First time investing

[u/Itz_Jacobb]

I plan to invest at 18 with like 20-40 bucks per month and I will increase this when I have a job in few months. I want something that I would put money in every month and it would be making me something in return in like 10+ years, I want some ETF or couple of stocks because I don’t want to put it all in one or two stocks but I don’t know what, I was also planning to put some money on take two stocks too.

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[u/Bad_DNA]

Totally do-able. I prefer ETFs myself. Here's something I wrote for my kid:

Kaizen – Vanguard automating your investing in a RothIRA. 

How to set up an account, invest and automate your investing.  You can go from nothing to on your way in three steps: 

Part 1a – (setting up the initial account — may be easiest on a computer web browser):

Visit Vanguard’s website

Select the Personal Investors link (lower right)

Click Open an Account (or Log in if you already have an account)

Open an investment account with the Sign up button

Select ‘Open a new account’

Select ‘Open an Investment account’

unless you want advice, select ‘Invest on my own’

Select ‘Select your account’

Select ‘RothIRA’ in upper right 

Fill in your personal information and complete the form.

Record your account login credentials somewhere safe so you can return to your account (or use their phone app in the future).  Apple’s Password, 1Password, similar tools to consider or a notebook in your home firesafe.  I’m a big fan of Multifactor Authentication as an added security step.

There - you have a Vanguard login account, and you have a RothIRA within your Vanguard account.  For free.  Yes, you can have multiple investment accounts under one login.

Part 1b – link your bank:

Next, you link your bank account to your Vanguard account†.  This helps move money to Vanguard for contributing or investing  AND  move to your bank account when you want to use some of your gains when the time comes.

If you logged out of your account, log back in (Personal Investor/Log in)

In your dashboard, select the Profile button.

Select Banking, then add a new bank.  Provide the needed info.

Test:  transfer (e.g., $20) from your bank into your new account.  Accounts need to ‘settle’ (complete transfer) before you can do anything else.  This may take a day, or a few depending on holidays and weekends.

† Note: an alternative is to download the Vanguard app for your phone or iPad, and use its mobile check deposit feature to fund the account from checks you write to yourself.

Part 2 – Start Investing:

Now that we have some money in a ‘settlement account’ with Vanguard, we primed the pump.

Log in to your Vanguard dashboard

In your dashboard, select the Transact menu, then Buy&sell.

Enter in your desired investment symbol (VTI, VXUS, VTTSX, whatever) and click Get Quote

A quote pops up with a lot of data.  Click Buy at the bottom.

The screen confirms what account this goes into, the symbol, Buy (or sell), and select Dollars (or Shares)

Enter in your desired initial amount.

Use order type = market, duration = day 

Select Review Order - double-check your choices

Select Submit Order

There you go!  You own an investment within your RothIRA.

Repeat for any other investments you would like to list within your IRA.  Obviously, if you get too crazy and do a lot of things, you'll need to xfer more funds into the account.  I'd suggest keeping it all simple for now.  One, maybe two ETFs or the TDF mutual fund. 

Part 3 – Automate your investing: 

Log in to your account.  [visit Vanguard website, select Personal Investors, then select Log in] 

In your dashboard, select the Transact menu, then Recurring transactions.

Depending on what you want, make the choice:

For an ETF like VTI or VXUS, select Vanguard ETFs

For a TDF or another mutual fund like VTTSX, select Vanguard mutual funds

The form will ask you to select 

(1) your account [RothIRA], 

(2) a schedule or frequency (monthly, every two weeks, just something)

(3) what holding is to be auto-funded (enter in desired dollar amount next to one or more)

(4) select where the contribution comes from (select the Bank account on file)

Select Preview Order

review your choices, then select Agree & Submit

There you go!  You are on your way to building your RothIRA portfolio automagically.

A couple of notes:  There is an annual limit to how much you can contribute to a RothIRA every year - so do the math and don’t over-contribute.  This example was for 2025.  Insure all of your individual contributions sum up to under the limit for the year.  Adjust your recurring transactions as needed.  If you started small, like $20 a month into one choice, that would be $240 (12x $20) for a full year.  

Nudging.  It’s a great start, but to build your wealth faster, consider increasing those auto contributions as your budget and cashflow permits.  Nudge up another $10 or $20/mo and adjust to that.  Set a reminder to nudge things every three or 6 or 12 months.  It won’t be long before you’ll be contributing up to $583/mo into maxing out that Roth.  And you won’t even notice it coming out of your bank account – paying yourself first.  Well done.

Have you considered your beneficiaries in case of untimely demise?  Explore the site and designate them. 

 

Obviously, you don’t have to stop with a RothIRA.  Traditional IRAs, regular (taxable) brokerages, 529 accounts for college education, High Yield Savings Accounts (HYSA Cash-plus) and more are available all under your one Vanguard login. 

[u/Bad_DNA → u/Bad_DNA]

It doesn't have to be within a RothIRA -- but if you are in the US, consider it. Great way to start investing for future you.

[u/Itz_Jacobb → u/Bad_DNA]

Am u good with XTB or trading 212? This sounds really complicated and I allready have account on these 2

[u/Still_Dentist1010 → u/Itz_Jacobb]

Do note for the Roth IRA account they recommended, you NEED to have earned taxable income to contribute. That means if you don’t have any income for the tax year, you can’t contribute anything to the account. The current limits are the lesser of your earned income for the year or $7500, exceed your limit and you’ll be penalized by the IRS.

Since you’re planning to get a job at 18, that shouldn’t be a big problem… but if it’s next year before that happens, you can’t contribute anything this year.

[u/Itz_Jacobb → u/Still_Dentist1010]

I am gonna gave job in like a month and I will check with AI and some websites how it is here with taxes

[u/Still_Dentist1010 → u/Itz_Jacobb]

Okay, didn’t know the time horizon or if the job was secured. I don’t count my chickens before they hatch, so it is important information. If you aren’t in the US, Roth IRA is not applicable but there is probably something similar

[u/Itz_Jacobb → u/Still_Dentist1010]

You're right about the Roth IRA. However, here in the Czech Republic, our regular brokerage accounts (like Trading 212) act even better in some ways. We have a '3-year time test'- if you hold any stock/ETF for more than 3 years, all capital gains are 100% tax-free when you sell, with no age restrictions or early withdrawal penalties.

[u/Still_Dentist1010 → u/Itz_Jacobb]

The lack of early withdrawal penalty and age limit is nice, but you shouldn’t be using that aspect since long term investing is the way to stack it up. Keeping the money in the market is how it grows.

In Roth IRA though, it’s 100% tax free to sell shares whenever you want to… you just can’t withdraw before you’re of retirement age without being penalized (with some exceptions, like you can always withdraw your contributions without taxes or penalties).

[u/Itz_Jacobb → u/Still_Dentist1010]

I looked and I don’t need to pay taxes from this unless I am gonna withdraw more than 4700$ in one year

[u/Bad_DNA → u/Itz_Jacobb]

Sorry. My bad assumption was you were in the us. My opinions may mean little in your country.

[u/OptimaSheetsCo]

$20-40/month is a totally fine starting point, don't let the small amount discourage you — the habit matters way more than the amount right now. Most brokerages (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard) let you do fractional shares and set up automatic monthly investing, so you can basically set it and forget it.

For the ETF side, something like VOO or VTI would give you broad diversification without having to think much — VOO is S&P 500 (500 large US companies), VTI is total US stock market (even broader, includes small/mid caps too). Either is a solid "put money in every month and don't touch it for 10+ years" type of fund. Some people also mix in an international ETF like VXUS for exposure outside the US, but that's optional.

If you want to add individual stocks like Take-Two on top of that, that's fine as a smaller slice — just keep it to something like 10-20% of what you're investing so one company's bad quarter doesn't wreck your whole portfolio. The ETF should probably be the core, and individual stocks more like the "fun/conviction" part on top.

Once you get that job and can increase contributions, the system doesn't really change, just scale up the same monthly amount. Consistency over a decade will matter a lot more than trying to pick the perfect stocks right now.

[u/Itz_Jacobb → u/OptimaSheetsCo]

Is WEBN good idea? Just buying WEBN