How I Invest My Own Money in 2025

Tyler Gardner (0:00)

The ultimate goal is to build a system so dull, you forget it exists because you're too busy living the life the money was supposed to buy you in the first place. Not just compounding dollars, but compounding mental bandwidth, knowing I don't have to chase, tweak, or outwit the market every day. And that, to me, is wealth.

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner, welcoming you to another episode of Your Money Guide on the Side. Where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance, and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be.

I don't know if you all know about this one, but there's a strange genre of YouTube video called What's in My Bag, where people empty their backpacks or purses and show their chapstick collection like it's a state secret. Not going to lie, I always wait to see what's in their bag. This episode is kind of like that, except instead of my bag, it's all my financial accounts. For some reason, no matter how theoretically sound we can be on these shows, people still tend to prefer seeing how others actually invest. So what's in my financial bag? Well, to start, instead of chapstick, it's index funds and money markets, which to be fair, are about as sexy as chapstick, and not even the fun-flavored kind. We're talking the plain unscented, sticky-alooze-in-your-winter coat pocket and find three years later still somehow usable. But unlike most YouTubers, I promise there's no ring light or mystery pouch unless you count the mystery of why Vanguard's website still looks like it was coded on Netscape. Today, I'm walking you through exactly how I invest my money right now in 2025 and why. As a standard precursor, no, this is not advice. No, I no longer have financial licenses anyway. And no, I'm not saying what's right for me is right for you. But I'll do my best to clarify how I think about each account and each investment so you can use this episode as a mirror the next time you're looking to put on some financial chapstick. We will explore the contents of my Roth IRA, my taxable brokerage, my SEP IRA, and even my glorified piggy bank, the wonderful world of money markets. I'm not here to sell you any of these funds, nor do I get paid to promote them. These are just the funds I currently use and why they work for me in different types of accounts. And to keep the show from becoming about as boring as a Vermont town meeting on whether or not we should place a stop sign at the one intersection in town, I will share how I went from trying to be the next Peter Lynch for stock picking to realize I'd rather have my mental bandwidth back, why I sometimes hoard cash like a squirrel on Adderall, and why even index fund investors, yes, even a smug just-buy-the-S&P 500-and-chill people, can and do still fall into the trap of trying to outsmart the market even via index funds. For the record, those Vermont town meetings usually last three hours, include two fist fights, and still end with no stop sign. But before we dive in this week, I do want to ask for one quick favor from you. If you find this helpful, and have a few moments to help make this show even better, please fill out the survey linked in the show notes. It takes about 97 seconds, and it helps me figure out who you are, what you want, and how I can make this show a little more useful than a variable annuity prospectus written by lawyers who were clearly paid by the comma. Or possibly by the semicolon, judging by how unhinged some of those sentences are. All right, so let's unzip my backpack and see what's inside. Spoiler, not a MacBook Air, or a travel size bottle of Drybar shampoo. It's just a depressing amount of ETFs that have all the sex appeal of a Munibond. So here we go, section one, my Roth IRA. There's a story that you might have heard about Peter Thiel, you know, Paypal guy, hobbit-like recluse, professional bond villain impersonator, turning his Roth IRA into a $5 billion tax-free money palace. How? By stuffing early shares of Paypal into it when they were worth about the price of a Duncan iced coffee. Now, I can't do that. You can't do that, unless you happen to have a billion dollar startup idea hiding in your sock drawer. In which case, shoot me an email, would love to connect. But here's the real and incredibly important lesson from Thiel's Roth story. This account, or the Roth 401k, is your most tax-efficient sandbox. Once the money's in, it grows forever, tax-free, and can be passed down to future generations 100% tax-free. That means, if you're ever going to swing for the fences, not saying you should, but if you do, this is the place to do it. Seriously, if you're the type of person who just can't help buying the latest IPO or chasing that can't lose hot tip from your brother-in-law who once met a guy at a golf course, why on earth would you not put it in your Roth IRA? If it hits, you want that hit to be 100% yours. And as of now, this is the only place where you can make that happen. That's why I go aggressive in my Roth IRA. It's 100% growth funds. No bonds, no cash, no safe funds. If this thing goes up 10x, every dime is mine, and Uncle Sam gets nothing, which is probably the only time in your life you'll be able to say that without the IRS sending you a love letter in triplicate. What this looks like in practice? For me, it's pretty simple. I invest in a Vanguard Growth Index, VIGAX. You could also use the ETF version, VUG, slightly cheaper. Both of these have exposure to big US growth companies, Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, etc. Basically, the stock market equivalent of a frat party where everyone's wearing Patagonia vests and arguing over whose Tesla charges the fastest. Or, in the Roth, you could also invest in a Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, VTSAX, or the ETF version, VTI. Both still aggressive, still 100% equities, but with a slightly broader base. This is like going to the same frat party, but realizing they've also invited your weird uncle's HVAC business. And for the bold, you could even go with something like Vanguard Small Cap Growth, VSGAX. These are tiny companies, reflective of big swings. Some of them will soar, most of them will sink, and a few will quietly disappear like your middle school MySpace page. Good time to pause, and remember, this is about as aggressive as I'd like to be. You might find this absurdly boring and conservative, even with 100% equities. And if you're one of those people who insists on deconstructing the funds themselves, you don't need a PhD. Just Google VIGAX Top Holdings. See what percentage of different companies they're holding, and boom, there's your investing script. None of these funds are doing anything fancy. They're just slightly more expensive shopping carts filled with Apple and Microsoft. The key with the Roth is time horizon. My Roth IRA will be the single last account I'll ever crack open, and that's hopefully decades away. So why would I sit on government bonds or dividend stocks in this account? That would be like saving your best bottle of wine for years, and then using it to marinate chicken nuggets. So here's the point. Summation, Roth equals long time horizon, Roth equals tax-free growth, Roth equals the account where you can justify being the most aggressive. That might be the one piece of objective guidance I ever give, because I can't see a serious challenge to this. Unless, of course, it's the only account you have and you plan to tap it earlier, in which case, well, don't. What's in My Bag number two, the taxable brokerage account, aka my liquid nest and my mental bandwidth. If the Roth IRA is my Peter Thiel playground, my taxable brokerage account is my Vermont woodshed. It's where I keep everything accessible and under one roof. The firewood, the snowshoes, the money market funds. It's not glamorous, but it's really practical for me. Nobody brags about this woodshed, but everyone notices when you don't have one. And unlike a high-yield savings account, it doesn't require me to memorize yet another password that sounds like the Wi-Fi code from a Soviet bunker. My brokerage money market funds pay the same rates, and they sit right next to my other investments. One login, one house, less clutter. Think of it as the financial equivalent of buying all your groceries at the same store, instead of driving 40 minutes to save 19 cents on peanut butter. A quick sidebar on why I keep more cash now. And this is the part I don't hear enough money people talking about. As I've gotten older, I've started keeping more money on hand in cash-like accounts. Not because I'm scared of the market. Not because I've lost faith in index funds. And certainly, not because I've been Dave Ramseyed into thinking I need a 49-month emergency fund in case every single appliance, relative and asteroid hits the ground on the same day. No, it's because I finally admitted something to myself about myself. I'm a world-class hoarder and a lousy spender. For years, my instinct was to invest every extra dollar immediately. Mark it down, shovel more in. Mark it up, shovel even more in. Like some deranged raccoon stockpiling shiny things, I couldn't stop. It worked for building wealth, sure. But meanwhile, life was quietly drifting by. My hips were loudly breaking down, and vacations and dinners with friends were getting postponed indefinitely. I basically turned later into a religion, and I was a very devout parishioner. Because here's what happens. Every time I invest, I consider that money gone for current tie-tie, and only available to some mythical future tie-tie. And I'm starting to suspect future tie-tie doesn't exist. Or if he does, he's currently wearing the same five-year-old Target t-shirt as me. So now I use my money market fund as a kind of psychological shock collar. It stares back at me from my taxable account and says, Hey, genius, book the trip. Or maybe allow yourself to fly first class once. Or maybe replace the couch that the last owners of your house left you five years ago. You know, the one currently being held together with duct tape like it's a NASA reentry vehicle. What this looks like in practice. My core holdings are ultra-efficient ETFs like Vanguard Total Stock Market or Vanguard S&P 500 That's VTI or VOO respectively. These are basically Investing's version of oatmeal. Boring, reliable and incredibly good for you. That is minus the sugar. Nobody Instagrams their oatmeal, but you'd be worse off, way worse off without it. Cash Bucket is now up to 15% of my assets. This is a brokerage linked money market funds like VMFXX for Vanguard or FPRXX for Fidelity. Think of these as grandma's cookie jar. Safe, liquid, that sounds odd, and somehow always right where you need them, except this jar actually pays you back instead of leaving you with crumbs and type two diabetes. Optional plan of taxable brokerage would be a small tilt toward tax efficient international funds like Vanguard's VXUS. This is the broccoli of investing. You know you should have some, you don't really want to, and when you finally do, it rewards you with dividends that are about as tax-friendly as a parking ticket. But if you want a little international exposure, as long as it's a tax-efficient index fund, great.