Need a place to start with my non retirement investing. Looking to start small ($5000 or so) and then grow that over time. I don't have a specific use for this money other than to try and chase some better returns over time than the online savings account currently earning 4.5% where I have most of my non retirement savings parked.

El Chupacabra said:

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VTSAX

VFIAX

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This if long term, HYSAX or similar if short term.

I like Spider sector ETFs because they have a lot of volume.

XLK - technology sector (comparable to Vanguard VGT)
XLY - consumer discretionary

El Chupacabra said:

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VTSAX - This is VTI as an ETF

VFIAX - This is VOO as an ETF

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I have both of these in my ETF portfolio

gggmann said:

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Go with ETFs as they are more tax efficient in a taxable account compared to mutual funds.

I have SPY and QQQ because I like to sell covered calls to generate more cash flow, and they have daily or almost daily call options. If you just want to invest and forget it then VOO (or SPLG or IVV) and QQQM are cheaper ETFs w/ the same exposure.

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This.. ETFs are generally better to hold in non-tax advantage accounts. I would recommend VOO for an S&P500 low fee tracker or VTI if you are looking for more exposure to the entire market.

There are rules about how ETFs can transfer funds in and out to prevent generating capital gain distributions that I don't believe mutual funds can do. A few a years a go a bunch of people holding vanguard target date funds in a taxable account got a nice tax bomb and had to unwind Roth contributions when it paid out a 10% capital gains distribution due to people selling the fund and them having to rebalance everything.