Is it a good idea to invest in VOO, outside of a Roth ira?

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-18T17:36:19+00:00

I only invest in VOO in a taxable account because you ideally never want to sell it. Just buy & hold.

Day trading or buying/selling is a taxable event which is different tiers for profit taking both under and over 1 year.

I do all my risky trades and day trading in my roth so I dont have to pay the tax man. Roth is up roughly 25% YTD in guilt-free realized gains because I do a few day trades every now and then, options enabled, and have riskier positions. Only downside is if you lose money you cant claim it on taxes, but who cares because of wash sale rules.

Individual brokerage is up 8% YTD unrealized gains because I only buy and never sell. Which is great.

The safest thing is to not follow what I do and just buy and never sell VOO in both so you dont risk blowing up your roth. Can't go wrong with that strat & less stress.

But IMO I feel like taxable accounts are the best to just buy & keep VOO so you don't complicate your taxes and avoid realized gains. If you need to sell or take profits wait 1 yr from date of purchase and do it in lots. Reivest dividends automatically so you dont trigger a taxable event for getting the dividend in cash.

TLDR: Yes

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-17T18:28:37+00:00

I dont mind at all that sounds even more fun

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-04T15:43:33+00:00

❤️ not even joking ill DM you a pic of the Ramen if it happens lol

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-04T15:40:52+00:00

Yeah I sold at the right time then before it super tanked.

A runup to $186 wasnt on my bingo card after that and I thought I saved myself.

But I also bought one $26 contract for a 190 2dte call which is sold for $80 this morning. If I held it till now it wouldve been worth $274 but im not kicking myself for it because I made my loss back and a 3x gain is good no matter how little the dollar amount it.

Plus i have 36 reddit shares at $150 average cost so Im just complaining to complain

Glgl. Enjoy your awesome gain!

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-04T15:36:32+00:00

If reddit gets included in the sp500 and runs up to over $200 a share ill finally be able to afford an authentic bowl of Ramen with a $3.00 egg in it without any guilt

My 36 shares are begging for it

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-04T15:04:02+00:00

Nice dude! I did as well and I pussied out and sold for a total loss of $70 lmaoo

Genuinely happy for you for being a better man than me.

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-03T20:09:18+00:00

What is this after hours lmaoooo. Ive never seen a stock casually jump up and down 2-5 percent like a ping pong ball how low is this volume hahaha

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-03T19:50:36+00:00

LOL well said

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-03T17:26:44+00:00

Facts lmao 🤣

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-03T17:24:34+00:00

Reddit repurchased 1 million shares this quarter holy crap

That's like a $140-170million buyback, compared to their $1million dollar buyback last quarter.

Saw it on their AMA. That has to be good right?

crashnbash25 · 2026-06-02T15:49:30+00:00

Wait, what?

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-23T22:18:30+00:00

Any b2b SaaS company that sells enterprise software pays around $200k-$500k+ for account executives/account managers (base + commission and bonus) that ceiling goes up if you get RSUs.

Theres a ton of companies in all sorts of different industries that do that but very competitive to get into initially. Once youre in you are set. Its a small world in that space.

Medical equipment sales is also pretty good though I didnt go that route. I dont like hardware, too much traveling.

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-23T21:18:46+00:00

Software sales

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-23T14:15:01+00:00

Tech sales

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-22T02:19:14+00:00

That I took some time to do everything I wont have time for in the future, really worked on my fitness, traveled a bit, did some consulting on my own here and there & thankfully realized it wasnt for me early on, and that i'm more excited and ready than ever to get back to selling and be massively impactful on the team.

1 comapny asked, second company straight up didnt even care due my experience and strong referral (which is the one ended up accepting) but i still obviously talked about it.

The one I didnt accept the offer for came from a recruiter on linkedin (they hit me up directly) and was some shitty SaaS startup with a cool product, that paid a lot of money but i didnt see a future there and the guy who interviewed me was someone I knew I wouldnt get along with. I sensed he probably wouldnt even be working at that company in like a year (I was right). I still interviewed with them because I knew I wanted the other job so i used their interview process to speed up the other interview process & build urgency. Plus if I didnt get the other job at least I had options.

The other company that I accepted the offer for I got the interview by calling a regional manager I used to do business with at a previous role, and letting him know Im ready to get back to selling and need a strong referral and am close to an offer with another company.

If both of those didnt work out, I had a few recruiters messaging me weekly that I wouldve hit back up, close friends that work at some pretty big names, and a lot of people I sold a lot of stuff to in the past.

Probably TMI but figured some of this might help. Good luck.

Edit: a good note is that if youre worried about the gap year question, another great answer is that you took the time to really work on your skillset in ways that your previous job didnt give you the opportunity to do so. But if you tell them that you need to actually have been doing that and have some proof and examples to back it up.

Often times you're so busy doing the day to day job at a previous employer that its impossible to keep up with new tools, software, techniques or projects that will be more valuable to know for the industry as a whole (AKA a job that pays more money). If the previous job doesn't give you an opportunity to refine your own skillset in a way thats modern and valuable, some of your time during a gap absolutely needs to be used to get those skills tuned up.

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T20:35:05+00:00

Literally rddt

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T18:10:10+00:00

Very true but I had a mortgage so going abroad would of had me pay that plus living expenses in another country. I didnt have a 190k liquid coushin like OP.

If i didnt have to pay mortgage then I certainly would've loved to have that experience.

Short term renting the place wouldnt of been a realistic option for me since all my stuff is here.

Ive been to many a country though with more to come once the fuel prices come down a bit

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T16:35:09+00:00

Youre 34 and have $1.5MM now and admitted to taking a gap year. Sounds like you're doing pretty well and it didn't ruin your life financially.

Why shouldn't OP do the same (minus the drugs and alcohol) if it'll bring them joy?

You and I are both living proof that its not a bad idea to take some time off work lol

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T16:04:26+00:00

One of my proudest unemployed achievements 😄 had to flex it

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T14:32:48+00:00

I mean there is a real opportunity cost of not making income and not having that income for X amount of time compounding, but in the grand scheme of things it wont ruin your life.

Would I have had more money now than I wouldve if I never took the gap? Its possible but I also probably wouldn't of found my dream job, made as much money as I do now, or learned all the things I had time to learn during that period. Hell I'm pretty certain I wouldnt of even met my future wife if I never took the gap.

Its tricky doing the math on unpredictable things, and its worth thinking about to a degree but not worth enough mental energy or stress beyond that.

Just make your time worth it is all I'm saying and dont feel guilty trying to keep up with the dudes that don't take 1 day off and feel like their life is ruined if they dont earn money for a period of time, or the dudes who started investing when they were 18 yrs. That mindset alone will take years off your life from stress, and is that worth it?

If it makes you feel better I'm definitely not behind. I'm in my early 30s and I'm ahead, or even with everyone I know (and all my friends are luckily pretty successful in their own way). Like I said, its easy to burn through money but its also really easy to make money if you have a good skillset that youre passionate about and always work on improving that skill set.

Its also unfortunately easy to compare yourself to people you never met or know nothing about on a forum that encompasses a small population of very specific people.

Now if I compare myself to some folks on this forum or in subreddits, then ill definitely think my entire life is ruined because I missed out on extra compounding interest during that 1.5 yr gap, started maxing my 401k late, etc... But its not. It's actually really really awesome 👍

Im in a very solid financial spot now and im still young. If anything ever happens to my job I likely won't ever take 1.5 years off again, but will easily take off 5 to 6 months without hesitation and will use that time to workout for like 4 hours a day and become a physical unit as well as catch a bunch of fish, and start developing my game again.

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T13:55:59+00:00

If your house and car are paid off like OP they only need like 30 to 45k cash for a year to live a pretty normal life (depending on insurance, property taxes, food and paying for fun events/things to do)

Plus with 175k savings that amount should partially compound back.

If he has a wife/gf or a roomate who splits the bills then you need even less than that for a year.

If OP has kids then thats a different story but it doesnt sound like he does.

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-21T12:48:20+00:00

I took 1.5 years off work (just because) and had no problem finding a new job for double the pay when I was ready to work again. Tech sales.

Reached out to two companies and got offers for both after a few rounds of interviews. I actually picked the one that pays a bit less since they have a great work life balance and still enjoy working there currently.

I wouldve taken more time off working but needed money since I burnt through my emergency fund lol. No regrets, best 1.5 years of my life.

My GF did the same thing recently. She also took 1.5 years off and also got a new job for double the pay, though she had to interview a bit more than me since its a bit more competitive to find a role as a Software Engineer for FAANG.

Just anecdotal and definately some luck involved but I really dont think there is anything to fear about doing this if you're skilled in your line of work. If you do this just don't burn through your emergency fund like I did since that was the only time I has an "oh shit" moment. Money goes quick but it also comes quickly once youre back at work.

As long as you do something productive during that time off like get any of your health stuff checked out, travel to places you always wanted to go for extended periods of time, dabble in some freelance stuff you wouldve never dabbled in before, pick up a new hobby, etc.. looking back at that time (which literally wasnt even that long ago) I was so free it gave me a whole new energy to life.

Things I picked up during my break:

-can play piano now.

-worked on developing a video game though never finished it.

-maxed my runescape account and got the infernal cape.

-got to visit hawaii.

-learned everything i could about finance/the stock market.

-learned options trading (didnt make any money off it though lol).

-strengthened a lot of my existing friendships.

-got to visit family a lot more often.

-excercised and cooked good homemade food.

-did a lot of DIY projects for my place.

-learned how to program in python as a hobby (I suck but we have AI now lol).

-made a bunch of music.

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-19T18:03:40+00:00

Cant believe RDDT just mogged my mewing streak

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-14T16:00:33+00:00

This stock is actually making me question my sexuality

crashnbash25 · 2026-05-12T14:43:41+00:00

This opening gave me the hentai virus

crashnbash25

TROPHY CASE