General investing advice

[jmw1]

Don't worry about the inflation so much.  The inflation would end quick if we ended eviction moratoriums, extended unemployment, mortgage forebearance, paused student loans, and work from home.  Minimum wage workers can play video games all day by not paying rent and collecting unemployment. We are way down in the number of jobs post pandemic vs pre pandemic. If all of the above happened, we would be in a deep recession with prices going down. I think the economy is in bad shape, but not because there is inflation right now.

[Anonymous]

I've had a good experience investing in Vanguard ETFs. I agree with the others about dollar cost averaging, whether you want to do that monthly or annually. 

In regards to investing in a REIT, I would recommend doing that with a tax-advantaged account because I think REITs have a different taxation than regular stock ETFs. Hope this helps!

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've had a good experience investing in Vanguard ETFs. I agree with the others about dollar cost averaging, whether you want to do that monthly or annually. 

In regards to investing in a REIT, I would recommend doing that with a tax-advantaged account because I think REITs have a different taxation than regular stock ETFs. Hope this helps!

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They do. REIT dividends are taxed as income regardless of how long you've held the security; ordinary qualified dividends are taxed at long-term cap gains rates if you've held over a year (short-term cap gains, which is the same as income, if not).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for clarifying @iced, REITs are very interesting to me.

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for clarifying @iced, REITs are very interesting to me.

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No prob. To be truly pedantic, they're mostly taxed as income. The rules are a bit more complicated, but the good news is your brokerage does that math for you and breaks it out on the 1099s. The vast majority of the payments will be taxed as income though, so work from that assumption.