Investing for Beginners with Fexingo: First-Time Investors, Brokerage Accounts, and Starting Out

Episode 104 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo: First-Time Investors, Brokerage Accounts, and Starting Out. Hosts Lucas and Luna explore how marriage transforms your first investment strategy. They walk through the shift from individual taxable accounts to joint accounts, the role of spousal IRAs, and how to align risk tolerance when two people have different timelines. Lucas shares a concret...

Episode 103 tackles a question many beginners overlook: should your first investment be inside a Health Savings Account? Lucas and Luna break down the triple tax advantage, the math on when an HSA beats a 401(k) or Roth IRA, and the specific steps to set up an HSA as a first-time investor. They walk through real numbers—$3,850 contribution limit for individuals in 2026, $7,750 for families—and exp...

Episode 102 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo tackles the investor who lies awake at night when the market drops. Lucas and Luna explore the concept of 'sleep well' portfolios — allocations so conservative they barely dip during corrections, but still outpace inflation. They break down a real 2025 Vanguard study showing that a 20% equity, 80% bond portfolio returned 8.2% annualized over the...

Episode 101 of Investing for Beginners tackles a question every new investor faces: what do you do with your first investment when inflation is running hot? Lucas and Luna walk through the real-world case of a listener who bought a total-market index fund in early 2022, watched it drop 20 percent nominally, and then saw it recover to breakeven in inflation-adjusted terms — only to realize they'd a...

Episode 100 marks a milestone for Investing for Beginners, and Lucas and Luna use it to tackle a timely question: you’ve finally saved your first $500, but the S&P 500 just dropped 10% from its high. Should you wait for the bottom? Lucas walks through the math of buying after a correction — using the 2022 bear market as a case study — and shows that a lump sum invested during a 10% drawdown histor...

Episode 99 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna explain dollar-cost averaging (DCA) — investing a fixed amount at regular intervals — and why it removes the stress of market timing. They use a concrete example: investing $200 every two weeks into a low-cost S&P 500 index fund over 2022 and 2023, comparing DCA vs. lump-sum results. They discuss the psychological advantage of DCA...

In this episode of Investing for Beginners, Lucas and Luna guide first-time investors through the essentials of building a dividend portfolio. Starting with a concrete example—$500 invested in a dividend-focused ETF like VYM—they explain yield, payout ratios, and the power of reinvesting dividends. Lucas shares a specific historical case: how $10,000 invested in the S&P 500 in 1980 would have grow...

Episode 97 of Investing for Beginners breaks down how first-time investors can buy stocks listed on foreign exchanges. Lucas explains the mechanics of depositary receipts, currency risk, and the practical steps for buying a non-US company from a US brokerage account. Luna asks about the hidden fees that catch beginners off guard, like foreign transaction fees and ADR custody fees. The hosts use To...

Episode 96 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo: First-Time Investors, Brokerage Accounts, and Starting Out. Lucas and Luna walk through the five key criteria for selecting a brokerage when you're just starting out: account minimums, commission structure, fractional shares, user experience, and customer service. They compare real examples like Robinhood, Fidelity, and Schwab, and explain why Va...

In Episode 95 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna tackle a tough but essential scenario: what to do with your first investments when your job suddenly feels unstable. They walk through a real-world situation—a listener named Priya whose company just announced layoffs—and show how to pause, shift, and re-enter without wrecking your financial progress. Lucas explains the concept...

Episode 94 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna tackle a common blind spot for new investors: bonds. While most beginners start with stock ETFs, adding bonds can reduce portfolio volatility without sacrificing long-term returns. Lucas walks through a concrete example using a popular bond ETF — iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) — explaining how it works, what it holds, a...

Episode 93 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna walk through the mechanics of portfolio rebalancing for a first-time investor. Using a concrete example of a $5,000 portfolio split 80% VTI and 20% VXUS, they explain how to decide when to sell winners and buy laggards, how to avoid tax consequences, and why rebalancing isn't about timing the market. Lucas shares the 5% threshold r...

In this episode of Investing for Beginners, Lucas and Luna tackle a common but tricky scenario: what to do when you receive an unexpected lump sum—like a bonus, inheritance, or gift. They walk through the psychological pitfalls, the case for parking the money in a high-yield savings account for six months, and how to gradually dollar-cost average into a simple two-fund portfolio. Using the concret...

Episode 91 of Investing for Beginners tackles the single biggest threat to your portfolio: your own fear. Lucas and Luna walk through a specific historical case — the S&P 500's 28 percent drop in March 2020 — to show what actually happened to investors who sold versus those who held. They explain the concept of 'behavioral gap' with a real number: the average investor underperforms the market by a...

In Episode 90 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna tackle one of the most seductive traps for new investors: the urge to time the market. Using the real-world example of the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, they walk through what happened to investors who jumped in and out during the 2020 COVID crash versus those who stayed put. Lucas crunches the numbers: the investor wh...

Episode 89 of Investing for Beginners tackles a hidden but crucial decision many first-time investors miss: which share class of an index fund to buy. Lucas walks through a real example from Vanguard's S&P 500 fund, where the Admiral Shares version charges 0.04% versus the Investor Shares at 0.14%. Over 30 years on a $10,000 investment, that difference costs more than $1,200 in fees. The hosts dis...

Episode 88 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo tackles why beginners should skip single stocks entirely. Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete example: a new investor who bought 10 shares of a trendy electric vehicle company at $80, watched it crash to $28, and ended up selling at a 65% loss — while a total market index fund bought the same week returned 23% over the same period. They break d...

Episode 87 of Investing for Beginners tackles a hidden complexity for first-time investors: dual citizenship. Lucas and Luna walk through a real case of a US-Canadian citizen making their first ETF purchase, and explain the cross-border tax traps, FATCA reporting, and PFIC rules that can turn a simple index fund into a compliance headache. They break down why a Canadian-domiciled ETF can trigger p...

Many first-time investors jump into the market before they're financially ready. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore why building an emergency fund should come before any investment — and how much you really need. They walk through a concrete example: a 28-year-old renter with $40,000 in savings, deciding between a $10,000 lump sum into an S&P 500 ETF versus keeping that cash as a safety buffe...

Episode 85 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna break down why expense ratios and commissions matter more than picking the perfect stock for a first investment. Using the real-world example of a 1% fee difference on a $10,000 portfolio over 40 years costing nearly $30,000 in lost growth, they explain how fees compound silently and why low-cost index funds give beginners the best...

Episode 84 of Investing for Beginners tackles a classic dilemma: should you invest or pay down student loans first? Lucas and Luna walk through the math using a real example—$35,000 in loans at 6.8% interest versus a $500 monthly surplus. They discuss comparing after-tax investment returns to loan interest, the psychological weight of debt, and why the answer often depends on your loan rate versus...

Episode 83 of Investing for Beginners tackles the single most overlooked cost for new investors: taxes. Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete example — a first-year investor who buys $1,000 of an S&P 500 index ETF, holds for one year, then sells. They explain short-term vs long-term capital gains rates, the difference between ordinary income and qualified dividend taxation, and how tax-loss harve...

Ever wanted to buy a piece of Amazon or Berkshire Hathaway but couldn't afford the full share price? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore fractional share investing — how it works, why brokers started offering it, and how it opens the door for first-time investors to own slices of high-priced stocks. They walk through a real example: buying $50 of NVIDIA (ticker symbol N-V-D-A) versus the full...

Episode 81 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo tackles a common but overlooked scenario: how to start investing when your income is irregular. Lucas and Luna break down the specific challenges gig workers face — unpredictable cash flow, no employer-sponsored retirement plan, and tax complications — and walk through a concrete strategy using a solo 401(k) and a simple portfolio of two ETFs. The...

Episode 80 of Investing for Beginners with Fexingo tackles the specific experience of holding your first investment through a bear market. Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete scenario: you're a first-time investor who bought a total market ETF in early 2025, and now it's mid-2026 with the S&P 500 down roughly 20 percent from its peak. They discuss what happens to your portfolio value, how divid...