what about stocks?????

[stakesauce]

hey any advice or backround info on how to invest or why to invest would be awesome

[Young Spark]

Honestly, stocks are good to get into, IF you know how to manage them or have somebody who is absolutely knowledged about stocks. Me myself, I know a little about stock's, but not every single thing, hopefully I can change that in the future.

[excelyourbiz]

I work for a major mutual fund company, and the number one tip I can give you is, start investing early! With mutual funds, if you start investing in your early 20's like me, you'll be a millionare by the time you reach the age of 60.

ex. You invest $2000 per yr when your 20-28 and stop, let the money grow, you'll have at least $1.5 million by the age of 65.

[The Stealthy One]

^^ That's a bit skewered, though. I tend to like to be involved in my investments. Sitting my money in a mutual fund is about as uninvolved as I can get. Mutual funds tend to have lower returns over long periods of time, as well. Why not try T-bills, CDs, or tax liens instead? All have varying amounts of risk, and larger returns (usually).

[Will]

I like to look at investing into companies who I think are very active and do well off their investments themselves.

My Mum works for Macquarie Bank and the men at the top of it are buying EVERYTHING (ok, not everything). However! They have bought a huge amount of assets recently and have done well off of them, and those are the companies I trust in.

I like the way Virgin goes into everything aswell. They are not affraid to get into new areas (even space travel). Although Virgin Media is not having a great time at the moment, I would still trust my money in a company like it.

Not sure if my reasoning is very good yet, but I'm 17 so have a while to learn I guess.

[columbus]

hey any advice or backround info on how to invest or why to invest would be awesome

Try paper (demo) trading first.

beat.thestreet.com

[Young Spark]

Daniel made a very great point... what about tax liens or tax deeds (or whatever your state caters to?) Investing in these so I read so far can be good. All your doing is helping out somebody who is falling behind in property taxes, then they have a timeline (set by the state occassionally) to have you paid back WITH interest. If its not met in that timeline, the property legally becomes yours, which means you can kick them out and/or rent the place out or whatever. Me myself, I'd just start charging them rent or something possibly like that (very low rent) with interest cause honestly, I may not make it far, but I know how it is struggling to have to keep a home.

[Purple]

to me stocks are to risky at the moment, f you gonna buy stocks buy like $200 worth nothing to much because if you go on and spend to much money you may end up loosing alot today, because stock prices keep going up but goes down,down,down

[jackdaniels]

I was trying to get into stocks and bonds. I was even reding a bit, but its too advanced for me.. Because my lack of experice it is something very hard for me to understand. I even purchased the book "the intelligent investor" by benhamin graham, Buffet's teacher..
But the way they explain that is pretty hard..
Who has already purchased shares here?

[Purple]

i would have but you need to much money to start up, and i will only invest 200 into stocks so if i loose money it wont be that much

[WanganRunner]

I would like to hear more about tax lein investing, that sounds like an interesting use of cash.

Anyway, stocks are a great investment if you have the discipline to buy them and leave them the hell alone. Buy an index (ETF) like VTI or SPY, although some international diversification might be advisable.

Buy them early and often, don't try and time the market, reinvest your dividends, and don't ever sell a dime of it.

Trying to day-trade and time the markets is a dangerous game, your opponents are better educated and funded than you are, and they can make markets where you just accept prices. Playing the spread can be profitable, but the decimal conversion of the NYSE has largely eliminated that gravy train.

[Zoxak]

Hi there, I'm 18 and have been investing on a joint account with my father for the past two and a half years, with a fair bit of success. I don't claim to be an expert on investing in stocks, but I do know a fair deal. So I'll share with you what I have learned about investing to this point.

If you want to get started, go to your local library or bookstore and pick up some fundamental books about stocks. Even something like Investing for Dummies would be a great start as you MUST know the fundamentals (i.e. what are common shares, preferred shares, how earnings and investor confidence determine a stock's market price, some key ratios to judge a company's financial position). If you happen to have some background knowledge in business or accounting and the like, that would be very helpful as you can jump right into dissecting a company's finances to determine if they're worth investing your hard earned money in.

Don't worry if you think you still haven't progressed much after skimming through your first book or two. If you follow market news for a while and read up as much as you can, you'll eventually get a feel for why stocks go up or down. Once you have that step covered, you can eventually get into investment strategies (ala Buffett value investing, stock options, hedging risk, etc.), but for now don't worry about that and get your initial research done.

I feel that making money in stocks is much like running your own business. In the long-run, the more you plan things out and the more research you do, the more likely you will succeed.

*Other an important note, there will be a truckload of people who will tell you they can make money like magic in the stock market (through penny stocks, selling short, whatever). Never listen to these people. Of course there will usually be some legitimacy to their strategy, but it usually involves extremely high risk and volatility. Always look to reduce your risk while simultaneously increasing your gains. Good luck to you.

[duezeone]

Great suggestions Zoxak. I have actually learned quite a bit over the past few months without investing one cent. I am currently in college and learn all about the balance sheets and whatnot, but one thing that has helped me extremely well would be the news. I have became attuned to turning on CNBC whenever I can, and it has helped me understand the market a lot. I actually ended up getting Jim Cramer's Watch TV, Get Rich book to help me out with the fundamentals, as well. One thing that I have learned while watching CNBC and the like is that it doesn't take a genius to make money in the stock market. All it really takes is an understanding of different sectors and up and coming technology. That's where a lot of money is made. In fact, I would recommend that you pick one industry and try to stick with that for a month (ie; healthcare, automobiles, retail, etc...). That would definitely give you a better understanding of different areas because they all function slightly differently. Don't get me wrong though; how a company is managed is very important, as well.

[Zoxak]

Very true. A lot of people dismiss Cramer as a phony, claiming that the only reason he's listened to is because of his antics and airtime on National TV. I think that's a load of bull****. He promotes exactly what he feels can make people money in the market. He tells people to do their homework on stocks before buying, and enlightens viewers about more difficult concepts such as cyclical sectors, buybacks, mutual and hedge fund strategies and stock options (just to name a few).

I think your advice is pretty sound duezeone, each sector will have its gems and its duds. It's up to the individual investor to do their homework and figure out what company is the "best of breed" in each sector.

[SpencerB]

^^ That's a bit skewered, though. I tend to like to be involved in my investments. Sitting my money in a mutual fund is about as uninvolved as I can get. Mutual funds tend to have lower returns over long periods of time, as well. Why not try T-bills, CDs, or tax liens instead? All have varying amounts of risk, and larger returns (usually).

T-bills and CD's making better returns than mutual funds? Where/when/how/who??

Mutual funds are a great tool for those who do not want to setup a diversified portfolio, or want professional management. I prefer them for investing in sectors/regions which I want exposure to but don't have enough knowledge/time to invest in specific securities.

Also, you CANNOT, i'll repeat it, CANNOT group all mutual funds together. There are high risk funds, low risk, broad strategies, specific strategies.... hell there are ones that invest in certain stocks because of their symbol names. There are thousands of funds out there, some are losers, some are low risk/low return, and some outperform the whole as a whole EVERY year.

My advice to any new trader is to go open a simulated account, and start learning. There is an endless amount of educational investing sites on the web. Use the tools you learn, and test them in your simulation account. Here are a couple good sites,

http://investopedia.com/
www.morningstar.com (education section)