I was talking to my brother and father, so my father calls a friend who is in finance and we made an appointment for Monday morning to speak with him. I'm writing down the points mentioned here and I'll see what he says/recommends and I'll check back.
Here's what you need to know about investing - Stocks are the major source of long term returns, unless you are a very high earner, you can't succeed without them. I would start with 60% stocks, 40% bonds.
You cannot guess (nor can anyone else no matter how sure they sound) when good times or bad times will come, in spite of the fact that you will be certain that you can. Occasionally, stocks will go down and the world will seem to be going into the toilet, getting worse every day. If you sell, you will regret it, but if you hold on, you will be rewarded with outstanding growth later. Remember the goal is not to get rich tomorrow, but to get rich in 20-30 years. Over long periods of time, the market returns of stocks are your best friend.
For stocks, choose a total market ETF like Vanguard's VTI. You can own it an any brokerage, just like owning a stock. It has thousands of stocks in it, weighted in the way the market values the companies. It's very tax efficient and low cost.
If you want to diversify to include companies outside the US, then Vanguard's VXUS is a good choice, again you can hold it at any brokerage. The US is about 2/3 of the market capitalization of the world, so ideally you would hold 1/3 of your stocks as VXUS, though I only hold about half that much as the US has been beating the world for so long that it feels permanent (might not be of course). Invest when you have money, not when you think the time is right.
For bonds, an intermediate treasury fund is OK as a starting point. A ladder of TIPS has attraction, but that is a more advanced concept that I wouldn't implement yet.
Rebalance back to your target about once a year or whenever there is a huge market move.
That's it!
If you buy a broad index fund, then you do not need to pay attention to the money or the returns, worrying about it causes stress and bad behaviors.
I would be a little careful with this friend, there are many snakes in "finance" that seem friendly, but their goal is to extract as much money from your wallet and place it in their wallet as possible.
If this is an advisor that wants you to sign up right now, then I would run, not walk, to the door. Right now, you are an "easy mark" for the worst of the worst to take advantage of you.
An advisor that charges 1% of the assets under management each year could cost a young person like yourself nearly HALF of everything over the course of your life. But it can be worse than that as many advisors will lure the unsuspecting like yourself into terrible products like whole life or indexed annuities, not because they are good for you, but because they make a ton of money on commissions selling you trash. It also seems to just about be a requirement that they build an overly complex portfolio, often with proprietary funds that have high costs on top of the Assets-Under-Management fees. So I wouldn't agree to do anything right now, come back after your meeting and let us give you unbiased thoughts on what you were told.
Note that by the time you can tell a good advisor from a shark, you won't need one at all.
