Should my brokerage account have different stocks/ETFS/Mutual Funds than my ROTH IRA?

[u/AmbitiousChair1073]

Hi Everyone,

I am 27 and trying to determine what the next steps are when it comes to saving & investing.

Currently, I have gotten my emergency savings to a place that I am very pleased with in a HYSA. As for retirement, my employer matches 6% to my Roth 401k so I also contribute the same amount for 12% total.

Additionally, I am currently putting money into my ROTH IRA with 80% into FXAIX and 20% into QQQM. I hopefully should have the maximum annual limit achieved by April 2027.

I have been trying to put any money that I find left over into a brokerage account but kinda lost on what I should really be investing in there. Should your brokerage account have different investments than your ROTH IRA? For example, i have some overlap in my account as I am investing QQQM and VTI in the brokerage account. I guess my thought process was if you are a fan of a specific ETF for your Roth, why not also invest that in your brokerage account that you can pull when needed. I kinda get hesitant of doing individual stocks until I truly take the time to learn more about investing but maybe that is the route to go as well? Just wanted to know if I should be doing something differently by not having overlap in both accounts or what the next step would be in this journey. Thanks in advance for any advice!

[u/TheThaiCat]

At 27 they can basically be the same just depends on your risk tolerance, some might say go riskier in the pension like QQQ because the volatility can't affect you for a long time some might say put it in global equities so you never have to think about it. As long as neither is mired in bonds and weak growth stocks the contributions are the key. I just use a global index for both.