Honestly I'd look into buying some blue blood companies and go with them until you truly figure out what your doing. Think of Disney, Apple, Amazon, KO, XOM if you want to dip in oil/gas.

Cruise lines are such a long play and unknown right now I'd be careful dumping a lot into them but maybe a little. I like the casinos a bit more if your wanting to risk the entertainment sector. Things like MGM and Wynn. Good luck!

I would stick to diversified funds. When I was young and overconfident, I wasted a lot of money trying to outguess people who are paid tens of millions to manage hundreds of billions.


I still do, but I used to, too.

About 47 years ago I purchased my first stock. I wanted to create an estate or a nest egg but I was not interested in pouring over the WSJ everyday. I wanted to own the stock not let the stock own me.

Initially, I bought utility stocks because I needed to buy income. I wasn't making all that much and a dividend check helped. Over the years dividend paying stocks are still my primary focus. As I said, I am not inclined to spend all my time on investing. Any change in a dividend can be an early warning sign that a company might have issues that need to be investigated. Plus over time about 70% of your wealth accumulation comes from the dividends and not increase in share price. There are some exceptions.

I never invested in a company if I did not understand what they did. I totally missed the dot com bubble because it was Greek to me. Therefore, I stayed with household names, or blue chips. I believe that the big companies can buy the biggest brains. Small caps can get run over rather easily and they are more difficult to investigate.

I bought a subscription to Valueline. I subscribe to it every year, about $500 per . I think you can get it online. I prefer paper. Stockbrokers will tell you that by the time you get their update the market has moved. Precisely! I am not a day trader. The market moves everyday. Thus I want someone's researched, written opinion about what the stock will do over the next year.

You will be your best financial advisor. I have used them all and use none of them now. They all go to the same school and sing the same song. Diversify. That means buy something so I can make a commission. Once I was told to buy a Japanese stock to diversify my portfolio. Since I held KO with 60% of their revenue coming from overseas, I thought I had a foreign element. When the advisor insisted I asked if he had any Japanese lawyers on their staff who could advise me when this company got sued. All blue chips have a foreign aspect. Stay with USA companies so that someone can accurately assess risk and liabilities for you under our legal system.

I now own 55 different stocks and will probably not add any new ones. It is my mutual fund restricted to companies I respect. I do now own some mutual funds now more to maintain capital than to increase wealth. Mutual funds have to buy everything. Maybe I don't want to invest in the cruise lines.

Recall my original point. I wanted to own the stock and not let the stock own me. I sleep well. I hope this may help you. Given the down turn based on Corona, if I were your age I would buy every blue chip I could and then not look at the market for one year. Good luck