Is it better to invest in individual blue chip stocks like apple now or the S&P 500

Lemonade would be as sweet as you put sugar in it....meaning that if :

1. You have put in effort in selecting the right stock.....doing research...(plenty of reserach is available FOC online)
2. You are ready to put in more efforts in monitoring.
3. Have higher risk appetite to bear all the volatility of an/few individual stock/s ...
4. Have reconfirmed above 3 steps- then go for individual stock ..

Else it has been proven that investing in index fund is better in the long run than trying to bet on individual stocks. For once the various constituents of the index balance each other out .... so you are expected to get reduced downside and similarly reduced upside as well.

If you're more of a passive investor and want to invest fuss-free without having to actively do much research, I suggest you invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which follow indices such as the S&P500 or NASDAQ.

​

For ETFs which follow the S&P500, you can check out VOO or SPY. Historically, the S&P500 has an average annual return of at least 10% over the past 50 years and for risk-averse individuals, you can simply DCA your way into these ETFs which follow the index.

​

The fact that you are asking this question means that you may not have a strong conviction and depth of knowledge on Apple as a company. As such, SNP500 is the fuss free self-cleansing option.

​

Just take a look at the top 3 holdings in SNP500 for the past 40years.

1980: IBM, AT&T and Exxon Mobile

1990: Exxon Mobile, IBM and General Electric

2000: General Electric, Microsoft and Cisco

2010: Exxon Mobile, Apple and Microsoft

2020: Apple, Microsoft and Amazon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfMFDcuDKYA

​

As you can see, the number 1 may not stay as number 1 forever. Unless you have stong conviction and willing to take time to understand and follow the company's progress, you may be better of with indexing.

You can consider to invest in Singapore Airlines for individual blue chip stock