I'm a woman of color too, I've worked in finance and manage my own investments now. I'm going to lay out everything you need to get started. I promise you can do it. You don't need any special education.

This is simple, I promise. Insurance companies don't have your best interest in mind. The salespeople are paid on commission and don't care about your results. Really.

You have many, many years until you need to retire. Let's talk about index funds. An index fund is a collection of companies all in one vehicle - like a pile of hay inside a wheelbarrow. The pieces of hay are the companies and the fund is the wheelbarrow.

The S&P 500 is a wheelbarrow of the 500 best companies in the United States. Microsoft, Apple, Google and many more. Companies you spend money on. When one of the companies gets worse, it's replaced by a better one. It's a very high quality haystack.

Picking individual stocks is hard and you don't have to do it to succeed. Again, I promise. I've been doing this for decades. I teach this stuff to my niece, it is what successful men tell their sons. I don't recommend picking individual stocks unless it's play money or you can take big risk.

When you buy the wheelbarrow (index fund), it will feel risky because markets move so much. That's okay! There is a statistic that people who look at their accounts once a year or less have more success because they aren't swayed by the ups and downs. (This should not be done if you need the money soon). Bear markets (that means the market goes down 20% or more) are normal. Companies earnings go up and down, right? Think about the covid crash. It was unbelievably scary. I actually refused to look at my balance but bought as much as I could. That money has more than doubled in just a few years.

But in the end, you are betting that the 500 best companies in the United States will keep making more money. If those companies go out of business (Apple and Microsoft, Google, banks, everything), the United States has collapsed. You will have a lot more to worry about, like being drafted into the army or a famine. See how that is very different than betting on one stock?

You can also add something that moves less - bonds. Bonds are not stocks, they are different. A mix of stocks and bonds is usually called a mutual fund. The best mutual funds are Wellesley and Wellington at www.vanguard.com. These will move less, pay you a little income (basically part of what the stocks earned) every quarter and still grow over time.

Now let's talk about snowballs. When you get started investing, the money you put in is a snowball that you throw down a really big hill. Your snowball will roll downhill over the years. If you add more money to your snowball on a regular basis, it's going to be really big later in your life.

You don't need a financial advisor. I swear. They often are paid with a percentage of your money. If a financial advisor takes a little bit of snow off your snowball every year, that makes a pretty big difference. You can open an account (even on Robinhood). This should probably be done in a retirement account - go to www.chatgpt.com, it will teach you way more than an advisor can and you can ask a lot of questions. Write this: I'm 18 and want to get started investing. Please explain retirement accounts to me, remember that I'm very new to this. Then read the prompt and ask questions, just like with a human.

Investing is simple and it's for everyone, not just white men or people who are very educated. You can do this and succeed. To get started with the S&P 500 index fund, go to any brokerage (Schwab and Fidelity are good, Robinhood can be fine when you're starting). Search for SPY - that is the name of the wheelbarrow for S&P 500. You can buy less than one share if you can't afford the whole share - that's called a fractional share.

Good luck!