I need some advice! I’m 46 yrs old female looking to invest in stocks. I can retire from my job in 5 more years. I have an IRA & 401. On of my co workers suggested I join Robinhood. I normally dont juggle my money but I willing to invest $600 I just dont where to place it so it can grow. PLEASE HELP ME OUT
Hi Ms.Mayfield1202!
I wouldn’t suggest Robinhood to get started. It’s a fine site, but it’s more geared towards picking and choosing stocks. That kind of investing is much more likely to underperform the market.
You should look into “buying and holding index funds” as the optimal way to invest. Vanguard is a leader in index funds, but Fidelity and Schwab are two more big, discount brokerages that offer index funds.
If you want ultimate “easy mode” I would check out betterment.com. They do a great job walking you through the steps and automatically choose your index funds for you. It’s a great place to start if you’re new to investing.
One side note is that 5 years isn’t much time for the money to grow and $600 won’t grow to much in those 5 years. If you’re hoping to have some extra money on top of what your job will provide in retirement, I would strongly suggest following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often. For you that might mean setting up automated investments in index funds as described above! 
Hi Ms.Mayfield1202,
Are you maxing out your IRA and 401K? Here is a link to the Vanguard 2025 target day retirement fund since you are talking about retiring in 5 years:
https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/VTTVX
$600 isn’t enough to get into that index but you can create similar results via Robinhood since they allow fractional shares:
Here are the ETF’s I would focus on with the dollar amounts to recreate the VTTVX retirement fund:
VTI - $219.60
VXUS - $164.40
BND - $147.00
BNDX - $69.00
That totals to $600.
This is just an idea. I am not a financial advisor so please take my recommendation with a grain of salt. Before you do this, I would see if you can contribute more to your 401K. I also do not know your expenses, net worth, debts, and other factors. I would follow the personal finance club steps and make sure I have done everything in the correct order. Hope I could help.
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