Investing can be seen as something that feels a tad daunting to take on, yet everyone knows they need to do it.

Trying to learn the best stocks and figuring out how to buy them can be overwhelming.

Constant fear and regularly checking your phone are other side effects that come hand-in-hand with investing in the stock market.

However, there’s one thing you can invest in that alleviates all of that: The S&P 500.

Anyone who may be a novice investor, or even those who are seasoned in this field should make the S&P 500 part of their portfolio. So, what exactly is the S&P 500?

What is the S&P 500?

In simplest terms, the S&P 500 is an index fund that tracks the 500 biggest stocks on the stock market.

People who are involved in finance use this as a tool to keep up with the overall performance of the economy.

This is crucial because it gives the general public an idea of what the economy is trending toward.

However, the one downside to this is since it only looks at major corporations, you wouldn’t be able to use it to measure the success of small businesses and how they’re doing.

Why should you invest in the S&P 500?

The S&P 500 is recognized for creating the most millionaires out of any other investment in the world.

This is because the S&P 500 grows at a steady rate each year.

Now, this doesn’t mean there are some volatilities within each year that see the index fund fluctuate up and down, but that’s because the stock market always tends to go up and down.

The reason that the S&P 500 consistently goes up at the end of the year is because it tracks the top 500 companies, which on average all tend to rise.

How do you invest in the S&P 500?

When looking to invest, what you’ll have to do is invest in an ETF. An ETF is something that replicates the S&P 500.

These are usually put out by different financial institutes that are well respected, such as Vanguard (VOO), SPDR (SPY), and many more.

You can invest in the S&P 500 on any investing app, from Charles Schwabb to Robinhood. It’s very important that you add this to your portfolio of investing, however you can.

When investing, it’s essential to keep in mind that this is something you should only invest money you won’t need for many years and can simply watch grow.

The idea of the S&P 500 is to watch the market grow little by little every year. While you won’t get the immediate gratification of hitting a huge stock early, you will in fact see your money consistently grow over time.

This isn’t to say that this is the only thing you should be investing your money into. You should have a few stocks that are considered more aggressive.

These are the stocks you do have to keep an eye on. This way, you know when to get out.

But with the way investing works, you should have a diverse portfolio of aggressive investments and more conservative investments that you can count on to grow as time goes on.

Investing is a huge part of life, whether you want to make a career out of it or just want to ensure that you have enough of your own money available by the time you retire.

The S&P 500 is a great intro to investing because it summarizes the biggest companies and their production.

Watching CNBC will also be a great first step, as you can keep track of stocks throughout your day.