Sorry guys, but as someone who writes about this kind of thing for a living, that is bad advice. This is actually the worst time to be investing in an index fund, since the stock market is in the middle of a boom that's only concentrated on certain types of companies. Look at the difference between the share price movement for 'traditional' stocks like Coca Cola, IBM or Anheuser-Busch InBev in the past year, even in the last three months, and that of the big tech companies and you'll see what I mean.
Some people will tell you that this is only a temporary thing, and it's true that this kind of growth won't be sustained, but it's also true that the entire economy is being reshaped, to some extent permanently, but most people don't realise it because they're in the eye of the storm. If you want to know what to put your money into, I'd suggest three main areas:
Payment and financial technology (PayPal, Square; Klarna and Stripe when they float; Apple to some extent too). More and more business is shifting online and cash, unfortunately, is on the way out - mobile payment tech providers are going to see their revenues skyrocket in the next few years.
Cloud computing (Alphabet, Microsoft and - if you have no morals - Amazon). As more and more elements of the economy move online, more and more of it will rely on cloud service providers, and the main three are Google Cloud, Microsoft and AWS. All three also have substantial business interests in other parts of the economy set to grow: healthtech (Alphabet), enterprise software (Microsoft) and e-commerce (Amazon).
Gaming (Tencent, Nintendo, EA, Activision Blizzard, Sony). Gaming is getting further and further into the mainstream and as esports (still in a very early stage) emerges as a force, it's going to increasingly become a fixture in mainstream entertainment. The console producers are a decent bet but I'd say the big game distributors/publishers are more promising. As more gaming moves online, that's where the money will flow.
Other promising areas: Online food delivery, as these companies increasingly opt for cloud kitchens and decrease their reliance on local restaurants; and digital health, which is set to become the default rather than a side option. Pharma is much more hit and miss but if I had to recommend a company I'd go with Illumina: genomic medicine looks likely to be a huge growth area in the coming years and they're probably the ones in the lead there.
Now obviously, I'M not a financial advisor either, but these aren't day trade bets - they're solid long-term options in areas of the economy that are rapidly growing and which are set to keep doing so.
