The Big Idea
Most retail investors do one of two things. They put everything into a single index fund and never think about it again (safe but slow), or they YOLO their money into individual stocks and options they don't understand (fast but usually catastrophic).
The Core Satellite Model rejects both extremes. It says: most of your money goes into the boring, reliable, broad-market engine, and a small slice gets deployed where your skill and conviction can compound.
Think of it like a rocket. The Core is the massive fuel tank that gets you to orbit — it does 95% of the work, but you don't see it once it's spent. The Satellite is the smaller, precision-guided payload at the top that does the interesting stuff. Without the Core, the Satellite goes nowhere. Without the Satellite, you've just got a fuel tank floating in space.
The Core is where the wealth actually gets built. The Satellite is where you express skill and conviction. You need both.
Your 4 Layers, In Plain English
Layer 1 — The Core (65%, $1,564/mo): Broad market ETFs. SPY, VTI, total market funds. Auto-invested. This is the rocket fuel.
Layer 2 — The Satellite (20%, $481/mo): Individual conviction stocks. MSFT in your Roth, plus LLY and BRK.B in Taxable.
Layer 3 — Crypto (8%, $192/mo): XRP and XLM split equally. High volatility, asymmetric upside.
Layer 4 — Active Trading (7%, $169/mo): The smallest slice. Builds up in Robinhood until you earn the right to deploy via progression gates.
Worked Example
Total Deploy: $2,406/mo
$1,564 Core + $481 Satellite + $192 Crypto + $169 Active = $2,406