SCHG
Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF
stock NYSE ETF

As far as growth goes I like SCHG. SPMO isn't growth though, it's momentum.

25 years is a long time to plan for her wants and needs being that modest. I guess the only other thing to consider is that all of these income sources vary from month to month. Thankfully SPYI doesn’t vary quite as much as JEPI but if you’ve got $187,500 in it per month, having the dividend swing between $0.46 and $0.55 is a big deal, there are also swings in SCHD and SGOV. SCHG varies less but hardly pays. So if she can’t figure out going back to school or starting a business can she really budget for 4 variable income sources? She may wave to look into Close Ended Funds (CEFs) many of which have the same or higher yield and have paid consistent monthly dividends for years. Those require research as there are good and bad ones. In addition they also funds of these funds which reduce overall risks and provide a consistent dividend like CEFS or YYY.

highly recommend a debt snowball method over trying to save a lump sum. You won't get more in investments than your paying in interest.

keep a $500-$1000 emergency fund in place while you do the snowball to minimize the risk you need to take on more debt.

The credit card stays in a drawer at home, out of sight, out of mind. Wipe it from your phone. It's for emergencies only.
If you can't use your debit card, you can't afford it.

every penny gets accounted for. there's some good budget apps to track your spending for free, but you need to sit down, add it up, and keep a running tally in your categories.

retirement- if you get a match from work, invest up to the match now. That's free money your loosing.
Have anxiety and want me to pick for you? 50% VTI and 50% VEU if you are in you 20s . Gives you total stock market exposure, and total International exposure in two Low cost ETFs.
I prefer 25% FMDE (mid cap growth) 25% SCHG (Large Cap growth) and 50% VEU (all world except the USA) for my international exposure. But that's my personal preference to growth ETFs over total stock market, because small cap growth historically has not done well compared to total stock market exposure that has small cap companies.
Start replacing 10% of that ratio with BND for every decade you are over you 20s.
So be 10% in bonds in your 30s, 20% in you 40s, 30% in your 50s, and 40% in your 60s. .

45/45/10 mix going into your 30s,
40/40/20 mix into your 40s

You get the idea
If you're workplace doesn't offer a match, then table retirement savings for now. 100% goes to the debt.
Once you have it paid off, prioritize

1) Any workplace plan that offers a match, up the match
2) Max out the Roth
3) extra money beyond the Roth limit, contribute to pre-tax retirement plans.
Once the debt is paid off, have multiple savings accounts (envelope method). You can have part of you paycheck direct deposited into a separate bank that offers high yield savings so that you don't see the money and get tempted to spend it.
Car-
Budget out known expenses (car insurance for example) and set that aside in savings too every month). Paying car insurance in a lump sum saves money. Don't get surprised by car tags or repairs.

Home-
Save $25-$50 a month for home expenses for repairs in a separate account if you're a homeowner. Something expensive always goes wrong. Save for the new roof, A/C, water heater in that account

Regular Savings-
That's your more fun money saving, that a vacation or other want can be paid for out of.

If you just want suggestions on modifications to this strategy, here's what I would focus on:
* JEPI's yield isn't going to be that high reliably. It usually sits closer to 8%. SPYI would be a better option for a higher yield with similar volatility. Plus it outperforms JEPI in terms of total returns.
* Ditch SCHG at this point. No reason to have a growth fund when income is needed. She can invest in growth once she's got steady income again. You can put that 5% back into SCHD.
* You can squeeze a little extra yield by subbing out SGOV for JAAA. There's slightly more risk in JAAA, but it's not significant IMO.
Now, I will say, the biggest flaw in this fund is that covered call funds pay very inconsistent distributions month-to-month. It may come out to $15k for the year, but some months could be slim and others months be fat. Also, SCHD is going to pay quarterly, so I'm not sure how that figures into her needs. However, there is enough room here because the yield is beyond the $15k that it would probably be fine.
Having said that, if I think there are additional adjustments you could make to the portfolio, especially if the aim is low volatility and drawdown.
* Right now, CLOs are paying decent yields. I mentioned JAAA earlier, but there's also ICLO, CLOZ, and JBBB - all of which are yielding over 6%. These are much more stable than stocks, but don't offer the much price appreciation. They also are based on the prime rate, so factor potential decreases into your calculations.
* A lot of bonds are also paying above 6% and are more resilient to drawdowns. It would be good to add a portion to reduce the overall risk of the portfolio. Bond funds I like are BINC, SPHY, AOHY, FALN, TLTI, and HYBI.
* Preferred shares are also good for yield. I like the VRP ETF, but there's also PFFA. VRP is variable rate. I'm unsure about PFFA. But the nice thing about PFFA is how consistent it is - if you look at the history, its payments are very reliable and predictable.
Adding these 3 categories to the overall blend will pretty greatly reduce the average volatility of the portfolio and come with downside protections (though none are completely immune to drawdowns).
Another area to think about, like I mentioned with PFFA, is the reliably and predictability of the dividends. CEFs and BDCs are usually pretty good about this. MAIN, EOI, EOS, and ETY, are some of my favorite monthly payers who reliably pay the same amount each month, regardless of price movement (though they aren't immune to dividend cuts, they are more resilient). And there's always O, which is also solid for consistent and predictable monthly payments.

Thank you, I will think a bit more about your suggestion. As for the diversification and inclusivity part, based on my understanding about VOO and VTI, I find that VOO is essentially 87% of VTI by weight, which leaves only 13% of weight for small/mid-caps. Even if I keep 70% VTI, I'm only allocating 9% leverage to small/mid-caps. I don't think that's enough to call it a "diversified" portfolio. That's why I decided to keep them separate (VOO+AVUV instead of VTI) to diversify better and be inclusive in a stricter sense with 50% VOO and 20% AVUV to have a sizeable mark from the small/mid-caps. I will consider trimming SCHG and sector ETFs for sure based on your advice.

Good for you starting to save for retirement at a young age!
1) Since your company offers matching funds, focus on contributing up to whatever their cap is. That’s free money.
2) If you want to save more than that, open a Roth IRA and contribute the max each year to it.
3) Build your portfolio around low-cost broad market index funds first, like SCHG or VOO. I would suggest 90% of your portfolio in funds, and 10% you can “play” with individual stocks.

Just hold it as a core position and add some growth it’s also a great hedge in bear cycles/market down turns.
Other than that looking at SCHG and SCHD i would argue the fund managers at Schwab know what they doing. Everyone going nuts about SCHD not „performing“ currently, probably haven’t understand average return yet and what that means over a 20-40y period…

You won't, you need more money for proper R:R. Use a SL and never widen it, only narrow it. Learn the greeks if you wanna trade options. The general rule is never risk more than 1-2% of your account on a single position, I am usually closer to 5% but never more.
Just buy SCHG, its a lower price than VOO/SPY but performs similar.
Paper Trade until you figure out a system that works for you. There are plenty of resources on the internet to learn from but you cannot copy paste their strategy, you have to make it your own strategy.

100% SCHG

Thank you for your comment, appreciate it! I agree throwing in SCHG with VOO is indeed performance chasing and I also felt 10% won't cut it for introducing tilts. Would you advise removing SCHG keeping VOO at 50% and increasing allocation for all others instead? Or cutting down to just 3, say, VOO, AVUV, VXUS and adding sector ETFs later on? I'm all in for diversification, just that I prefer having AVUV+VOO rather than just VTI as it would skew towards large-cap anyway.

Not a troll. I’m still young so I have more tolerance for risk. That being said I didn’t know how risky they are. I put SCHG at mild risk, AVUV at moderate risk, and IBIT at high risk.. I’ll have to do more research

I know you’re probably trolling because none of these align with your stated goal of investing responsibly with low risk.
But if you’re not I’ll just say GLD is fine as a hedge but should not be a main holding. SCHG is concentrated in growth stocks, so it is less diversified and so carries more risk. AVUV is even riskier, focusing on a specific market segment and suited for those willing to take on higher risk for potentially higher returns.
If your goal is responsible low risk investing you should keep each of these under 5% of your portfolio.

SCHB would be a comparable Schwab ETF to Vanguard's VTI. Basically SCHG is in SCHX is in SCHB. [ETF Overlap Tool.](https://www.etfrc.com/funds/overlap.php) Switching new contributions to SCHB would slowly dilute the concentration from holding SCHG. If you hold SCHG for a year and sell, the gain is taxed at the lower long term capital gains rate. 0% under certain income, 15% is the next higher. If you sell in less than a year, the gain is taxed at your [marginal income tax rate](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2025).
FNDF is outperforming Schwab's other International ETF SCHF. FBDF is also outperforming VSUX on the 3, 5 and 10 year charts by a statistically significant amount.

SCHG or SPMO both are good.SCHG in brokerage or ira account .
SPMO in IRA account only.

Pretty solid. Im just a bit older than you but just recently started an equal mix of just SCHD and SCHG to keep it simple on my secondary account. My primary account is a bit degenerate.

SCHG vastly outperforms SCHD, in no small part because SCHD has pretty much "0" Mag 7, that is also pretty much "no AI" which is a very good performing segment.

It really depends. It’s a matter or preference and risk tolerance. And overall strategy. There’s no right answer. More diverse can be ‘safer’ but having a highly concentrated portfolio can have outsized returns. But you better make sure they’re winners. Losers can really pulverize you.
I personally have I think 70ish holdings. The majority of those are my long term (basically forever) holdings of dividend kings and aristocrats. I want that layer of dividend compounders to hold super long term. No selling. I’ll only sell if they fail to raise the dividend or go on some insane clown market-like rally for some reason. Which is unlikely for companies like that anyway. Basically positioning myself to have a strong dividend runway for the future to build on today and continue to DRIP and DCA across them equally. I could’ve bought the NOBL ETF. But I refuse to pay the expense on it. Otherwise my holdings would be much smaller.
On the other hand, I have typical ETF’s just a small handful. VOO, VGT, SCHD, SCHG. SCHD is my biggest overall holding by equity. (Goes hand-in-hand with the previous setup.) The rest are still sizable, and give overall diversity and more aggressive positions.
Lastly, about 30% or my portfolio or so goes to my personal conviction picks. Some I intend to hold a long time. Some I may hold for a while and trim away if they flop or do good enough and I want to sell. These are usually fairly aggressive. I don’t often select these kinds of picks often. I need to absorb as much DD and news as I can. If I determine it’s a great deal, I’ll pull the trigger.
But that’s just me. I actively invest. I watch financial news like a hawk. My portfolio is basically my baby. It’s practically a job and a hobby for me. This system works well for my own goals and the overall returns have been quite good. I can withstand downturns better, but may lag a tad in raging bull markets sometimes.

You have to be smart about dividend investing. An ETF is never the optimal choice for dividend investing, easiest by far, but never optimal. I buy about 10-20% of dividend stocks each year, depending on which ones are doing best, and then offload them in 1-2 years.
These stocks have to meet 5 criteria for me. 
1) Do I see the stocks NAV going up enough with dividends included to outperform SCHG in 1-2 years?( Huge fan of SCHG, best sp500 in my opinion)
2) Does the stock have a Dividend that outperforms the best Dividends ETF's? (SCHD/ FDL)
3) Are these strong companies that are leading very unlikely to fade away?
4) Does this company have a decent profit margin and revenue compared to it competitors?
5) How does it compare to other companies in the same sector around the same market cap?
I Will look for new Dividend stocks around Q1 or Q2 2026
This year I am investing into VZ, PFE, F, TGT.
Following the above criteria I have managed to beat SCHG in past years, when I average out my dividend stocks for the year, with growth and dividends combined. 
On years I am lazy I don't even buy dividend stocks as they do take due diligence to find the optimal ones, if you don't buy an ETF.

While we could use more info like the cost of living in your area, as a 34 year old who had all of these living situations at some point in his 20’s…. Target roommates. Good mix of cost control and freedom from your parents. I’m also for saving money and FIRE but you’re right about the mental health costs and I don’t think it’s worth it. Roommates also help you make new friends/socialize/date which is important to do in your 20’s for the sake of long term personal development.
Finally I love dividends too (that’s why I’m here!) but you’re young and growth will get you better returns. Keep a small holding in dividends but most in growth. For a 23 year old you could do a 80/20 SCHG/SCHD mix. I’d drip back into both, and slowly DCA while adjusting my SCHD up by a little every year, with the goal of being 50/50 by 40 and retired by 50. Just for example.

Little 'g' growth: Momentum premium tends to be eaten by the extra costs, but SPMO at least isn't worse than VOO. Growth funds (see below) do tend to have slightly higher beta, but you can get that in some Small Cap Value too. You'll struggle to go above 1.2 though, so if you really want more beta, you're going to need to use leverage.
Big 'G' Growth (negative HML and CMA): MGK, QQQM and VUG are not significantly different from each other in terms of exposure. VUG wins because it's cheaper. I prefer SCHG's methodology.