I have some money to start investing for my retirement.

I'd prefer a relatively safe mutual fund or something along those lines.

I'm 24.

a) is now really the time to "play it safe"? You're decades and decades from retirement... And there will never be a good time when you're old to "go for growth". Something to think about.

b) get a Vanguard account and invest in super-low fee index funds. Managed funds are ok, but with the fees accounted for, if you stretch the time horizon out (to 3-4 decades, as in your case) "the market" beats most managed funds. Sure, there are exceptions, but I wouldn't bet my retirement on it, personally. Why pay some guy to invest when he's likely to perform worse than an index?

C) Index funds are much safer than individual stocks, but certainly aren't without risk, which is why you should invest in several different ones if possible.

D) A lot of people suggest having some % of your investments overseas. There are times when the US is outperformed by an overseas market, and vice versa, so it's not only a growth play but a hedge against a domestic malaise as well.

E) resist the urge to "play" with your investments once you have a plan in place. Some rebalancing is fine, but pretty much every study ever done on the subject suggests that people who establish a plan and then try to "play the market" usually do worse than people that stay the course. It's almost freaky how bad people are at timing the market. Don't fall into that trap.

VWELX was my first choice for dipping my toe into the investment world. 

100% S&P500 index and forget about it until you have what you think is a reasonable base/core to your portfolio, then start worrying about diversifying into other things like small & mid caps, international, emerging markets, etc.

just put it all on AMD & you'll be rich by 2018  

Well...you do have a point.

Decades ago when I first started buying individual stocks I bought "silly, stupid, crazy" things like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, Home Depot, etc.

If one wants to "gamble" a little, buy stock in something you believe in and think will be big someday (I dunno, some millenial thing like Uber, Airbnb, etc.) like the guy at the investment firm that backed Snap(chat)'s IPO because he saw his kids spending so much time on their phones with it.

This. I started 80% in S&P500 index and 20% Vanguard Total Bond.

Would 80% in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and 20% in Vanguard Growth ETF be good?

Or just put it all in silver stocks?

Put it in the vanguard funds, then start reading the books previously mentioned in THIS post.

and people who believe they need diversification...

There's nothing wrong with this, per se, but recognize that most of the stuff held in the VUG is also in the S&P 500 Index...so it's kinda like buying more of the same stuff, but likely with slightly higher fees. If you want to diversify a little bit, I'd suggest putting that 20% in Vanguard's Midcap 400 index instead. The S&P 500 is basically the mega-sized publicly traded company's in the US. Apple, Google, Exxon, all that stuff. The Midcap 400 is your medium-sized companies, which in some economic/regulatory environments out perform the big boys.

what does safe mean?

It means lower risk than other options. There is no plan that doesn't have risk.

but what's the baseline risk threshold?

OP didn't specify, and used very general terms so it's kind of up to interpretation. There really is nothing totally safe. Inflation is always chasing you, so if you do nothing (mattress cash) you are getting pwned by that risk...and anything you do to avoid that has some risk as well. The safest possible approach would probably be a 50/50 split of some kind of ultra-diversified corporate bond fund and some kind of gov paper. If the entire private sector dies and the gov stops paying it's bills as well, money is the least of your concerns anyway.

Interview a few local financial advisors that will meet on your schedule and talk about your goals, risk tolerance, etc...

The Department of Labor is instituting some changes that will change how you pay for investments (goes into effect 4/10 unless Trump gets it rolled back which he may).

Ask if they are acting as a fiduciary.

Vanguard is mainly self managed, but has some articles regarding how using an advisor can typically add several % points to your average annual returns.

American Funds is a great company, and many of their funds are beating index funds right over the short term right now, including fees. Morningstar has some great articles to read through on that.

A Roth 401k is what you want to invest in for retirement. Most companies have a match, typically 6% gets you 3% match. After that I would hold off investing more than 6% until you are 100% debt free. No point of investing money when you have debt eating up your returns. Plus paying off debt, while often a smaller return is a Guarenteed returned whereas the stock market is just a prediction and can give you 15% return one year and -10% another year.

If you want to learn about trading stocks, now is the best time to do so. If you screw up and buy some experimental drug company that tanks, you still have 35 years to apply that tough lesson and recover. Understanding how to balance risky investments with stable investments in order to avoid catastrophic losses across your whole portfolio is something you'll build confidence to do after getting some experience. Also learning to research companies, understand their products/services/markets, and learning how to read financial reports can help you in your day to day life of managing your own business or professional activities.

Fortune favors the brave. Don't live in a cave because it's difficult to understand securities and investing. Start learning today.

There's no such thing as too much knowledge, but at the same time one must consider that it's literally a full time job to be great at picking stocks. Even most pros, over the long term, don't beat the market...And what is the cost of the time dedicated to it? Some people just enjoy doing it (my dad is like that) but for me it's just 'work' and I already have one 40-50 hr a week job.

Same here. I work 50+ hrs a week, I don't have time to trade stocks. I just have my company auto deduct the max amount for my 401k and put it in a diverse set of growth stocks. The avg joe doesn't have the ability to pick stocks and shouldn't even bother.

Yep. "in" before someone comes in with a story about how they landed a craaaaazy return % on some dotcom stock they picked. You know how every yahoo on the internet can drive like Michael Schumacher? Well, every investor online is Peter Lynch. Just ask them and they'll tell you allllll about it.

It happens, but it's pure luck 99% of the time.

Well I bought Kroger,  Chesapeake Energy, and Caterpillar stock.

I also maxed out my Roth IRA for 2016 with KR stock.

I'm thinking about moving some of it into an ETF. But there are so many.

I like VOO from Vanguard. It tracks the S&P 500 really well, and it's the lowest cost option I know of. It's a 0.05% expense ratio. some of my 401 through Mass Mutual is 1% a year to handle. stuff like that eats over time.

Throw most of your money into an ETF (or a few). then the left over you can gamble with.

Thanks I'll probably do that.

Is there a way to get dividends from companies that are in the ETF?

CAT?

Not sure how it will effect their stock but last time I heard they had grown way beyond what was sustainable with the chinese and american slowdown. They were planning on laying off 30% of their workforce in the next 5 years as I recall.

Be interested in someone's opinion who isn't a schmuck that doesn't know shit.

Why did you pick KR CHK and CAT?

1) Open a Vanguard account

2) buy some variety of Vanguard small-mid-large cap funds... buy more over time

3) profit  

If you want to mess around with individual stocks, download the Robinhood app and only put in how much you would be willing to lose.