Online investing

I can agree with most of what Ragu said. I'm a financial planner (by education), and these are the two best sources I can offer. "The Complete Idiots Guide to Making Money with Mutual Funds," and the Vanguard Web site. It has a VERY good beginner education section. The NYT also has a pretty good book, although I couldn't find it online, the "NYT Guide to Investing," I think is the name.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1567616372/ref=dp_olp_2/002-4639213-5148039

https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation

If you have any specific questions, I'll be more than happy to help.

 

I'm a novice as well, so thanks for all the sound advice.
My stock broker friend recommended Scottrade.com if you're not investing too much. Low fees, supposedly. Has anybody had success with this Web site?

 

Thanks for all the good advice.

Here's how basic I am. I have $500. I'd like to at least get started.

Can I sign up at one of these sites, give them $500 and just say I want $200 on Coke, $200 on Miller and $100 on Netflix and then just let it sit there until I'm ready to pull it out of shift it around?

I know that is really, really, really basic for some of you, but that's how I'd like to begin. I want to get going and actually have my money sitting in some reliable, simple stocks and then learn while I go.

 

I use Scottrade. It has an easy-to-use interface and cheap trading fees. Plus it has local branches all over the country. (If you live in a mid-sized city or larger, there's a good chance you have a Scottrade branch where you can set up your account in person).

I'm not a big fan of traditional mutual funds. I would use a straight S&P index fund and you'll likely do just as well (probably better, over the long-term) without the heavy management fees.

 

I do corporate benefits now and recently did some training on 401ks. My advice would be to go the mutual fund route, but get a mix: one relatively aggressive, one moderate and one strong and secure. That helps cover your "bets" in almost any market turn.

 

Thanks for the advice on the websites. I assume these things are secure?

I'm already invested in a bunch of mutual funds (and some stocks and bonds) thru the "family" investments... I'm maxing out on my 401K, just converted my trail of 401Ks to an IRA, put aside some cash for a rainy day, etc. etc. ... all the boring stuff.

Now I'd just like to see what I can do with some stocks. It's no worse than a weekend in Vegas...

Pringle - FYI, I just read an article on CBSMarketWatch about how Netflix is a terrible investment right now. Ditto Six Flags. I could dig it up if you're interested...

 

Oh, I was just using examples. I'm just trying to see if you can start that simply, and then learn. Or if you have to know everything and THEN start.

 

Ragu - what do you mean by "trade options"? Stock options?

 

If you have a 401K available, I suggest maxing it out, just to the point of getting all the company's match, and then spreading it over four types of mutual funds: growth, growth and income, agressive growth and international. Especially if you have a long enough investment horizon.

 

Disagree slightly, if you have the 401k available, put in as much as you can, even if it exceeds the company match.
If you can contribute beyond the company match, do it. It's all tax free dollars going in. My company's plan allows me to contribute up to 25% of my pay each week, I do. If I only contributed to my company max, I'd be putting in $180-$185 or so less per week, or about $9500-$9600 less per year. Assuming I do a poor job of picking funds and I only get an average 8% rate of return over 20 years, it means I'd be missing out on $100,000. If you can contribute the extra money, do it.
I make enough/live frugally enough, where I can contribute the max to my Roth IRA each year as well.

 

The reason I suggest backing off a 401K at the company-match level is because they are traditionally very limited. Once the company match level is met, you can have a ton more opportunities and tax-free growth (Roth) or tax-deferred growth (traditional).

You just have more options.

 

Learn from me: I just dumped all my penny stocks save two.

When you get a tip on a penny stock, you're usually getting it when it's already made its big move. My experience is that you'll get pounded if you buy it after you get the "great tip" e-mail. It's usually/often a pump-and-dump deal.

I actually got a card for one in the mail. Tracked it. By the time I got the card, it was way up. It's probably worth a quarter of what it was that day now.

My most infamous (read: stupid) story: I bought a penny stock at 20.5 cents. In the heady days of the late '90s, it went up and up and one day hit $21.50. We were sure it was going to go to $100. I sold a little and bought another penny stock.

That one went bankrupt. The first one, the 20.5 cents to $21.50 one, I still own -- at 17.2 cents.

It's possible to hit a home run playing the pennies just like it's possible to win a big jackpot at a slot machine. The odds are probably the same; it's pure chance.

If you do want to get involved, I've loved these guys:

http://www.tdameritrade.com

They dumped all the worthless penny stocks for me and said they'd never charge more in commission than a stock was worth, which was great on the bankrupt ones.