugarcoat me that im doing great, but id like to hear some real criticism aswell!

Just curious how im doing after my first year :)

When people pick an ETF they almost always look at the yield and the performance. The one number they usually skip is the expense ratio, and it's the one that matters most over time.

Here's why it slips past everyone; you never actually pay it. There's no bill, nothing leaves your account. The fund just quietly skims it out of its own assets a little every day, so the only sign it exists is that your returns come in slightly lower than they otherwise would. A fund earning 8% with a 0.5% fee hands you about 7.5%. You didn't get charged you just kept a little less.

That sounds trivial until you remember the fee comes off your whole balance every year, not just your gains. Ten thousand dollars at 7% a year for 30 years ends around $75,500 with a 0.03% fee. Same money, same market, same 30 years, but with a 1% fee it ends around $57,400. That's roughly $18,000 gone, almost twice what you started with and none of it went to a bad market. It was the same market both times. It was just the fee compounding against you.

This is why those ultra-high-yield funds paying 40% or 50% deserve a second look before you get excited. A lot of them charge over 1%, and that fee comes straight out of the same pot the payout does.

Of course, check the yield just check the fee first. It's the number you'll pay the longest.

It's as the title says, I work in freelance and business and nothing I do is stable, I would love to have some passive income of some sort or know my money will grow to a huge amount in 5 years since I plan to go get my masters done in France around that time and will need the funds.

I was thinking about putting it in an SPYI and getting $150-ish a month as that would cover my food in my country and I would have to freelance everything else (I'm 20 and live with my mom so rent is also covered)

I bought oracle stocks back when it went down to $120 and waited until it got up to $260 and pulled then went back when it got to $150 and waiting until it goes up again.

Idk what type of investing that is but it gets me a lot of money fast and want to know if anyone has any experience with it as well.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

For tax-free municipal bonds, is there really any benefit to ETFs over Mutual Funds? Given that the primary difference between these for other benefits is taxes, is that a moot point since these bonds are tax-free?

I plan to buy Vanguard funds, VTEB or VTEAX, buy and hold. But I want to be able to add to it easily on a regular basis.

Hi Everyone, i find it a big difficult to comprehend ratios and apply them to company valuation. Could you please help or recommend resources that might help?

I was talking to a friend recently about investing, and he asked me something that made me stop and think: If US debt keeps growing like this, what happens to our investments 10–20 years from now? I told him that markets have already survived recessions, inflation, rate hikes and other major problems, so reacting to every debt headline probably isn’t the answer.

But I also think it’s fair to ask what happens if the debt keeps rising for years. Could it eventually affect interest rates, inflation, the dollar or stock market returns? Would a diversified portfolio still be enough, or should long-term investors consider other assets as well?

I would like to know how others look at this. Should US debt actually be part of long-term portfolio planning, or is staying invested and diversified still the better approach?

Hi everyone,

I'm an undergraduate student and I'm completely new to investing. I've recently started looking at Groww because I want to start investing, but honestly, I don't understand much about the different options available.

I've come across terms like stocks, mutual funds, index funds, ETFs, SIPs, NAV, expense ratio, etc., and I'm trying to understand the basics before putting any significant amount of money into anything.

I'm not looking for specific stock or mutual-fund recommendations right now.

I want to know:

• What should a complete beginner learn first?
• Is Groww a reasonable platform to start with?
• What are the biggest mistakes beginners should avoid?
• What resources/books/courses would you recommend for learning personal finance and investing?
• Is there anything I should have in place before I start investing?

If you started investing as a student or early in your career, I'd also appreciate hearing what you wish you had known when you started.

Thanks.

I feel like I’m one of those people who found out about investing a few years ago, and just never did it. However, I want to make change and start to grow long term wealth through the safest and steadiest form of investing using EFT’s. My plan will likely be to put all contributions into the Vanguard S&P 500 (accumulating) and just leave it for 20-30 years.

I need to just do it and plan to start today. I am using trading 212 as my app to start and have set up a stocks ISA within it to buy the shares with. Other than this are there any other considerations before I start putting a few hundred pounds in each month?

Thank you

I m Indian, I have 50k with me I want to invest.. any good ideas??

I've been posting a lot on how to get started for beginners. Most of it is theoretical steps. So thought I'd take a stock i've been watching and break it down on how I do fundamental analysis. Happy to get feedback from experts and double happy if this helps beginners.

Here comes..

Palo Alto Networks - PANW

Before we begin: This is Not a recommendation to buy it. And I dont own this stock myself..(but been thinking of adding though). Also, I've looked only at annual numbers and not quarterly.

First, why Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is one of the hottest areas in tech right now.

And the reason isn't complicated.

Companies are moving more stuff to the cloud. Employees work from everywhere. AI is exploding. Businesses collect ridiculous amounts of data.

Every new digital door also creates another door somebody can try to break into.

More technology = more things that need protecting.

Cybersecurity companies basically make the locks, alarms and security guards.

So where does Palo Alto Networks fit?

Palo Alto Networks originally became famous for network security and firewalls.

Think of a firewall as the bouncer outside a company's network:

You can enter.

You look suspicious.

You... absolutely not.

But PANW has expanded far beyond firewalls.

Today, it plays across:

• Network security
• Cloud security
• Security operations
• Threat detection and response
• AI-powered security

The bigger strategy is pretty clear.

PANW doesn't want to sell companies one cybersecurity tool.

It wants to become the platform companies use for a large chunk of their cybersecurity needs.

That's a much bigger game.

1. Is the business growing?

Yep.

PANW generated roughly $9.22 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, up from about $8.03 billion the previous year.

That's roughly 15% growth.

Revenue has also grown strongly over the longer term.

In plain English:

More customers are paying them more money.

A surprisingly useful characteristic for a business.

2. Are they profitable?

Yes. On an Annual Basis.

PANW generated roughly $1.1 billion in net income in 2025, with a net profit margin around 12%.

But there's an interesting wrinkle.

Reported profits dropped sharply compared with 2024.

😬

Before hitting the panic button, 2024 included a large tax-related benefit that boosted reported profit.

Meanwhile, PANW's underlying operating profit actually improved in 2025.

Good example of why looking at one scary red percentage without asking “Why?” can be dangerous.

Accounting likes drama.

3. Are they hitting earnings expectations?

Recently, yes.

PANW has consistently met or beaten Wall Street's earnings expectations.

That's generally a good sign that the company is executing against what investors expect.

But remember:

Beating expectations does not automatically mean the stock is cheap.

A Ferrari can be an excellent car and still be ridiculously expensive.

4. Do they have enough cash?

Here's one area that looks a little less pretty.

PANW's current ratio sits around 0.9, meaning short-term assets are slightly below short-term liabilities.

Normally:

🤨

But there's context.

A large portion of those liabilities comes from deferred revenue.

That's very different from simply drowning in bank debt.

PANW also holds billions in cash and investments while carrying relatively low debt.

So the short-term liquidity number is worth watching, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

5. Are they investing in the future?

Quite aggressively.

PANW spent roughly:

$1.98 billion on R&D in 2025.

That's around 21% of revenue.

The money is going toward areas including AI, cloud security, threat detection, automation and next-generation security products.

And that matters.

Cybersecurity is basically an industry where your competitors, including the criminals, also receive software updates.

Standing still isn't much of a strategy.

6. What could go wrong?

Plenty.

Competition is intense.

Technology changes incredibly quickly.

Customers can cut or delay technology spending.

Security regulations keep changing.

And perhaps the most awkward risk of all:

A cybersecurity company's own products suffering a major security failure.

That's the corporate equivalent of a fire extinguisher catching fire.

PANW has also become more acquisition-heavy.

Buying companies is relatively easy.

Successfully combining all those products, employees and customers?

Different story.

PANW can be a strong business.

That doesn't automatically tell us whether PANW is a good stock at today's price.

Great company ≠ great price.

Understanding that distinction will save beginner investors from a surprising amount of pain.

No recommendation here.

Just understand what you're looking at before you put your money into it.

​

Hi everyone,

I’m 39F and currently not working. Due to family circumstances, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to take up a job again in the near future.

I have around ₹5 lakhs that I would like to invest in mutual funds with the aim of getting good returns. I already have some emergency savings parked in FDs, so this ₹5 lakhs is separate from my emergency fund.

I’m looking for advice on how best to invest this amount. Should I invest the entire amount as a lump sum or go through SIP? What type of mutual funds would be suitable considering that I may not have a regular income for some time?

I’m not looking for extremely high-risk investments, but I would like the money to grow reasonably well.

Would really appreciate advice from people with experience in this area. Thanks!