Should a beginner buy ETFs or individual stocks?

ETFs, and it is not close. A single broad ETF gets you hundreds of companies, automatic diversification and roughly the market’s return, with no research required and no way to be badly wrong about one company. That is a very good deal for someone who is still learning what a P/E ratio is.

Individual stocks demand more. You have to understand the business, keep up with its results, and accept that even good companies have terrible years. The average person who picks stocks earns less than the index, not because they are foolish but because it is genuinely hard and the costs of being wrong are concentrated.

That said, individual stocks are how a lot of people stay interested, and there is nothing wrong with owning a few. The sensible structure is a broad ETF as the bulk, say 80 to 90 percent, and a handful of companies you follow closely with the rest. If the stocks do well, great. If they do badly, your plan survives.

The one situation where stocks-first makes sense is when you want to learn by doing with a tiny amount. Buying $50 of a company teaches you more about how you react to price swings than any article. Just keep the tuition cheap.