Welcome to Wealthy Enough - my weekly newsletter where I share actionable insights to build your life of Enough.

You know, we all have that friend who’s always after the NEXT BIG thing! The next Amazon, Netflix or Tesla!

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the crystal ball 🔮, so for him, the pursuit for the hunt continues .. But a smart investor like you can do things differently, here’s how..

Let me introduce to the most “beginner friendly” way to start investing 🥁 .. ETF

So WTF is an ETF?

ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund. Complex name. Simple concept!

Think of it like this, you’re buying a tin of assorted biscuits 🧺 instead of a tin with just choc-chip cookies 🍪. So basically what I mean is, when you buy an ETF you instantly have exposure to multiple companies (assorted biscuits). One purchase. Instant diversification.

For example, one of the most popular ETFs for Aussie beginners is the Vanguard Australian Shares ETF (ASX: VAS). It gives you exposure to the 300 largest companies listed on the ASX, including household names like BHP, Commonwealth Bank, CSL, and Wesfarmers. You buy one unit of VAS and suddenly you own a tiny slice of 300 Australian businesses.

Not bad for a single trade hey?

So your friend with the aura like “Jordan Belfort” might ask..Why would I bother with an ETF instead of just picking stocks?

Well, Great question. But Here's the honest answer. Picking individual stocks is hard. Really hard. Even professional fund managers, with entire teams of analysts and decades of experience, regularly fail to beat the market average.

The legendary investor Warren Buffet famously bet $1 million that an S&P 500 index fund would outperform a basket of hedge funds over a 10-year period, In 2008, Tom Seides of Protégé Partners accepted the challenge. Buffet prevailed, with Seides conceding the bet even before the decade had finished!

So have I made my points clear? 🫠

US market ETFs like the iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV) give you exposure to 500 of the largest companies in America, including Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Johnson and Johnson, and Visa, all in a single investment. Basically the greatest hits of the US economy.

Growth-focused ETFs like the BetaShares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ) give you exposure to the tech-heavy Nasdaq index. Think NVIDIA, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft. Higher growth potential but also more volatility. Not for the faint-hearted, but interesting for a long-term investor who can stomach the ups and downs.

So How do I actually buy one?

This is the part people overthink. It's much simpler than you'd expect. You need an online brokerage account (also known as an investment platform). Think of it as a bank account, but for shares. Once your account is set up and you've deposited some money, you search for the ETF by its ticker code, say VAS or IVV or NDQ, put in how many units you want to buy, and click BUY. That's it.

🚀 You're an investor now 💪🏼 💰.

You don't need thousands of dollars to start. Some ETFs trade for less than $100 a unit. The habit of investing regularly matters far more than the size of your first trade.

I’ve shared the entire process of “How You can start investing with just $100” Check this👇:

It’s been an exceptional warm Autumn here in Melbourne this year. I’ve been out and about and re-read few of my all-time favourites .. here are few snapshots

You can utilise my ALL-IN-ONE PERSONAL FINANCE SOLUTION GOOGLE SHEET if you are looking for an effective solution 👇:

Get a head start on your Personal Finance, watch these 👇

That’s all for this week. I hope you’ve found this helpful and insightful.

If you found this newsletter valuable? Share this Link 🔗 with a friend

I’ll see you next week 🙂

Saeem Khan
Creator of Wealthy Enough.
Software Engineer, Investor, Content Creator
www.saeemkhan.com