Starting a portfolio from scratch can be a daunting task. Knowing where to start is tough, and you don't want to be overweighted toward one industry. While a well-diversified portfolio consists of at least 25 stocks, here are the first five I'd buy if I had to start over today.

Large-cap tech companies make up a massive amount of the market, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is one of the best. With its fingers in advertising, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), its reach is quite impressive.

I think it's an excellent addition to a beginner's portfolio because of its low risk. Alphabet has nearly $140 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet, and produced more than $16 billion in free cash flow (FCF) in Q4 alone. It also has top advertising properties with the Google search engine and YouTube, so revenue is dependable. It also has high-upside investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, so the company is set up for a bright future.

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Source Fool.com