Investments

I have a couple suggestions. But I am sure that you know that the best suggestion for investing is not to listen to other people. So take what I say with a grain of salt. First I would suggest that you decide if you have the time to watch individual stocks. Stocks are a bit tricky. There are great companies with over-priced stocks, and not so great companies with under-priced stocks, and companies you think are great that will make you lose all the money you have invested in them when they go bankrupt (think Enron). So with individual stocks you need to spend time EVERY WEEK doing research on the companies and their stocks. With more short term trading, you will be looking at the market even more frequently, and at least once a day. Add to that the infinite ways to invest and trade, and it gets quite confusing. And on top of that realize that 80 percent of the people who do this make less money than if they invested in an index fund! That being said, I love trading. I don't want to say it's not a great thing to do. I just hope you have reasonable expectations as to the work involved. I highly recommend cheap brokers like Scottrade (no fees, and 7 dollar trades), and Zecco (30 dollar fee a year, 10 free trades a month). If you are not up for that kind of time investment, you should look at mutual funds. You can use free sites (or at least the free part of sites) like Morningstar.com to find the statistics on funds. I like to buy funds that outperform their index most years, have a manager who has been there at least 5 years, and that have no commission (load). Only use no-load mutual funds. With many mutual funds, you pay something like 3 to 5 percent as a commission whenever you put money into it. That is non necessary. With a broker like TD Ameritrade, or Schwab, you can have access to thousands of no load funds, where you don't have to pay anything to buy them. If you invest with mutual funds, you only need to check up on them about once every few months. If you don't want to spend all that time, and you are happy with doing only as good as the market in general does, then you can buy an index fund, and just hold on to it. Or several (one for the S&P, one for the Russel 2000, and one for international) If you want to have the right allocation in large, small, growth, value, cash and bonds, etc, then there is another way. I hate going through financial planners, as they just want to do what will get them the best commission. But there are several mutual fund companies out there who have what they call target date retirement funds, or something like that. So for example, if you what to retire in 2040, then you pick a 2040 fund, and the manager of that fund will make a portfolio of other funds from that company that they feel is the right allocation balance for someone who wants to retire at that time. Now there will be more high risk/reward stocks, but as time goes on, there are more and more conservative issues, and more bonds, etc. I certainly suggest that you take time to go to the library and check out books on the subject. Also there is plenty of stuff to read on Morningstar.com. There are great trading blogs that people have out there too if you search. Also do this in an IRA account if possible. All brokerages will offer these. I like the Roth IRAs, as you pay tax on your money now, and then it goes in the IRA, and you never have to pay any tax on the growth. I would avoid financial planners and annuities like the plague. In fact I may rather catch the plague than deal with a money-sucking financial adviser. But the best suggestion I can give is this... Do your research, and choose an investment strategy that fits your personality.

The only trouble with investing in stocks is that any money made relies totally on the stock market. Great when things are on the up and goin well but pants when the market is like it is just now. My government brought a new thing out when my daughter was born giving children a certain amount of money on their birth and again when they were seven, this money had to be invested in the stock market, my daughter has had this investment for nearly three years and since the beginning of the year has lost nearly all of it and there is nothing I can do about it because of the rules of her having it. I know though that even though there is a crisis on there are still areas of the stock market that will make money it is just finding them so as long as you look into it and learn a bit about the market then you should do fine.

you should learn more about stocks before diving in stocks with your money. learn what stocks are and how you can use them to build wealth. if you are a passive investor, meaning you just want to buy shares of stocks and expect for the dividends to pay you, you should look for stocks with high yield dividends because these stocks are great for income investors like you. one great investment that you could do for yourself is to fund your retirement account, 401k's.....

Before you invest any money into any market, it's wise to research your choices and your options before jumping in. Any stock you buy is actually a little piece of ownership of a much larger company. Even though the news-casts might say the market went up or down, individual stocks can go against the general trend based on what the individual company is doing. Investing into the share market or the forex market or even the real estate market without fully understanding what you're doing or why you're doing it is a sure recipe for trouble. Take the time to learn and understand. When you're more aware of how your money is working for you (or not), then dabble a little bit into the market until your confidence levels go up.

I have an awesome site that you should visit. the name of the site is www.sharebuilder.com. Sharebuilder helps you with the entire process of purchasing all stock. The options are either wholesale of stock or making specific amount payments per fiscal calendar date.