Investment advice

[getaway driver]

I'm a 36 year old single male and surprisingly I just got into investing. I have about half a million in savings and just opened an investment account. I have a little over a million dollars to invest, if I were to use the available margin.

I know that 10-12% is the average return on the s&p 500, but to me that sounds kind of low. Amazon is up over 500% in the last couple years, and already up 50% this year even after it dropping 25% in October.

Would it be a good idea to invest in big growing companies like FAANG - Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. Or should I leave it to the professional and invest in a EFT or mutual fund?

[MDM]

Would it be a good idea to invest in big growing companies like FAANG - Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

Sure.  Just don't invest in big growing companies like Enron.

If you can't tell the difference (hint: neither could all those who drove Enron to the market cap it had before it tanked), then see Getting started - Bogleheads.

[ThatGuy]

I may be in the minority here but in reference to your available margin funds,

DON'T DO IT!

[sixwings]

I dont invest in margins. I always hold google, amazon, facebook, apple and microsoft. One of them is likely to create AI and take over the world. Other than that I only hold index funds.

[mrmoonymartian]

Do you really understand what you're asking here? Because it doesn't sound like it. You sound like a flashback of someone who used to have half a million dollars.

[2Birds1Stone]

Go to Vegas

Put it all on black

Profit

or not!

[RWD]

You should definitely read this thread if you're considering investing on margin:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5934

10-12% is not low. That's enough to double your money every 7 years. Not bad for an investment that requires basically no effort (index funds). If you must chase higher returns you should be looking into real estate or business opportunities. But those will not be passive investments.

[ysette9]

I'm a 36 year old single male and surprisingly I just got into investing. I have about half a million in savings and just opened an investment account. I have a little over a million dollars to invest, if I were to use the available margin.

I know that 10-12% is the average return on the s&p 500, but to me that sounds kind of low. Amazon is up over 500% in the last couple years, and already up 50% this year even after it dropping 25% in October.

Would it be a good idea to invest in big growing companies like FAANG - Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. Or should I leave it to the professional and invest in a EFT or mutual fund?

I’ll try to be gentle. Please forgive me if this doesn’t come across as intended.

Congrats on your awesome savings and your realization that it is time to educate yourself and start to invest. You sound very green, do proceed cautiously and make it a priority to educate yourself on investing and how all of this stuff works. The link someone gave above to the JL Collins stock series is an excellent start. I also recommend the Bogleheads getting started wiki page. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started

The tl;dr is “invest in passive, low-fee, broad market index funds such as VTIAX and VTSAX. Commit yourself to staying the course and don’t deviate from your investing journey regardless of whether the market goes up or down or sideways. Don’t invest in anything exotic until you really really really understand it, and even then only do it with a small percentage of your investments (<10%). Just keep the course and one day you will wake up rich.”

[ysette9]

I may be in the minority here but in reference to your available margin funds,

DON'T DO IT!

1000x this

[soccerluvof4]

I may be in the minority here but in reference to your available margin funds,

DON'T DO IT!

1000x this

AGREED!  You want to lose it all?  Diversify it instead! own those companies and the other gazillion out there by buying Vanguard index funds. Going for the home run, using margin, you will strike out more times than not!