I am a newbie and would like to invest $1000 to start. I have read that I should put 40 percent into bitcoin and diversify the other 60 percent. I need opinions, advice, and anything from those with experience of positive value. 
Diversifying is good when you know what you are doing and you are unsure of the market conditions.
If you think the market is too volatile then you can consider diversifying.
But if we are in a bull market and you know bitcoin is the only one showing better gains then investing in altcoins would be a bad idea.
Even if you decide to deiversify then a lot would depend on which coins you choose to diversify in.
I would always keep 20% of the capital to buy more later and invest the rest 80%.
So if I were at your place then I would go for 50% bitcoin, 30% altcoin (mostly 20% ETH and 10% BNB) and the rest 20% in fiat.