43 years old and I just invested in stocks for the first time in my life

Hi everyone!

I decided to post here because I'm anxious, scared, and excited at the same time because I finally saved up some money and invested it for the first time. I quit drinking beer and buying useless crap, and saved up (don't laugh) $1,000 dollars and had it sitting there in a credit union with pennies for interest and I didn't like that.

I'm really kicking myself for not doing this when I was younger. I remember when I was in my mid 20's "this close" to making a brokerage account and getting started, and I never did it. Did this scare any of you the first time you got in to trading?

The first share I bought was 1 full share in the Vanguard VGT ETF. I know it sounds dumb, but it was pretty scary and exciting at the same time. My position is focusing 80% ETFs and sprinkle in some individual stocks to play around with.

My primary goal is dividends and compound reinvesting, in the hopes that I can have a nice-ish passive income 20-30 years from now. I'm wondering what you guys think of my current positions:

ETFs: VGT, VONG, VTI, SCHD, and SCHG

Stocks (I bought fractions of these): AAPL, AMZN, HD, JNJ, KO, MSFT, NVDA, O, RTX, WM, WMT

That was my attempt of diversifying. I have been reading until my eyes bleed, and I really have no idea if what I'm doing is considered smart or not. But for the first time, checking my portfolio today.. seeing I'm up 1.24% with everything in green (short of stupid Wal*Mart)...

I'm up a whopping $10! And I think that's pretty cool!!! Now how in the hell do I make that bajillions?

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

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