An Ideal ETF for Long-Term Investors to Buy and Forget

Are you a new investor or just looking for a safe way to grow your portfolio over the long term? There’s a really easy way to do that even if you have limited knowledge when it comes to investing.

While there’s a temptation for many investors to constantly buy and sell stocks thinking that they’re making moves that will make them rich, they’re by no means guarantees. A much safer approach is to invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

ETFs can give you a broad mix of assets all in one investment. A particularly great option for conservative investors is the BMO S&P 500 Index ETF (TSX:ZSP).

The fund looks to mirror the S&P 500 and it contains a broad mix of sectors, including tech, healthcare, financial services, communications, and many others. It’s an easy way to diversify and mimic the returns of the S&P 500. It also provides you with a yield of 1.6%.

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Year to date, the ETF’s up around 7% this year and is actually outperforming the S&P 500 which is up by about 4%. And it’s doing far better than the TSX which has declined 3% since the start of 2020.

Looking at the ETF’s five-year performance, it’s risen about 64%, which is a few percentage points better than the S&P 500 and its 61% returns over the same period. And the TSX? It’s up just 16% in five years.

Investing in an ETF, especially one that mirrors the S&P 500, is a great way to minimize your risk and ensure that your portfolio will rise over the long term.