Hi Anon,
Good job on wanting to take over the reins of your investments! Many people are scared to do so, but it's honestly not as scary as most people think it is.
Perhaps the first place you can start is by thinking of your long-term portfolio. Since you're invested with MFs, are you intending to hold onto them for the long run, or will you eventually sell them off to be a completely DIY investor?
If you intend to hold onto them, then your approach to DIY investing should be to diversify your holdings aside from what you're already invested in via your MFs. This will entail 1) understanding your MF investments to know what you're invested in, 2) understanding your goals/risk appetite and checking whether your MF investments are in line with it, 3) identifying any asset classes/countries/sectors that you feel are underweighted in your portfolio, 4) doing basic research for these investments that you identified to add to your portfolio
Alternatively, if you plan to sell off your MFs eventually, you'd probably want to reconstruct a DIY portfolio from scratch. This will entail 1) understanding your goals/risk appetite, 2) coming up with a rough breakdown of your portfolio by asset class & country/sector, 3) doing basic research for these investments.
This may sound complex, but it isn't really. You don't have to do everything in 1 go, you can (and should) do it progressively so that you won't get overwhelmed. For most people, an S&P 500 ETF/All-world ETF will be a part of their portfolio. So you can start with this. As for which exact ETF you end up investing in, that decision is yours to make. There are several things you can consider like withholding tax and expense ratios.
After that, you can move on to add more ETFs to your portfolio. Take your time with it and make sure you understand what you're doing and why! That will make your DIY investing journey more meaningful and satisfying.
You can check out this post for a guide to ETFs!
Hope this helps & all the best!
Regards,
thefrugalstudent
Hi Anon,
Good job on wanting to take over the reins of your investments! Many people are scared to do so, but it's honestly not as scary as most people think it is.
Perhaps the first place you can start is by thinking of your long-term portfolio. Since you're invested with MFs, are you intending to hold onto them for the long run, or will you eventually sell them off to be a completely DIY investor?
If you intend to hold onto them, then your approach to DIY investing should be to diversify your holdings aside from what you're already invested in via your MFs. This will entail 1) understanding your MF investments to know what you're invested in, 2) understanding your goals/risk appetite and checking whether your MF investments are in line with it, 3) identifying any asset classes/countries/sectors that you feel are underweighted in your portfolio, 4) doing basic research for these investments that you identified to add to your portfolio
Alternatively, if you plan to sell off your MFs eventually, you'd probably want to reconstruct a DIY portfolio from scratch. This will entail 1) understanding your goals/risk appetite, 2) coming up with a rough breakdown of your portfolio by asset class & country/sector, 3) doing basic research for these investments.
This may sound complex, but it isn't really. You don't have to do everything in 1 go, you can (and should) do it progressively so that you won't get overwhelmed. For most people, an S&P 500 ETF/All-world ETF will be a part of their portfolio. So you can start with this. As for which exact ETF you end up investing in, that decision is yours to make. There are several things you can consider like withholding tax and expense ratios.
After that, you can move on to add more ETFs to your portfolio. Take your time with it and make sure you understand what you're doing and why! That will make your DIY investing journey more meaningful and satisfying.
You can check out this post for a guide to ETFs!
Hope this helps & all the best!
Regards,
thefrugalstudent