How do I invest money if I know nothing about it?

Question

I'd like to invest a little money while I'm still in college. I'll be graduating in about a year and a half, and I have a little bit saved up. I thought it might be smart to invest it rather than just hold it in a normal savings account. I'm looking for something with low-risk, and not neccesarily something that I have to pay attention to EVERYday. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

I don't really need to have the money right away after I graduate, I'm looking more for a long-term investment.

Answer 1

Certainly, you really are thinking ahead, and that's a good thing. While I may not know much about investing, I do know there are so many branches of investing fortitudes out there. I can, however let you in on one thing that I do know. If all else fails, Wine and Oil will not. My advice, search and find for yourself, there are a lot of venues to look into. I really hope you find what you are looking for. [e-mail]

Answer 2

Most of the investment talk is trading stocks, speculating. Investing, such as you suggest for a longer-range target is a different story.

Speaking of stories, Charles Henry Dow and Edward Jones were reporters and they formed a venture to report business news. They started with a list of 12 companies, they called them smoke stack companies, we call them industrials. They reported the average price over time and the idea of indexing, which undoubtedly existed before, became part of the American picture for the stock market. The averages were refined and became three: Industrials, Transportation, and Utilities. Dow theory (well after Charles was gone) noticed something--when the industrials were down, the transportations and utilities were up. The idea is to select a mix of well-picked eggs, and put them in one basket to watch very carefully. Today we call that asset allocation. Things tend to average out, so if some of the companies don't do well, others bolster the average and support the group.

The most common groups are the Dow Jones Industrials (most people ignore the transportations and utilities today; you can buy an exchange traded fund, ETF, called diamonds or DIA), the Standard & Poors 500 (an ETF for it is SPY, commonly called Spyder), and the Nasdaq exchange average (commonly called the tech stocks, QQQ or QQQQ, I keep forgetting whether it is 3 or 4 Qs). There are similar other such funds, which unlike "normal" mutual funds these don't have sales charges or such requirements, they trade just like common stocks. Browse through some at Ishare or Powershares. If one or two or even three seem interesting, go for it. These are not the kinds of risky stuff that you get in the spam emails ("we have a runner!), these are the safest (no stock will be as safe as a savings account in an FDIC-insured bank) way to invest in stocks as you will find. Good luck.

Answer 3

A year and a half is a rather short time for investing. If you are going to need the money then, which I am certain you will, your best bet is to put it into a CD. Any other other investment over that period of time might cause you to regret your decission. If you still think that you want to invest it however then consider a mutual fund. Some have a fairly high minimum investment amount, $2,000 or even more. You did not mention the amount that you wished to invest. There are closed end funds and EFTs that you can buy like stocks and invest any amount that you wish. S&P just published a paper recommending mid cap efts as being very good investments relative to large cap and small cap efts. The paper did have compulsive arguments.

Selections to consider are the following PENNX, a mutual fund investing in small cap stocks and has a good record, GAM a closed end fund with a decent track record, IJH, IJJ, EMV, EMM all mid cap efts with decent records. EMV has the best with a 16% annual return over the last year. IJJ has a 13.5% annual return over the last 5 years. SWZ is a closed end fund investing in Swiss companies. A good hedge against the falling dollar.

Answer 4

Hi there. I am looking for investors in my company. I am willing to offer you a 7% return on your money, and pay you monthly interest via a promissory note. Essentially, if you take the amount of your investment and multiply by 7%, you'll get the amount of interest you would earn in one year. I can make payments to you throughout the year (monthly/quarterly/whatever you like) and those interest payments would be issued right to you. Then, when the promissory note becomes due, you would decide if you want to keep investing with my company or if you would rather take back your investment. 7% is more than you'll get in any savings account, and the risk is minimal, and you don't need to "pay attention EVERYDAY." Your interest payments are sent to you directly from my bank (BillPay is a beautiful thing). Please contact me if you're interested. Good luck...Leo [e-mail]

Answer 5

I think the best way to learn about the stock market is to first see what the best traders are buying and selling and why. This is the idea behind the site http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money. Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors. You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas. There is also a charting feature , so you can see how your portfolio performs compared to the S&P 500.

Here are this month's best traders:

http://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx

Good luck.

Answer 6

Give it to me and I'll invest it for you.

Put some money in low, and some in high risk, and forget about them. Watching them daily is what causes people to panic, and when people panic, the stock market crashes.

Or...when people invest in companies that have no idea, and no product (most internet companies), stocks crash too.

Answer 7

talk to a pro....call my financial guru, he has no minimums and works with good people. Moreland Capital Management is his company and his number is 208-578-7931. I am sure he'll take your call, tell him Charles recommended you.

Answer 8

put it in your piggy bank