VTI
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF
stock NYSE ETF

The “most people don’t outpace the market” is because more than 50% of investors just but VTI and drag the average down.
Don’t put $300k in a penny stock with 400 p/e but there’s some blue chips that will easily outpace basic indexes

Do some let you buy actual SPY? Or just VTI, VT, and VOO?

VTI

Not at all! You are super young by investing standards anyway. Even when you’re 70, most of your investments will still be in VTI and VXUS because you have up to 30 years left to consider.
The big difference is that as you age and approach retirement, you will add more of a third component to the mix called bonds. Those are lower return, lower risk assets. VTI, VXUS, and BND comprise what is called the 3 Fund Portfolio. BND is the component that increases over time. It’s normal to have as little as 0% BND when you’re still 10+ years from retiring and then build up that portion to 30%-40% of your portfolio by the time you’re retired.
Just remember that VTI and VXUS are long-term investments whose performance meant to be measured in decades rather than month or years. As a 40-ish year old, I hope you have many such decades to watch that growth!

I don't know the others enough but SCHD is not what I would recommend for someone so far from retirement (vs something more growthy like VUG or boring like VTI). Grows very slowly and you don't need the dividend income (due to age, and how small the investment is).
But I also suck at this so follow your heart.

Wow thanks. I’m still kinda new to all this but wanted to do the same thing actually. Put some cash into the Wealthsimple TFSA. And as for ETFs, how do I know which ones to pick that cover those sectors ? Like tech, healthcare, retail etc. just as you said read the descriptions ? What about VOO, VTI, SCHB, QQQ? I’m already basically in a similar thing with my main bank right now? (CAD and US ETF Funds)

People are right about low-cost ETFs. Only thing I’d add is that you should buy something like VTI or VOO (from vanguard) rather than a Fidelity ETF as those cannot be transferred out of Fidelity without selling. Chances are you’ll never need to transfer anyway, but if you ever wanted to move funds somewhere else it’s nice to have the option without having to pay the taxes from a sale

At 23 you probably want growth. You need a massive amount of money to get anything out of dividends. And what do you do with the dividends? If you are trying to accumulate wealth, you should reinvest. If you reinvest, well, that’s what growth companies do instead of paying dividends.
So probably switch to VOO or VTI and also learn a lot about how investing works.

All in on VOO or VTI.

VTI

What’s more important to you? Dividends or Growth? With ETF’s, I don’t see a point in adding multiple overlapping ETF’s in a pie. I’d only add ETF’s that are drastically different.
For instance, I have a pie that is SCHD, BND, and FBTC. I’m primarily a dividend investor. All 3 of these funds are VERY different from each other.
VOO and VTI are practically the same ETF, so it makes no sense to have them both.

Please stop. Look at VOO, VTI and OOO over their history. Pick one and commit to investing in it. You will thank yourself.

Dividends is not free money “out of thin air” but the return of profits to shareholders…which has been the traditional reason to own stocks before growth and price expansion became the primary factor.
The drop from dividend payment is entirely a construct of the exchanges who mathematically drop the stock price after hours to offset the dividends so you cannot simply buy shares at the close of ex-dividend date, get recorded to get the dividend and then sell at the open for the same price which WOULD actually get you money out of thin air.
The argument that stock price changes because the book value of the company drops is entirely disingenuous. No other event that drops the book value of a company mechanically impacts stock prices in the same way that dividends do. Tim Cook could set fire to a million dollars and you wouldn’t get the “1-1 price drop” for APPL seen for dividend payments.
Not to mention price to book is far less looked at than price to earnings. How often is P/B mentioned here vs P/E?
They also talk about buybacks. Buybacks suck in comparison to dividends for buy and hold investors with long time horizons.
The guys in this podcast are traders. The average time horizon for NYSE is 10 months. If your time horizon is 10 months buybacks are great. You get to take advantage of the price bump before you sell. If your holding period is 10 months then dividends suck. You gotta keep holding shares to get dividends and stock traders don’t want to do that much.
The whole “I get to pick when to take profits” doesn’t apply to bogleheads. We take profits 30-40 YEARS later, not months. We don’t trade…we buy and hold. Not until retirement does it matter.
The total return discussion is also disingenuous. If you bought shares of VOO in 1995 your top purchase was GE at 2.6% and AT&T at 2.2%. GE did $2B in buybacks in 1995-1996.
Traders that bought and sold GE got a benefit from those buybacks. Executives whose compensation is based on stock grants got a big benefit…which is why they love them. However, 30 years later in 2025 the value of those buybacks is arguably zero and GE has lagged the S&P 500. So much for total returns.
https://testfol.io/?s=eXOlQnQhhab
We are invariably buying more ownership in companies at the peak of their valuations…based on earnings and not book value…because we buy into cap weighted index funds. Look at the top stocks from 30 years prior to any given date and few companies appear in both lists.
But every dollar of dividend payed by GE since 1995 was used to purchase more shares of VOO.
GM is an even more stark example since its value went to $0 in 2009 when it went bankrupt. Total returns were negative EXCEPT for the dividends returned to shareholders and reinvested into the broader market. The ROI for GM exists only in the form of APPL, NVDA, etc stocks purchased as dividend reinvestment back into VOO.
The presenters asked do you want to own TSLA that generates no dividends in your portfolio…but that question for us is appended with “if you wont sell it for 30 years”. I’m thinking…no. I have it as part of holdings through VTI but my expectation of the total return for TSLA in 2055 isn’t going to be very high with a current PE of 173.
If I was only holding for 10 months then there have certainly been times I would have held TSLA. Heck, I’d have bought some at $225 in March with the intention of selling in 12 months.
But that’s the difference between an active trader vs buy and hold.

I have it in my DNA not to own VXUS. Vanguarders will have you believe it’s a great diversification tool on a long hold. Check out VXUS’s total returns in the past 3, 5 and 10 years to start with. Terrible. You diversify so that your diversification piece actually does well when your main stuff doesn’t as a true alternative. The math doesn’t work here at all. I won’t muddy the page further but there is all kinds of evidence supporting what I indicate just look it up. Far better ways to diversify away from VOO or VTI than that. If you even need to.

Ignore everyone trying to sell you on stuff. I’d also avoid VTI. Just go all in on VOO and set it and forget it for 25 years. You’ll be a millionaire and then some if you do this.

I've kinda run out of places to put money.
SGOV, HYSA, Max 401K into BSPIX, QQQ, VTI, remodel paid off $800k house, 529 for kids, GOLD, NVIDIA, GOOG, SPY, RDDT, PLTR...?
XOM, BRK.B, STFGX?

If you need the funds in 3–6 months, VTI can be tricky cause markets don’t follow your timeline. A smarter move? Consider hUSDC on Haven1: stable, yield-bearing, and blockchain-native with lower volatility risk.

VTI ETF/ VXUS ETF 85:15 ratio after maxing out 401 k and Roth IRA. 6 months emergency fund in HYSA or T Bills.
Start tracking your annual fixed expenses so you can see how they change over the decades. You will use this information as the basis for your “safe” money allocation in retirement to get you through recessions. Leave the remainder in the well diversified ETFS.
Most importantly, educate yourself so you can handle your own money.
There will be many people who will tell you they can “help you earn more on your investments” but if that were true, they would not need your money, they would make their own.
Financial advisors tell you not to take money out of the market when it is down but the FA certainly takes it out in fees when the market is down.

I’m use VTI/VXUS (and some VEA) and somewhere around 80/20 so I’m light vs my stated IPS allocation but the easiest thing would be 30% VTI and 70% VT…
VT is 62% US so the final would be 73.4% US 26.6% International.

\>>> Based on linguistic complexity, decision-making patterns, and sensitivity to tone, I estimate most participants cluster in the 105–115 IQ range.
Sir this is a Wendy's.
\>>> Obsessed with “value,” “fundamentals,” and long-termism as virtue signaling
I take that back. Sir, this is a casino.
\>>> Mild hero worship (Buffett, Burry)
I'm a Richard Dennis fan myself.
1. This is the "Voo or VTI?" board, hadn't you heard?
2. Trolling is fun.
3. I outright say that I engage in algorithmic trading whenever the topic of dividends vs growth comes up. Also I hate when people say growth. Capital appreciation is a better term for what they probably mean.
4. I'm a smartass, I can't help myself. Stonks only go up. Also, google shit you troglodytes. We don't need the same question 25 times a day.