Should a beginner invest in funds or pick their own stocks?

As a beginner you should:

-inform yourself a lot by reading much

-setting first aside an emergency fund

-choose 1 or at max 2 very cheap, reliable online brokers (SG: f.ex. POEMS or FSMOne, U.S.: TD Ameritrade or Charles Schwab)

-implement a global passive indexing ETF strategy for a major part of Your portfolio,

if you are not risk averse and can lock in that money without 'panic selling' on stock market crashes for more than 10 years

1. If you have the time and love to DIY

= Go for class to learn how to DIY self pick equity, the learning and practice journey would also takes few years.

2. If you have no time weekly to self study , learn to invest and do much of it and learn about all the nature , pros and cons.

= Go with other invest tools such as ETF , Robo advisor with monthly contribution to achieve DCA ( Dollat Cost Savings). These requires beginning research only for a shorter time frame as week few months at most.

Either way both need to learn to invest. Its a journey.

All the best ! Happy Investmenting! 😃