English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories
0

So im 16 years old and i have a job. Overall ive made about a thousand bucks so far. I was wondering how one would be able to get involved with stocks. Is there a certain age?

2007-03-22 17:53:31 · 4 answers · asked by Ben10 3 in Business & Finance Investing

4 answers

You may have to have your parents open some sort of custodial account, but you can invest.

The simplest thing to do is to open an online account (for example Scottrade as someone else mentioned) and by exchange traded mutual funds. These are mutual funds that are traded on the stock market and which can be bought like stocks. I would recommend buying a few shares of a fund that tracks the S&P 500 (SPY and IVV are examples)--oh and the S&P 500 is an index of the 500 main US stocks.

Quick, easy, cheap and it ensures that you'll be properly diversified.

Best wishes.

2007-03-22 21:06:40 · answer #1 · answered by Adam J 6 · 0 0

The best way for you at this point is a good mutual fund. A mutual fund will allow you to get your feet wet in the stock market without having to do all of the research that you would need to do if you were going to invest directly in stocks.
A mutual fund is a pool of money put in by thousands of individuals like yourself, that paid professionals manage for you. They do all of the research, make all of the stock buying decisions and deal with the day to day administration of the money, and take a cut of the profits, usually a couple of percent.
Another problem is that you are starting with a (relatively) small sum of money, meaning that you wouldn't be able to properly diversify your stock holdings by yourself. Most funds have low minimum initial investments of around $500, so you could even buy a domestic stock and foreign stock fund, for example.
You are young so you could even invest in a higher risk fund, like China or Precious Metals.
Call up an investment professional, it should cost nothing for an initial consultation.

2007-03-22 18:04:30 · answer #2 · answered by jimstanleydavis 2 · 0 0

no certain age. good head on ur shoulders. im 18 and so is my boyfriend. he invested some 2000 in stocks and ended up losing and making some cash but just enough to end up with 2000 again... to be honest with u... investing is verrry tough and u need a lot of time to keep track of ur stocks. also, buying fees and all that stuff is not cheap at all so def dont do it now. watch the news, keep track of some stocks that u like and then jump in when the stock prices are low and buy some shares. my theory is buy and hold..then after a while sell when u can make profit. good luck

2007-03-22 18:03:50 · answer #3 · answered by mitlilkizbi 2 · 0 0

"Legal Capacity to Enter Into Agreements. You are of full legal age in the state or jurisdiction in which you reside and have the capacity to enter into this Agreement." This is a quote from www.scottrade.com. Click on the Scottrade Brokerage Account Agreement link just below the log in. Your 16 so you will probably have to ask your parents, or another family member over the age of 18 for their help. No one will take better care of your money than you will. By the way you are amazing, when I was 16 I never even considered such things. I wish I had.

2007-03-22 18:14:29 · answer #4 · answered by Justus 4 · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers