QQQ is not very diversified since its allocation to the technology sector was 48.21% as of Sept. 30, 2020.
Technology stocks in general have performed well over the past decade.
What happens when tech stocks incur steep losses (e.g. 2000 - 2002) in the future?
QQQ excludes companies which are not listed on the NASDAQ exchange.
An investor may miss out on some excellent companies listed on the NYSE.
For these two siblings, I might suggest FSKAX or FXAIX instead.

somewhat OT, and you have get past the wack lede, but an interesting thing to know maybe for investing outside the US
https://humbledollar.com/2021/01/lost-abroad/

Methinks he doth protest too much. Foreign tax credits can be carried back one year and forward ten years, so he may not have lost his tax credit as much as he would like you to believe he did. I've carried forward and later used foreign tax credits.
Basically, you can't take a credit now for foreign taxes paid at a higher rate than your current overall (not marginal) US rate. For example, suppose you owe $10K in taxes on $100K of taxable income (10%). If $20K of that income was foreign, and you paid $3000 in foreign taxes (15%), you could take a credit now for $2000 (10%) and carry over the remaining $1000 to use in future years.
The way the IRS describes it is different but amounts to the same thing:

Your foreign tax credit cannot be more than your total U.S. tax liability ... multiplied by a fraction. The numerator of the fraction is your taxable income from sources outside the United States. The denominator is your total taxable income from U.S. and foreign sources.

More important than his self pity ("It all seemed very personal") is whether your mutual fund passes through foreign taxes to you. The way funds generally work is that they pay for expenses (management fees and yes, taxes) out of earnings and pay you the net earnings as divs. The income you see on your 1040 is the usually the net income.
But sometimes, even though you're only getting net divs, the funds pretend that you got extra income and it was you, not the fund, that paid those foreign taxes with that extra income. So you might have $500 in "real" dividends, but on your 1099 you see $550 in divs and $50 in foreign taxes paid.
The question is: which funds pass through foreign taxes to you? A fund must make an election to pass through the taxes. They can't do so unless "more than 50 percent of the value ... of [the fund's] assets at the close of the taxable year consists of stock or securities in foreign corporations." 26 U.S. Code § 853(a)(1)
Generally, global funds don't make this election because they either typically have less than 50% invested abroad or because their portfolio could be near 50% and they want to be clear to investors. (Currently, M* shows 46/246 large cap world stock funds with over 50% non-US stocks.)
Somewhat surprisingly (to me) a number of international funds also decide not to pass through foreign taxes.

Okay, lots of investment choices these days.
Overview: two late 30's siblings have been provided with starter money ($2,000) for a Roth IRA. This was done to get their arse's out of the barn about investments. Neither have had thought patterns about why it may be of future benefit to invest even $100 a month into an available 401k plan. We all know these stories.
They both have solid employment, so they may use this free money for an investment.
I was contacted today that these two finally opened a Roth account at Fidelity, after seven months of sitting on the free money in a bank account.
An initial discussion 7 months ago offered my suggestion of the initial monies going into QQQ, as a starting point.
QQQ:

The Index is a modified capitalization-weighted index of securities issued by100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ Global Select orNASDAQ Global Market tier of NASDAQ (see “The Index”).

QQQ is also as inexpensive as one may have for this sector, at .20 ER.
Have you another parking place to suggest for this money?
Thank you and take care,
Catch

"Finance is a minefield that few navigate without getting maimed. It’s replete with mirages—what you see is often not what you get. Our instincts hurt us more often than they protect us. Actions that are sensible in every other realm of life lead us astray in finance." Link

somewhat OT, and you have get past the wack lede, but an interesting thing to know maybe for investing outside the US
https://humbledollar.com/2021/01/lost-abroad/

Jan 15th Episode:

@Mark,
After selecting "Analyze Portfolios" scroll to the top of the PV page. At the top of PV page is a hyperlink called "link". If you select that hyperlink and then PV creates a unique URL that you can copy and paste. It is a bit long so editing it here in MFO is recommended.
Unedited Link:
https://portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&timePeriod=4&startYear=1985&firstMonth=1&endYear=2021&lastMonth=12&calendarAligned=true&includeYTD=false&initialAmount=10000&annualOperation=0&annualAdjustment=0&inflationAdjusted=true&annualPercentage=0.0&frequency=4&rebalanceType=1&absoluteDeviation=5.0&relativeDeviation=25.0&showYield=false&reinvestDividends=true&portfolioNames=false&portfolioName1=Portfolio+1&portfolioName2=Portfolio+2&portfolioName3=Portfolio+3&symbol1=VFINX&allocation1_1=100&symbol2=PRWCX&allocation2_2=100&symbol3=PRBLX&allocation3_3=100
Edited Version:
PV Link Here

Well shoot, the attempted link does not show the input values. Try this after you open the link.
1. Walk through the first 10 lines making your choices.
2. In the Portfolio Assets section enter PRWCX as your first ticker. Tab over and enter 100 in the first Portfolio column.
3. Enter VFINX as your second ticker. Tab over to the second Portfolio column and enter 100.
4. Finally enter PRBLX as your third ticker. Tab over to the third Portfolio column and enter 100.
5. Select Analyze Portfolios.

@newgirl
I've not spend enough time with Portfolio Visualizer to offer more than Mark's great input.
I obtain a lot of help and benefit from "show and tell" found on YouTube. There is a massive amount of choices regarding investments and money. You'll find a few here and there, depending upon the subject, that are borderline infomercials; but still present info of value. But, there is much useful information. Pick a topic, any topic; and then plan your schedule accordingly.
Portfolio Visualizer, numerous videos
Take care,
Catch

I assume that you are talking about this page: Backtest Portfolio Asset Allocation It's a way to back test the performance results of a real or hypothetical portfolio. At it's simplist it works as follows.
1) The first 10 lines are hopefully self-explanatory. Just make your selections. As noted above, if you choose to display income it will insert a new line for you to select whether you wish the dividends reinvested or not.
2. Portfolio Assets
A. Enter the ticker symbols of ETF's or Mutual funds of interest. For example you could compare a 10-year investment in PRWCX vs. VFINX vs. any other large cap blend fund ( I chose PRBLX).
B. I chose 3 separate portfolios each containing only a single fund (i.e. 100% of the assets). However you could put one-third in each or have a portfolio with a 50-50 split, however you want to split it up. The Portfolio value total must add up to 100%
3. Select Analyze Portfolios.
4. Here is a link to this example. If it works you can scroll around to see where the entry's were made and even substitute the funds and percentages. Give it a go.

From what I can tell, MIOPX and MFAPX have a couple of differences in their portfolios. The former has about 11% in US stocks, the latter about 4%. MIOPX has a greater allocation to developing markets, approximately 37% vs. 22%. Heugh seems to be able to keep turnover low and to run concentrated portfolios. I am also an owner of MGGPX and I am leaning towards adding more international exposure. Right now I’m establishing a position in a brand new ETF, DSTX. This fund is not for everyone, but if value and international keep up their momentum, it might work. I agree with @MikeW that there’s $ to be made in emerging Asia.

NL/NFee @ Schwab, $100 initial, $1.00 additional
Net Expense Ratio after waivers/reductions 1.23%
Historic Return High / Historic Risk Above Average

HGGIX. Looking again, I see that it is very concentrated, with just 37 stock holdings. It is global, not foreign-only. But it is Large Growth. 36% is in the top 10 holdings. It's 54/44 in US/foreign. I'm putting money into it soon. One reason I like it is because the usual Amazon and Facebook and Apple do not prominently appear.

"The Story Behind the Market’s Hottest Funds"
By Jason Zweig
Jan. 15, 2021 10:00 am ET

Another Cathy Wood (founder of ARK Invest) article:
the-power-of-story-telling

I am happy with my investment in MGGPX, but I am now debating whether to add "one" foreign LG to my mix. The only international exposure I have is through MGGPX (for the most part).
My current allocation to MGGPX is 12% of my PV. I'm not sure i want to up it.
I am looking for an average or lower "risk" FLG fund. I've come across a few, but one that continues to interest me is MFAPX (Morgan Stanley Inter. Adv). It is managed by the same manager as MGGPX, with what appears to be, not too much overlap in top ten holdings.
Does investing in MFAPX and MGGPX make any sense?
Are there better/other alternatives you can suggest i look into?
I've been badly burned in the past, investing in "foreign" and/or EM, so i have stayed away, except for MGGPX. Is it time to dip back into the foreign landscape? Am i too late?
Any thoughts, suggestions or opinions VERY welcome!
Thx,
Matt

I was able to read this at my brokerage (Fidelity). It's a WSJ article behind a paywall elsewhere which I can't access. For those who can
ARTICLE

Tracking the top holding also reveal whether the fund manager is doing "window dressing" at year-end. Some managers like to load up on winning stocks and dump the poor ones so that the optics look better. Some funds have low turnover rates while others have well over 100% annual turnover.
Last year large cap growth stocks and gold did well, mainly due to the pandemic and hedging, while real estate and commodities trailed badly. Unless we get this pandemic under control with distributing of vaccines to the general population quickly, lockdowns are already happening across the globe.

@JonGaltIII. Agree. And that was the year (& 2015) when most funds struggled and a few were underwater.

Exactly. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-powell-downplays-risk-of-persistently-higher-inflation-11610649051?mod=home-page