SPYM
State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF
stock NYSE ETF

Just invest in SPYM and AVUV. One for S&P and one for small cap.

The best time to start investing was yesterday. The second best time is today.
The S&P500 like SPYM is an important index for anyone to carry even if they choose a broader etf like VTI or VT.
Do not try to time the market
https://www.schwab.com/learn/story/does-market-timing-work

SPYM, AVUV, NXDR

SPYM
VXUS
QNDX

QQQ, SPYM, NVDA

SPYM TECL SCHD

Don’t listen to the idiot, buy SPYM. 50$ per share.

Trump account (530a) vs 529 account. Both are tax advantaged for kids but looking at the details they seem to benefit 2 different crowds.
530a plan: Basically, a Traditional IRA for kids and the kids do not have to work. This leads to kids focusing on school and social life until 18. The default fund is SPYM with an expense ratio of 0.02%. No tax-free withdrawals for college unfortunately. Great for kids that will take over or take part in the family small business and roll it over to a 401k plan. Also, for hard working and gifted kids that will have a full scholarship to college. Including D1 college athletes who will have NIL money.
529 plan. The new triple threat. Tax protected during growth and tax free for certain withdrawals. College expenses, trade school expenses, and up to $35k can be converted to a Roth IRA (tax free retirement gains). Limited to the big 3 brokers currently (Vanguard, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab). Charles Schwab only offers a customized Target Date fund. Fidelity and Vanguard also add S&P 500 investing. Great for families who want their kids to have job skills over the long-term, and a head start into Roth IRA investing.

Instead of thinking of your Roth IRA and taxable brokerage account as separate portfolios, for asset allocation purposes think of all of your accounts as one big portfolio. So you have both VOO and VT in your total portfolio, so yes there is 53% overlap by weight. Every stock in VOO is also in VT. The top 6 largest holdings in VOO and VT are the same 6 stocks in the same order. 9 of the top 10 stocks in both ETFs are the same.
Also, with all of the funds to choose from, just because those two Vanguard ETFs are recommended in the reddit echo chamber over and over and over and over and over again ad nauseum doesn’t mean they are the best choices. For example, SPYM is an S&P 500 index ETF like VOO but it has a lower expense ratio than VOO. SWPPX is an S&P 500 index mutual fund that also has a lower expense ratio than VOO and unlike VOO it can be enrolled in Schwab’s Automatic Investing Plan for automatic purchases of as little as $1 as often as weekly. Likewise, SPGM is a global stock fund like VT but has had slightly better past performance than VT.
The (Vanguard) funds you see recommended over and over and over again on reddit aren’t necessarily the best in class.

I’m currently 65% SPYM / 25% FMTM / 10% SGRT

50 % SPYM, 30% SPDW, 10 % AVUV, 10% AVDV

If I were you, I would get out of SPY and get into SPYM. It’s the exact same thing but has lower expense ratio and lower share price.

For longterm investing only SPYM/SCHD
But I'll scalp/swing trade anything

from Google - Since President Nixon ended the gold standard in August 1971, the [S&P 500](https://www.monetary-metals.com/insights/articles/gold-vs-the-sp-500/) has significantly outperformed gold . From 1971 through 2025, a $100 investment in the S&P 500 grew to over $34,000, while the same $100 in gold grew to roughly $7,400 .
The Numbers (1971–2025)
* **S&P 500:** Compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 11.23%, which includes reinvested dividends .
* **Gold:** CAGR of roughly 8.15% .
* **Inflation:** Averaged about 3.96% per year . Both assets beat inflation, but stocks won by a large margin . \[[1](https://www.monetary-metals.com/insights/articles/gold-vs-the-sp-500/), [2](https://www.myplaniq.com/invest/golds-long-term-performance-historical-returns-and-key-drivers/), [3](https://www.buyaztoday.com/blog/real-estate-vs-sp-500-20002025-25-year-inflation-adjusted-return-analysis), [4](https://www.investorsfriend.com/asset-performance/), [5](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jntBj345ltQ)\]
You can't look at Gold's return prior to 8/15/71 as it's price was locked and fixed and couldn't freely trade, but 55 years now is good enough data. Basically, Gold is a referendum on the purchasing power of the US dollar, when economy is strong \[80s,90s,2010s\]- dollar is strong, gold down, when economy is poor 1970s or flat 2000s, dollar weak - gold up

PLEASE invest in sp500, as it will long term do better than GOLD, as it always has. USE an index like sp500, so you don't have to think at all. The Standard and Poor's committee looks for the leading 500 US Companies and adds the growing ones and drops the ones who are shrinking for you. e.g. they are not adding SpaceX as it is trash, today, they have a rule that any company added has to have 5 consecutive quarters of positive earnings, SPCX hasn't ever had one. When businesses do poorly they get smaller, then dropped, like Walgreens Pharmacy etc. you can buy an ETF of sp500 very cheap like SPYM/VOO etc so you don't need to ever research a single company or know anything about stocks, if you only buy sp500 and nothing else until death, you will likely do better and outperform >99% of the smartest investors on Earth, because that's what has happened the last 100 plus years.
good luck :)

What do you SPY and VOO are nearly identical. What do you mean start with one then do the other? Besides SPYM has the lowest expense ratio

The Roth IRA is fine.
At 21, SCHG is good during good times, but it can be above average bad during a bad year. I would add SPYM.

I would get rid of SCHD and at least decrease AVUV to not more than 5% The small cap market isn't all that in terms of long term growth. Youd be better off just replacing both with VOO/SPYM. 
There is no need for SCHD if you want long term growth and want high yield. 

SPYM better