You don’t need to pick stocks to build wealth. Most people who actually grow their money over time use index funds and keep it simple. An index fund tracks a list of companies like the S&P 500 and buys a piece of all of them. Instead of betting on one stock, you own a little of everything. They come in two forms: ETFs (trade like stocks, very low minimums) and Mutual Funds (trade once a day, sometimes higher minimums). Both can track the exact same index, it mostly comes down to where your account is. Popular ETFs: VTI, VOO, QQQM, SCHD, VXUS. Popular mutual funds: VTSAX, VFIAX, FXAIX, SWISX and FZROX, which has a zero percent expense ratio. Yes, zero. Biggest mistake beginners make: thinking more funds equals more diversification. VOO and VTI are 85% the same companies. Real diversification is genuinely different exposure, like VTI (total US) + VXUS (international). That’s actually different. Index funds are also almost free to own, between 0.03% and 0.20% per year. Compare that to actively managed funds charging 1%+ that still lose to the index roughly 90% of the time. You can buy them inside a brokerage, Roth IRA, or 401k. Other account types exist too but those are a conversation for another day. They drop when the market drops. This is a long game. But simple and consistent beats complicated every time. Save this. Questions? Drop them below 👇 #personalfinance #indexfunds #investing101 #beginnerinvesting #womenandmoney - @bigsistermoneytalks