I save $400 week. How should I buy stocks, weekly, monthly?

Question

And does anyone like the Vice Fund (VICEX)?

Answer 1

Congratulations on your financial success if you are saving so much each week! First, don't sink it all in stocks. There are emergency (rainy day funds) savings, and purchase savings (down payments for car, home, etc., or excelerating payoffs of debt) to include.

As for your VICEX, I didn't see what it was, but the trend is distinctly up and at a very respectable slope. Until something changes, it wouldn't hurt.

As for the frequency of investing. There are two general approaches. One is buying full blocks (100 shares, usually), which is often an archaic hold over from when odd numbers of shares (odd-lots) cost more to trade. Scottrade is a cheap brokerage that can do that for you, last I heard they have a $500 minimum. Another is price averaging, you put, say $100 each period (weekly or monthly or other). Over time it averages-down the cost of the stock you are buying--you buy less when the price is comparatively high and more when the price is comparatively low. With sharebuilder, you can have a stream of income, say, going into your VICEX thing on the first week of the month, another, say, going into NY on the second week of the month, and so on. (Check out the exchange traded funds like NY, DIA, SPY, DVY, etc.)

Answer 2

That depends. Can you hold on to your money for an entire month? Some people have a great difficulty doing so. VICEX has an excellent track record. I will certainly give it credit for that. Personally I do not like it. Its investments are too narrowly focused. Tabacco and gambling. A more diversified approach provides less risk.

In fact owning several good mutual funds with different investment objectives is a very sound approach to investing. Most mutual funds, once you make your initial investment will allow you to add more in amounts of the $400 range. I believe some are actually $500. Actually, there are even some that have the initial investment amount of less than $400. American Funds is one. It does have a front end load however, but that is offset by low expenses, so over time you will concievably do better than with some no load funds.

Answer 3

Congratulations! That's great!

If you want to invest weekly with little to no fees, you can try DRiP investing -- Dividend Reinvestment Programs. There are places that will invest the money weekly if you want. You'd want to build up to owning about ten stocks for diversification, and then rotating the amount you invest in each. Or, you could send $40 a month to each -- then you automatically buy more stock when the price is low.

See Chuck Carlson on "How to Buy Stocks Without A Broker" or his website at www.dripinvestor.com.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I'm not qualified to give specific advice, but in general, you should minimize transaction costs, such as investment fees. Therefore, you should minimize the number of trades you make. So, it makes sense to invest in stocks (or funds) you see as having long-term potential and then just keeping it there and automatically investing monthly.
You might want to look at Dividend Reinvestment Programs, which are incredibly efficient. I would also recommend index funds, boring but safe, as your core investment. Very few people can consistently beat the market, at least you can match it.
I also think that if you are interested in this stuff, you can educate yourself and avoid paying a financial adviser. Good luck.

Answer 5

Invest monthly so you'll have more to invest at a time. It gives you the advantage of being able to buy more stock at once and get a potentiall greater yield. Once you build a portfolio of stocks then you can trade more frequently because you'll have the capital to do so.

Also consider long term investment options as well, such as mutual funds or IRAs to give yourself a safety net

Look into different investment companies to help you out as well. They may cost a little money but are well worth it when it comes to advice

Answer 6

I'd do it in one big monthly chunk through Sharebuilder.com to save on commission fees.
Just research the stocks you buy CAREFULLY using the tools @ http://quote.fool.com + http://finance.yahoo.com + Sharebuilder.com themselves

Answer 7

Talk to a financial advisor, that is the best bet on what to do with your savings.

Answer 8

i go with monthly