Got it. A financial advisor might help you figure out if ETFs are better for you, tax-wise, than mutual funds based on what your finances look like. Mutual funds are actively managed and ETFs are more passive, so the former tend to have higher fees and expense ratios associated with them, but better downside risk protection (I know you lost money these past 2 years, but it could have been worse given the circumstances). ETFs tend to be more tax efficient and lower expense ratios because they don't offer as many shareholder services. Alot of this shit is tailored to your individual condition, which is why you'd go to an advisor. I can't really tell you what to do with your money because everything carries risk, bu I think your choice of the VOO is fine.
I don't know what these are. I'm tbh not very sophisticated in stock market stuff. I have a very small amount of bonds and an account manager who manages them for me and calls me up to buy stuff when he sees good deals.
Yeah, so just the very basic shit: A bond is just an instrument that represents a loan made by an investor (you) to a borrower (with i-bonds, it's the gov't). You're lending money to the gov't, and receive money when it matures after a period of time, at a fixed interest rate. I-Bonds use a more variable rate: they are issued specifically as protection against the inflation rate, determined to pay out based on the interest rate which serves as a protection against it - which is why the Fed raises rates to encourage people to buy-in, reducing the money supply to lower inflation. They're considered safe investments because they're low risk - at the end of the maturity period, they simply pay out. I-bonds are a type of bond that earns interest based on a semi-annual inflation rate based on changes in the consumer-price index - so it combines two different rates: a fixed rate and an inflation rate. They're meant to give investors a return and plus protection from inflation. i-bonds are considered very low-risk, largely because they can never decrease in value like treasury bonds, corporate bonds or stocks. The trade-off is that i-bonds also won’t pay out interest as income, but rather, the interest is added to the principal( the amount of money you invest in the bond). Twice a year, all the interest the bond earned in the previous 6 months is added to the principal value of the bond. That gives the bond the i-bond a new value (old value + interest earned). The i-bond rate is very high right now, so it's a safe investment but you must hold them for at least a year, and, if you decide to redeem them before five years have passed, you forfeit the previous three months’ worth of interest.. If you're sitting on money you're not using, and you don't want to risk anything, it's a good bet. Again, a financial advisor would help you figure out whats best for you.
