Ariana’s Story

Ariana, 22, is a retail manager living in Georgia with her mother, brother and 6-month-old daughter. She checks on her investments 2 -3 times a week, eyeing any gains or losses she incurs. “I want to set myself up for the future.”

Diary Entry 2, June 2025

Expanding Horizons 

Ariana, 22, is using her newfound skills and confidence to expand her assets further and extend her goal towards retirement. She spends around one and a half hours per week reviewing investments, researching companies, and learning from others’ perspectives. This is a slight change to her investment activities from 30 to 45 minutes a week in March and overall higher than her previous activities in February.

From Skepticism to Confidence

When she gained an initial interest in investing, Ariana was skeptical about the process and didn’t have what she felt was enough funds to deposit—delaying getting started for about two years. She eventually did so by opening an investing account with an incentive offered by the investing platform. At first, she was hesitant to invest, but now she is more confident, seeing that she has been investing for almost two years and has yet to see a loss in her investments.

Investing was kind of scary to me because even though I didn’t have money, I didn’t want to lose money when I did… start investing.”

Getting started was a challenge for Ariana, particularly learning how a platform works and understanding complex investor terminology. She used YouTube videos to understand investing concepts, their benefits, and risks. To learn about others’ experiences, Ariana looked to groups and/or communities on Reddit and Facebook.

She now considers herself in the “late beginner stages”  of acquiring investing knowledge. Ariana understands investing vehicles like Roth IRAs and online investing platforms, and familiarizes herself with different words and concepts. She hopes to take bigger risks in the future as she gains more knowledge.

Ariana continues to make investment decisions based on trial and error, using the same resources she started with in addition to friends’ recommendations, online research, and resources from her investing app of choice. She only invests what she is willing to lose. Ariana has currently taken a different approach since March, investing in various types of asset classes, which enable her to manage the levels of risk taken. However, while she tests this new approach, she chooses to deposit no more than $100 at a time, with the exception of $500 deposits in ETFs, feeling confident she will gain a return there.

I take everything with a grain of salt at the end of the day, [and] use my judgment to determine what stocks are right to buy for me at the moment.”

Opportunities Amidst Uncertainty

Her confidence has noticeably shifted, worrying less about politics, inflation, and company performance potentially impacting her investment strategy. This is exemplified by her view of market volatility, as she now considers downturns more of an opportunity than a concern. She uses market dips to buy stocks at lower prices and times her investments based on others’ advice.

The opportunities that I see in this situation would definitely be to get into stocks when they are at their lowest because that’s the true way to make money in this market.”

With this approach, Ariana received positive returns on her investments. Her investment portfolio balance now totals $1,650, showing progress with small gains. She continues to diversify her portfolio, investing in the S&P 500 and  in crypto, although she eventually closed her crypto account due to its volatility. She made a $200 profit after buying $3,000 worth of gold, seeing opportunities to fund physical assets in conjunction with other investments.

Her contributions have led to more gains. Ariana has made progress with her investment options such as her Roth IRA ($946) and a self-directed account ($352), and saw positive results in her other investing options (i.e., S&P 500, Invesco QQQ Trust, Amazon, and Nvidia).

Ariana feels confident about her investments as she contributes more and focuses on ETFs as a long-term strategy. She picked up extra work hours to increase her investment funds and adjusted her portfolio, aiming to invest $200 regularly. Since February, she has been using robo-advising and plans to switch to auto deposits eventually. She hopes to invest more in the near term, and ultimately open an IRA account for her daughter. Ariana is primarily focused on buying stocks that she believes will be popular in the coming years. 

It’s been a journey for me. I feel like I’m so confident.”

Diary Entry 1, March 2025

Building Confidence and Taking Risks

For close to two years, Ariana laid the foundation for her newfound investing confidence through practical experience. She first learned about investing through ads and apps on social media. Ariana then took the first steps toward diversifying her assets and building her portfolio. Each investment enabled her to take bigger risks and set more ambitious goals. Her plan is simple: expand assets in different places and grow them at different rates to generate additional income.

In the near future, she wants to pay off her car loan and hopes to buy a home. Ariana’s investment goals include building enough wealth to leave behind an inheritance that sets her child up for the future.

I want to set myself up for the future.”

Roadblocks Build Resilience

Ariana notes that politics, inflation, and current company performance are her biggest concerns in her investment strategy. Alongside these challenges, Ariana’s family is very cautious and risk averse, with no investing knowledge. “The people around me really don’t like to lose money, so they’re kind of against it [investing],” she says, “mainly because they don’t know enough about it.” Regardless of their concerns, Ariana is not deterred in her wealth-building pursuits.

The people around me really don’t like to lose money, so they’re kind of against it [investing] mainly because they don’t know enough about it.”

Education Makes a Difference

Growing up, Ariana did not have any exposure to financial education and no one in her family had been investing. She wishes there was more educational content to help non-investors better understand investing in the stock market, especially for beginners. “I wish there was…more knowledge, something to have people better understand investing instead of [saying] ‘you could make money,’ so people don’t have such a bad outlook.”

Ariana overcame barriers in knowledge by practical experience, reading books, engaging in social media communities, and consuming educational content on social platforms like Reddit and YouTube.

I wish there was…more knowledge, something to have people better understand investing instead of [saying] ‘you could make money,’ so people don’t have such a bad outlook.”