Hello all, I am new to this forum, so I apologize if this should be in the Case Study section, however I didn't feel I have a super long story to summarize. I am seeking advice on investing and how to start out. I will get into that more below. But first...
Background:
I am a fairly recent college graduate (BA, September 2018). I am 24 years old. I have been working full time at law firms just to see if the legal field is right for me. Almost a year into working full time now, I've decided to pursue another route and much stronger passion/interests. That means I'll be leaving to a different city soon across the country and won't be living at home anymore (I've been living at home for about 4 months, the other months I stayed near my collegetown for a little while working). By the time I move out in a few months from now, I'll have saved close to approximately 8k. My future potential job will have a salary of approximately 45k, maybe more but that's highly unlikely.
Investing inquiry:
I have read a bit of The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (quite dry so it'll take a while!) and may buy A Random Walk On Wall Street as well to get more insight. I've also researched online and asked my brother for advice/questions (he's a finance guy). I'm currently investing a few hundred in one stock right now (that my brother advised me of) but want to really start getting into it. By that I mean I think I want to start putting money into an index like VTI, or S&P 500 (but that's very expensive right now for my income). My idea behind this is that it's a good route for a beginner to get his/her foot in the door, sorta speak while I continue research/learning over the next year or so. What do you think about this? If it's a good idea, which one should I start building in and why? After this year I want to invest more elsewhere, like in ETFs.
I haven't started a 401k through my work yet as I feel I don't make enough right now to make it worth it to put towards that, plus I'll be leaving jobs shortly. With that, another question I have is when should I start a Roth IRA and/or Roth 401k? How much should I put into retirement account/s if my salary will be between 42k to roughly 60k over the next two or three years? Retirement planning regarding 401k and similar things is more new to me than investing so any advice here is very much appreciated.
Overall, my main goal right now is to get a solid plan for my financial future and to start investing.
That's all for now but I will likely have more questions.
Thanks,
- Allan