The following is a compilation of the most fundamental investment ideas for a long-term stock & index fund portfolio. It’s especially fitting for anyone under 40 with a higher risk tolerance and at least a 20 year time horizon. Why these stocks in particular?

It’s the 21st century, and we’re living in a technosocialcelebconscious world; a world that’s becoming more automated, impatient, artificially intelligent, pot smoking, socially conscious, network-based, disruptive and subscription-based by the day.

You fuel this world. As a consumer in this economy, as someone who’s employed by this economy, you already buy long and sell short every day. Whether you know it or not, you are the fuel in this economy. Since you provide the fuel, you might want to share in the spoils, the advances from company success. Here are ways to invest and benefit financially from the progress being made.

1. Invest in the Network-Based Economy: What do Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, eBay, & Yelp all have in common?

Each ranks among the most valuable startups of the recent decade and all of them run according to the same model: a Network-Based business model, or a ‘platform.’

A platform company doesn’t manufacture the products or provide the services that get sold or offered, nor do they create the content that gets generated each day on the platform. Instead, they let the users do it.

The success of these envied companies has made the Network-Based economy the holy grail of business models for the 21st century. Network Based investments include the following:

• GOOG Alphabet (YouTube, Google)
• FB Facebook (Facebook, Instagram)
• PYPL PayPal (Venmo)
• TWTR Twitter
• YELP Yelp

2. Invest in the Subscription-Based Economy:

Subscriptions — all the things you have on auto-pay — provide a valuable service to millions of subscribers who are happy to pay and pay and pay, on an ongoing basis.

The only point of concern here is if a new company comes along and disrupts the leaders in a subscription category. For example, if Apple can figure out how to make Apple Music more popular than Spotify, it may make Spotify obsolete.

• SPOT Spotify — earning $400 million per month, 70 million subscribers
• NFLX Netflix — earning $1.3 billion per month, 130 million subscribers
• MTCH Match — if you have a Tinder subscription, you can invest in Tinder’s parent company, Match Group. Tinder makes $67 million per month, currently with 3.8 million paying subscribers.

3. Invest for Impact:

If you want your money to do more than just earn you interest if you want your investments to make an impact in the world and serve a greater good→ try impact investing.

Earth’s resources are diminishing, the global population is growing…this could become a problem. Impact investing = investing your dollars in companies that are working to solve the biggest issues facing us in the 21st century.

The following investment funds focus on companies that are innovating in resourceful ways with renewable energy, cleaner water, curing diseases around the world, eliminating waste, and achieving greater social and economic justice.

• CRBN Low Carbon ETF — a fund that invests in companies working to lower carbon emissions and to achieve greener, cleaner sustainable energy.
• KRMA Karma-Conscious ETF — a fund that focuses on companies that work for environmental and social good, as well as the greater good of the community.
• ESG Environmental & Social Good ETF -a fund that invests in companies with high percentage of women board members, stricter policies against child labor, strict policies for environmental health, as well as stricter policies for holding CEOs & executives accountable while lowering the pay gap.

4. Invest in the Automated Economy:

Thanks to an increase in automated assembly lines and semi-automated transportation, the cost of doing business has become increasingly lower. (See essay from Innovation Tactics for more on this.)

While this has created greater profit margins for businesses, it’s also lowered prices for consumers.

Two stocks poised to benefit from their company’s heavy focus on the automation of things:

AMZN Amazon — the pioneer for faster delivery of the ‘Earth’s greatest selection’ of products at the lowest prices imaginable, by way of highly efficient logistics and highly automated shipping & handling processes.

TSLA Tesla — one of the first to bring self-driving cars to mass market. Also, developing the first self-driving semi-trucks for commercial use. Other big players like UPS, J.B. Hunt, Pepsi & Anheuser-Busch have already bought in.

(A light-hearted warning about Tesla: Its future is still unknown. As of this moment, September 12th, 2018, 12pm: it’s possible that the stock loses much of its current value from this point. Whether or not you or I believe in its mission is irrelevant. It must be noted for any considering investor, given the age of the company and current valuation, the stock at its current price holds greater investment risk, in my opinion, than that of Apple, Amazon, or Google)

Speaking of Tesla…

5. Invest in the High Growth Marijuana Industry:

The marijuana industry is growing fast. Dare I say, like a weed.

Over the last 2 years, a large majority of marijuana stocks have risen by a triple-digit or quadruple-digit percentage. Within the U.S., despite the fact that 29 states having legalized cannabis, the federal government still maintains a Schedule I classification on the drug, rendering it illegal federally speaking.

An investment in this industry has higher risk potential but also higher reward potential. Instead of trying to pick out the winners amid a flood of publicly traded marijuana stocks, it may be smarter at this time to invest in a BUNCH of marijuana stocks all at once. Why?

This will spread out your investment risk so you’re not dependent on the success or failure of any single marijuana venture for your own financial well being. The best way to do this: by investing in an ETF. An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) = a bunch of stocks all from the same industry or a similar category, represented by one single investment, or ‘index fund’.

• MJ Marijuana ETF — Companies in this marijuana fund include: Canopy Growth Corp, Hydropothecary Corp, Cronos Group, Aurora Cannabis among others.

6. Invest In the American Economy:

The U.S. stock market makes up 40% of the entire world’s stock market value.

Many people say the stock market is too risky and individual stock ownership is even riskier. Depending on your appetite for risk, there is some truth to this when talking about individual stock picks. But on the other hand, investing in an index fund of many different stocks (especially a U.S. fund) over the long-term is proven to yield a solid profit.

• QQQ — an investment in the U.S. Tech Sector which has been the biggest investment winner over the last 20 years, up 468%. This ETF is made up of America’s top 100 tech stocks including companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.
• VOO — an investment in U.S. Economy. This ETF represents the most stable portion of the U.S. economy and is comprised of the 500 largest, most successful public companies the US stock market has to offer.
• DIA — an investment in America’s legacy companies. This ETF is made up of 30 multi-multi-billion dollar companies that have proven to be long standing pillars in the U.S. economy.

7. Invest In the Crypto Economy:

Cryptocurrency is the fusion of money and technology → money + code = digital money, some even consider it to be a software. But unlike other software programs, which run on a single computer device only, cryptocurrency is also a network that must run on multiple devices at once.

BTC.X (BITCOMP) — Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, or the first successful blockchain, created in 2009. Its very similar to money, in that it can be used as a medium of exchange.

Some believe it to be a better, upgraded, more powerful version of money.

Bitcoin can be thought of as money, like the U.S. Dollar — or better yet, it can be thought of as gold; an alternative form of money which has value unto itself; a value not determined by or dependent on any government or central bank.

But unlike gold, Bitcoin has greater capabilities and features, like:

• anyone can send or receive any amount of money
• with anyone else
• anywhere on the planet
• conveniently and without restriction
• instantly

Cryptocurrency is still a fairly young and volatile investment. Invest at your own risk.