The conversation about individual stocks that I think needs to happen more often.

I held individual stocks for about 4 years early in my investing journey. Not because I had a great strategy — because it was fun and interesting. I liked reading about companies, tracking earnings, and having opinions about specific businesses.

Here's my honest result: my individual stock portfolio underperformed a VTI-equivalent by about 4.2% annually over 4 years. On a $40,000 portfolio, that's roughly $8,000 in foregone returns.

I don't regret it entirely because I learned a lot about financial statements, business models, and market psychology that I find genuinely interesting. But the cost was real.

If you want to hold individual stocks, I'd suggest capping it at 5-10% of your portfolio — enough to be interesting, not enough to materially harm your long-term wealth. The rest in broad index funds.