Currently most of my portfolio consists of securities that have seen a lot of growth over the last 24 months. When I got my first disability pension payout after 2 years of waiting my dad suggested I put money into the market to avoid a quality of life downgrade.
Well, I couldn't exactly afford to buy multiple SPY stocks, so instead I opted for NVDA, BYD, and a few other tech companies which have mostly turned out alright. For someone who has always struggled to earn money (never made more than 60k), whose stock experience was essentially gambling during the pandemic, I would say I'm not doing terrible. During my last period of full time work I threw 20% a paycheck into my 401k to make up for lost time, I was able to put away around 5k in 6 months which has compounded over the last 3 years.
When it comes to my personal portfolio, I really dont like how concentrated it is in a single industry. Returns have been fine, but I want to diversify and don't really know how given today I have much less buyingpower.
My plan is to take at least $200 a month and whatever I make from part time or freelance work and put it into more resilient securities. Dividend ETFs, sector based ETFs, commodities, etc. Before I went blind I worked a lot in logistics and hospitality. From cursory research the only thing I need to avoid is margin accounts, leveraged ETFs, and options. Thankfully SSDI doesn't care about capital gains as that isn't "work" - unless you are day trading. I've held most of the tech stocks for over a year, so I'd like to think my tax rate would be minimal?
The sectors I've been looking at are mainly defense, agri-business (e.g. MOO), freight, and precious metals. I'd love to get suggestions for different funds, especially those under $100.