If I Started Investing From Scratch in 2025 (Here's Exactly What I'd Do)

Alright, let's get something out of the way here. I mean, I've been investing now for over a decade. I mean, since I was 18 years old. And if I had to start over and do it all again, I'd do it completely differently. Because I made just about every mistake that you can think of. I was trading penny stocks like it was a casino. I invested money that I needed for rent. I mean, I got caught chasing hype instead of building any real wealth. So in this video, I mean, it's not about becoming a multi-millionaire overnight. It's not about the hottest stock or crypto token that's out there. It's the investing blueprint that I wish somebody actually gave me at 18 years old. It's simple, honest, and it's built to actually work. Now, just a quick disclaimer. I mean, I'm not a financial advisor. These are just lessons that I've learned over the past 10 plus years. And to be honest, I will mention some ETFs and some funds that I personally hold. But at the end of the day, it's all crucial that you do your own research and make decisions based on your own goals. And if you're just getting started, well, hey, I made a free downloadable checklist for you. It's called the beginner investor blueprint and the links in the description of this video. So let me start with this. Most new investors, well, they get it completely wrong. They want really, really fast, streamlined results. They want the next Tesla. They want a thousand dollar investment to turn into over a hundred thousand dollars within a year. And to be fair, I mean, I did too. That's exactly how I started. When I started at 18, I was throwing money into penny stocks, meme stocks. I mean, whatever was about to explode, and it was gambling. And the worst part of all this is that sometimes it actually worked. And that false confidence made me lose way more money later on. The truth, slow growth wins every single time. It's not sexy, but it's the one thing that's going to work for you in the long term. Now, if I started over, let me tell you about the exact things that I'd focus on. And to be a little bit counterintuitive at first, it wouldn't be about stocks or investing necessarily. It's all about mindset. So here's the rule that I live by now. I mean, I only invest money that I'm okay with never seeing again, because when I was younger, I put money that I actually needed for rent right into the market. It became a life or death situation. And when the market dropped about 15%, I mean, I was panicking because I wasn't actually investing. I was just hoping. And if I could go back, I'd tell myself, Hey, before you get involved in the market, build that emergency fund first. Everybody talks about this three to six months of living expenses in cash. That way investing doesn't feel like life or death. For me, I'm a little bit more risk averse at this point. And I try to go six months to a year in cash, but then I would start slowly investing even just $5 a week. Just start with something that you can consistently put in the market because honestly, consistency beats the amount. And the earlier you start, the more your money will compound and the more you will earn. It's, it's crazy. I'll talk about it a little later in this video. Now, here's what you're actually here for. If I was starting over today with a $0, how would I invest? Well, and this is the exact blueprint. I would start with 50 to 70% into broad market or ETFs or mutual funds. Personally, I like options like VTI, which traces the total US stock market or VTSAX, the mutual fund version. These track pretty much everything tech, healthcare, energy. I mean, you name it. You're not actually trying to beat the market yet. You're actually becoming the market. It is simple, diversified and works. Even if you don't know the next thing about stock picking, because historically the market returns on average about 10% annually. So instead of trying to beat that right out the gate, just getting that 10% is really good. But then I see a lot of people who want to get a little bit more intentional. Now let me show you and talk about a couple of ways that is a little bit less risky to get intentional, but still I would start with the market. There are a few strategies that people often explore after they've built their core. They focus on funds like QQQ that tracks the NASDAQ 100. It's weighted heavily in tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and NVIDIA. There's higher growth that comes with these types of funds, but there's higher volatility. There's also ethical or ESG investing, which focuses on companies with strong environmental, social, or government policy. Funds like VFTAX or SUSA are pretty common picks for that. And then there's my personal favorite, the route that I love going down, which is dividend investing. Dividend investing targets companies that pay consistent dividends for income and stability. Think VYM or SCHD. Now when it comes to dividends versus growth investing, the reason why some companies pay dividends is because they focus more on rewarding their shareholders rather than growing the company. So they will pay back portions of their profits to you. Meanwhile, some of those that are focusing on growth, they think that they can use the money in a better way to grow the company. They will hold onto it and those typically will grow a little bit faster in the market. Now here's the thing with each thing that I just mentioned. All of these have pros and cons, but they are strategies. They're not shortcuts. And in my opinion, most people should just start by tracing the total market. It's simple and it beats complicated, especially when you're just learning. Now let's go back to my portfolio breakdown. I already said that I'd have up to 70% into ETFs. So then I'd allocate about 10% into Bitcoin. Listen, I'm not all in on crypto, but I do have a small allocation because for me, the upside on Bitcoin, well, it's really hard to ignore, but I treat it as a high risk long-term bet rather than this investment. I'd also put about five to 10% into individual stocks if you're looking to scratch that itch, but it would be only after I'm doing some serious research like reading 10Ks, earnings reports, and I fundamentally understand how the businesses are operating. Now for investing to work in your favor, I want to talk about the different accounts that you could open and my investing order that I personally follow. So the first thing that you want to be aware of is if you are employed and your employer matches or sponsors your 401k, oftentimes they match up to a certain percentage, meaning it is literally free money for you. For example, my first job out of college, I had about a 3% on my 401k match. And so that meant if I took 3% of my paycheck and invested it, the company would match it up to 3%. So the first thing that I do is always take the match. I started and I took that match and then I moved on to my next account that I opened, which was my Roth IRA. Now the Roth IRA is awesome for long-term investing because you invest after tax dollars and it's going to grow tax-free for you. That way, when you sell it in the future and there's been a ton of gains, you don't have to worry about paying any taxes on it. It's fantastic. Problem with that account is that they limit the contributions right now. It's about $7,000 a year for 2025. So once you hit that max, I would go back to your 401k to try and max that out as well. Again, just for the tax implications and the benefits that you get from that. Then if you have a high deductible health plan, there's something known as an HSA, but an HSA is kind of a stealth way to have another retirement account that is tax advantaged in your favor. So I'd look up opening an HSA if you are eligible to do so. Then I would go and open up an individual account. This is probably the first account you think of when you just think about investing. You're like, I just want to get some stocks and throw it into an account. You'd probably likely go all the way down to this step. So that's exactly my steps and the approach and the accounts that I would open and invest in. Now, obviously you can do your own research into each one of these, get a little bit more knowledge. I've got a ton of videos on this stuff on my channel, but basically that's how you can get the most advantages of the money that you're putting into the market. And you're not, you know, you don't have to do exactly what I just outlined there, but just make sure you're aware of each of these accounts and the benefits that they have for you. Because I guarantee some people are going to skip all the way down to that last step when they've never even heard of these other accounts. You'll find out about them later down the line and wish you started earlier. So just do a little bit of extra research on that. Now, everything else that you do hear about, I'm going to be honest. I'd skip it. Day trading options, NFTs. I mean, I've tried them personally. There are some strategies that are okay, but it's definitely not worth it for most people. And if I was broke or just getting started, I'd still try to invest, but there's one stipulation only after I've paid off any high interest debt that I have, because a 20% interest on a credit card is basically a guaranteed loss that you have. Now, by the way, I mentioned this before, but I turned this entire strategy into a free resource that you can download in the description. I call it the beginner investor blueprint. You're going to find a checklist, my portfolio ideas, and my honest advice for getting started. Grab it in the link below. Now I want to talk about the truth that nobody tells you about investing. They all want you to chase the hype. They all want you to get really fired up about how just a couple dollars could turn into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. But the beginning is nothing like this. It's very, very slow. It's painfully slow. I mean, you're putting in five to 10 to $20 a week. And if you're like me, it's probably less when you get started. You see a few cents in return and it feels like, man, what's the point to all of this? But I mean, I ran the math in another video. If you invested just $1 a day for 50 years, you'd have over $650,000 assuming 10% returns. That's with no effort, no big wins, just time and consistency. And the real magic, most of the gains come at the very end. Your first 10K, it actually might take years. Your second 10K, it's going to take a fraction of that. And to be honest, that's the snowball. And it only works if you stick around long enough to see it roll. Go check out that video to see the math that I'm talking about. Now, if I started over today, I would stop chasing hype. I'd get out of debt. I'd build an emergency fund and I'd invest early, consistently, and automatically, even if it's just a few bucks. Because the secret isn't picking the right stock, it's picking the right habits. Now, if this video helped you, download the free beginner investor blueprint. I mean, the link's in the description of this video. And if you want to see how investing $1 a day could add up to over $650,000, check out this video right here. Break down the math, the charts, examples, everything you want to see. Thanks for watching. Stay consistent, stay curious, and I'll see you in the next one.