u/Individual_Spare4941

There are so many opinions and thoughts on this one. But what would you do and recommend to friends/family?

Posting this because I wish someone had told me.

Last year I opened a brokerage account with about $6k I'd saved up. I was reading everything — Bogleheads, this sub, a few books. I thought I was being smart.

Here's what I actually did:

• Bought VOO on a Monday
• Got cold feet on Wednesday after a dip, sold it
• Bought again Friday when it bounced
• Sold again the next week
• Repeat

I wasn't trying to day trade. I genuinely was letting emotions play to closing to my decisions

The lesson wasn't "don't sell." It was that I didn't actually understand what I was doing. I just understood what I was buying. Those are different.

What I do now:

• One buy a month, on the same day, no matter what the market is doing
• I don't open Stash between buy days
• If I want to "do something," I read instead

Boring seems to work for me.

Curious - what's other mistakes you made early on? Mine clearly wasn't unique.

Posting this because I wish someone had told me.

Last year I opened a brokerage account with about $6k I'd saved up. I was reading everything — Bogleheads, this sub, a few books. I thought I was being smart.

Here's what I actually did:

• Bought VOO on a Monday
• Got cold feet on Wednesday after a dip, sold it
• Bought again Friday when it bounced
• Sold again the next week
• Repeat

I wasn't trying to day trade. I genuinely was letting emotions play to closing to my decisions

The lesson wasn't "don't sell." It was that I didn't actually understand what I was doing. I just understood what I was buying. Those are different.

What I do now:

• One buy a month, on the same day, no matter what the market is doing
• I don't open Stash between buy days
• If I want to "do something," I read instead

Boring seems to work for me.

Curious - what's other mistakes you made early on? Mine clearly wasn't unique.

Working two jobs and not wanting to think about this every week. MOney is stretched and want to know what the best setup could looking like while keeping it manageable.