Let's face it – making your first investment can be daunting. If you've only just begun to consider getting into investing, you might feel a little overwhelmed with the plethora of information out there. A couple of things to keep in mind – everyone can make mistakes when they first start out (even pros usually have a horror story), and investing is a lifelong journey of educating yourself and refining your techniques and strategies.
Here are three ASX shares you can feel comfortable with choosing as your first investment – all can be used as 'passive investments' (meaning you don't have to make the important decisions yourself, just buy and hold).
BetaShares Australia 200 ETF (ASX: A200)
This stock is actually what is known as an exchange traded fund (ETF). This means that in one share you are holding multiple. This ETF automatically holds the top 200 public companies in Australia, so you are getting shares of big companies like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) in one simple investment.
Argo Investments Limited (ASX: ARG)
Argo is what's known as a listed investment company (LIC), which just means it's a company that invests in other companies. Argo is known as a very safe and stable investment company with a long track-record of performance and providing dividend income (its actually been around since 1946). Argo invests in many blue-chip ASX companies and its current top shares include Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) and Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW).
iShares S&P 500 AUD Hedged ETF (ASX: IHVV)
IHVV is another ETF, but this one invests in the top 500 companies over in the United States (US). The US has some of the best companies in the world such as Microsoft, Amazon and Apple so this ETF gives you easy access to these names and more. This ETF is 'hedged' as well, which means that changes in the US/Aussie dollar exchange rate won't affect the value of your investments. A lot of investors never look outside our shores, but this may be a big mistake, as our share market accounts for less than 2% of the world's public companies. You can use IHVV to get some of this international exposure and get some good returns in the process!
Foolish takeaway
Any of these shares can give you a large number of investments under a single stock ticker. The best part is that all are passively-managed, cheap and all provide a dividend as well (giving you some passive income). Any would make a great first investment (in my opinion), which you could hold for the rest of your life.
