Steps for a young adult planning on investing?

Question

Hey guys, I'm 19 years old and am planning on investing $1,000 into the stock market. The hardest part about this is: Where do I begin? Are there any sites where I can open a portfolio free of charge or with a small fee, such as e-trade? Are there any websites that I can use as a step-by-step guide till I collect some dividends? (haha)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys!

Answer 1

I would not invest via the internet at this point.

You have to educate yourself.

You are 19. It's entirely possible that at some point in time you may need some of this money. There are more "liquid" investments than stocks, as they are typically for the long term.

There are different instruments like mutual funds or CD's that might possibly be better for you at this time.

What you need to do is get "face to face" with an investment planner, and not necessarily a stock broker. This person can give you a sort of "Investing 101" and point you in the direction of what the best instruments would be for you.

We all hear stories about people who invest $1000 in the stock market, and in 6 months have a portfolio worth $10,000. What you aren't told is that for every one person that does that, there are thousands that invest their $1000 and in six months have 100.

Answer 2

The best investment to maximize your returns is by far the Forex market. You can earn interest on 400 time your money, no other investment strategy allows for that. The only problem is that 95% of people lose their money within the first 60 days. However, I came across a program a few months back called FreedomRocks. It is a system that basically does 95% of the work for you while you still control your own money. I looked into some other Forex investment programs, but this was the only one that didn't charge $4,000 for their services, and really did 95% of the work. I found this out after testing the system for about a month on a free demo. After about a 38% return, I waited no longer. I invested $5,000, and by the end of December, one month; one week later, my account was up $2,950. Sounds too good to be true I know, but I have transaction statements to back that up. The best part is I had absolutely no prior trading experience. There is a product video at www.simple4xinvesting.com, and I would love to answer any questions anyone reading this may have. Please feel free to call me anytime as I love sharing this exciting and unique new program.

Best Regards
Chris Thomas
541-554-8140
www.simple4xinvesting.com
[e-mail]

Answer 3

etrades crap, brokerages are crap. Etrade charges $40 quarterly which means you would have to pay $160 per year, with $1,000 you would only make about $110 at the average return of 11%. So you would be $50 in the hole. I recomend buying from companies that offer a direct purchase plan, you can contact your companies investor relations department and ask them. Investing in this way is great for young adults like me or you (I'm 15 and this is the way i do it.) or people with a relatively small amount of cash. Most of the time there is a small fee (no more than $15 for your inital purchase and usually no more than $5 for aditional purchases.) but it sure beats the brokerages. Also check out some books from the library on the topic of personaly finance and invest, I recommend Jim Cramers Real Money. Also check out www.thestreet.com www.marketwatch.com www.investopedia.com www.motleyfool.com and yahoo finance.
Good luck bro.

Answer 4

You can start a small account on E-trade , but your $ 1000. will not be enough to start in most mutual funds, but... very similar to mutual funds are ETF's ( exchange traded funds) .They are quite simply funds invested in companies in a certain country, or a certain sector of business ( energy, technology,nat resources,) or a certain grouping of companies, NASDAQ ,S&P,
These funds are traded on the market like a company stock and have a "share price".... so I think you can buy 45 shares of a fund priced at around $20. or 90 shares of something at $10.
Their performance is similar to those of mutual funds ( I recently saw a chart comparing EZM ( the ETF) to FEMKX a mutual fund I own) ..they were identical!
This all probably sounds like gibberish ...I'm sorry..go here:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/beginnerguide.asp?page=introduction
Step by step, read the info 'til you sort of get an understanding of terms...play around with " research" 'til you can compare one fund to another..see what makes up funds of different styles...it all sounds hard but it isn't. No harder than following baseball, the NFL or NASCAR....the result is different..knowing how to save, invest, and handle your money wisely, puts you 10 steps ahead of most people your age.
Anyway, if you can get the E-trade account opened, start with the ETF's... individual stocks later ( hell, maybe only six months) when you understand the whole process better.

Answer 5

Knowledge is power!!! Get to the library and check out the books by Suze Orman. I like her down to earth and easy to understand style. If you're working consider a 401K or IRA and just letting your $$$ build over the next 30-40 years. Keep contributions consistant. For an idea on how it builds, check out finishrich.com and go to the "find the latte factor" calculator.

Answer 6

Open a IRA immediately. Once you do that you can diversify your funds into some mutual funds. Try putting some in small cap and large cap funds. Large cap are safer but you make you money on small cap funds. You can even put your money into bonds from here though i don't recommend it. No one has ever lost money in a mutual find over a 10 year setting according to Dave Ramsey

Answer 7

With $1000, I would take it to a CD which Guarentees you a fixed HIGH rate and you CAN't LOOSE it like you can with the stock market. You will gain the market but only have a LONG TIME. It is not worth it.

Answer 8

Invest in mutual funds rather than stocks. Less risky, experts handle it, and returns guaranteed

Answer 9

Just open a brokerage account at Scottrade and invest in Diamonds (AMEX:DIA) and keep saving at least half your salary until you have at least $2,000.00 and then move to TD Ameritrade and then you can drop me a line if you need more detailed FREE help.