How do you decide what to invest in?

[Hárbarðr]

Simple question:
What do you look for when investing? Being stocks, fund, ETFs...

Do you consider dividend?
Diversity?

How does your portfolio look like and why?

Hope it is not to broad a question.

[Hárbarðr]

thank you for your reply.
That is something I am also looking to do, at least with some of my investments.
Would you have any recommendation with good dividend?

[Kanto]

There are actually lots of opportunities but I focus mainly on corporate bonds (direct or funds), REITs (mostly Singapore for their high yield).
I am starting to look at BDC (business development companies), CEF (close end funds) and preferred shares all in US market.

I am using Seeking Alpha for US market to get some information. For S-REITs and Singapore in general I use sginvestors.io website. For bonds I have a broker in Belgium - all in French !

Hárbarðr is planning for retirement. I do not think this is great advice for him.

I would suggest:

Develop a workable plan
Invest early and often
Never bear too much or too little risk
Never try to time the market
Use index funds when possible
Keep costs low
Diversify
Minimize taxes
Keep it simple
Stay the course

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting ... _investors

[Ax6isB]

That’s a pretty good list from Kanto to help get organized before you start investing. I’d maybe change #3 to “understand your risk tolerance”. Personally, this has been a fun one to learn. I thought I was risk tolerant and yet i found myself exiting a lot of positions quickly. I apparently don’t like volatility and hence have changed my investing strategy to better align with my emotions.

“Stay the course” is also underrated. I have learned to take notes regarding “why” I am investing in something and go back to those notes to remind myself what I was thinking when I made the investment. Sometimes, you may have an investment for years and it can be tricky to remember what you were thinking and planning.

If you’re just getting started, “Keep is Simple” is wonderful guidance. You will find that you can get into incredible obscure trades. There are ETF/Mutual Funds that encompass entire markets, or the world, which help to remove some stress about diversity or dividends as you effectively own everything. Then as you learn more, your definition of “simple” may change and you may find yourself making arcane trades in the future.

I think there’s something in there about the journey as well. It is a journey and like any journey, there’s success as well as some setbacks along the way.

[RetireJapan]

I think there’s something in there about the journey as well. It is a journey and like any journey, there’s success as well as some setbacks along the way.

Absolutely. I have been investing for just over a decade, and I've changed my approach several times, learning more and more along the way. As long as you don't go bankrupt or lose faith in the process, it just makes you stronger

[OkiBum]

I think there’s something in there about the journey as well. It is a journey and like any journey, there’s success as well as some setbacks along the way.

Absolutely. I have been investing for just over a decade, and I've changed my approach several times, learning more and more along the way. As long as you don't go bankrupt or lose faith in the process, it just makes you stronger

Bull's Eye!

[captainspoke]

For ETFs, maybe I'll start with what I want, or don't--maybe I want my next step to emphasize growth or tech, or maybe I've been thinking I have too much focus on that and should just go for an index fund. Sometimes I've been looking at several (or more) individual stocks, and then try to find a fund that holds all of those.

I look at morningstar star ratings (which is at least a kind of performance chasing), and try to choose ETFs that have at least a 5-year, and hopefully a 10-year track record. Star ratings for 3, 5, and 10 years, and overall. (My broker's screener lets me set up filters for this.)

A lower expense ratio is another factor. I prefer ETFs with decent daily volume--well into the hundreds of thousands of shares, and if into the millions, so much the better. (Liquidity is wonderful when it comes time to sell.)

Another aspect is breadth. If two funds seem similar (e.g., two growth funds), I'll try to choose the one with more holdings, or that has a wider coverage of market cap, spread a little more over giant, large, mid, and small--less concentrated.

I sometimes look at some other details. Volatility--mean, deviation, sharpe/treynor ratios, beta, alpha, r-squared, and up/downside capture ratios. And by that time, I'm really confused...

...and so I then maybe come back to simplicity: What is the simplest, most neutral way to satisfy what I'm looking for? And how does that compare to just adding to one of the funds I already have?

**

Another part of my portfolio I look for dividend stocks--might check back later on factors there.

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

I have learned to take notes regarding “why” I am investing in something and go back to those notes to remind myself what I was thinking when I made the investment.

Ooh, I like that.

[MajesticSoup]

I'm young and naive, so do not follow my footsteps.

I throw 60% into S&P500 so that no matter how bad of a decision I make, it's not the end of the world.

Then I put about 30% into companies I strongly believe in on a 3-5 year time horizon. It may be a big crapshoot, and I may end up losing enough to do worse than if I just went 100% into S&P, but we'll see. This 90% fills up my NISA account.

The remaining 10% is play money that I trade with. I guess we are in a bull market, so I don't know how it feels to lose money... yet. These stocks go into my 特定 account.

[Ax6isB]

I don’t think it’s been said but you can always pay a newsletter service for advice if that makes you feel better. There are countless out there and many offer subscriptions so you could use them for help to get started and then cancel once you feel comfortable. Or keep a subscription and compete against it. However, before selecting one, I’d encourage anyone to follow the writer(s) for a lengthy period to assess their performance and see how you feel about them. In this scenario, you’re basically asking someone to advise you on how you spend your money so it’s good to know if align with them. You don’t want someone that just parroting the most common picks. Or maybe you do.