investing help?

Question

wat should i start out investing in like stocks or whatever i could invest in

Answer 1

Most people make the mistake of investing for $$.

Smart investors invest for life.

Here's how you do it:

1) Pay off all your credit cards. You need to do this for two reasons. First, you're paying up the wazoo in interest rates that defeat your purposes in earning interest. Second, if you're ever strapped for cash, you might be forced to sell an investment before you've gained on it, and your credit will cause you losses on top of your interest.

2) Invest in an emergency fund of about $2000. This money should be in an account drawing about 2% or more interest and can be drawn on without penalty. You'll need more if you have a family, perhaps $5000. The reason for this is simple. If you wreck your car, break your arm, burn down your garage, etc., you want a fund that you can draw from without selling off other investments before you're ready.

3) Look at what you have left in assets. Make all of your assets work for you. Your income should begin contributing to a savings automatically. This is one of the most effective wealth-building tools over time, learning to live under your budget. At the same time, try to reduce unneeded expenses. Canceling unwanted subscriptions, for example, gives you a return on your hard-earned money faster than any stock.

4) If you want a long-term investment plan, one of the fastest and best risk-free investments is an IRA because you get an immediate refund of part of the money on your taxes (the "saver's credit") on top of what you earn in your account. This works best for families who can get up to 50% back.

5) Now look at what you have left. This is called "disposable" income, anything you have left after paying your bills (and for me, anything you have left after obligatory savings). What you have left is the only thing you should ever use for risky investments like stocks. You can't get an immediate return without considerable risk, but you can get a steady moderate return over time between 6 and 10% if you have a good diversified portfolio.

(This last step is really for people who have $5000 or more left to work with because trading fees kill your earnings. If you don't have this much, you should consider treasuries. You can go to www.treasurydirect.gov and start an online account and buy them yourself without a fee, and the bills, notes and bonds are all riskfree. They are currently paying in the neighborhood of 5-6%.)

The advice given by SuzeY above (a savings of several months to live on) is good advice, too, and very conservative. This protects you from selling off investments if you lose your job. The key is to have complete control over your risky investments and if you care about getting a steady return, you should set up for yourself several barriers of protection like this to take care of life's ups and downs. The risk in investments should never be compounded by being exposed to risks in your personal life.

Answer 2

Now is not a good time to invest in stocks. Instead of stocks, you should try prosper.com. But only invest in loans with a credit rating of C or better and a DIT of less than 20%. I have had tremendous success with Prosper. Good Luck!

Check out this article from the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/technology/13ecom.html?ex=1297486800&en=a0ac72b7453152ab&ei=5090

Answer 3

You don't say what your general financial situation is, but most people start investing through mutual funds. This month's Money magazine has a nice article rating the top mutual funds. Remember, before you invest, make sure you have paid off any credit card debt and have cash set aside to cover at least 6 months of your living expenses.

Answer 4

Joseph answer was good. Look into a Roth IRA as a way to save for the future.

Answer 5

yea joseph great answer...give him the points

Answer 6

Try www.stock-exc.com.

Answer 7

good grammer classes