Financial Advice: Anyone know anything about buying stocks yourself?

[lavmonga]

Ok, so I'm 26 and thinking about investing some money into the market since it sucks so bad right now. But, I don't want to spend 1-5 grand doing it. I was thinking of buying a few green-energy stocks and taking a long term approach, spending under $500. Is the this even financially feasible or would I end up just losing money on fees ans that jazz? Are Scottrade or E*trade worth it for me?

[tycobb73]

There is nothing wrong with Etrade. Its fine. $500 isn't much in the investing world. It probably is too little for any of these sites. You also could end up loosing money on fees. I know Etrade at one time had an inactivity fee. With this amount of money I would pay off debt insteadd. And single stocks are risky. If its $500 you can afford to loose, go ahead. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

[invisiman]

Put it in a mutual fund if you can find one with a buy-in that low.

[Dirk Diggler]

Forget stocks unless you can afford to lose it.
Buy a bass, at least you can play it.

Dirk

[m0nst3r]

How many different stocks are you planning on investing in?

Edit: Regardless of how many stocks you're investing in think about this: Each transaction is subject to a fee. So if you put all your money in one stock, which I highly advise against, you're going to get charged let's say $7. If you change your mind, and want to close out your position on the stock, that's another $7 to sell. So, in just doing that you've already lost $14, which is 2.8% of your investment. Now, let's say you want to buy 2 stocks to diversify a little. That $14 you're going to get charged to buy/sell will double, if you want to close your position on both stocks. That's -$28 or -5.6%! The more stocks you buy, which you should do because you shouldn't put all your eggs in on basket, the more money you will lose to fees since you're investing so little. If you had a lot more to invest, I would say go for it, but since you're investing so little, I would do something else.

As invisiman suggested, you should think about a no-load mutual fund that is built up of green energy stocks, or an index fund (a mutual fund that replicates an index like the dow jones industrial average) because a) you have a small amount to invest and mutual funds allow you to buy % of shares. Like you can buy 200.65 shares of a mutual fund. b) There are no fees if you buy a NO-LOAD mutual fund. c) A mutual fund is already diversified, so if it goes down you won't lose all of your money. d) There are different degrees of risk, so you can choose a mutual fund that suits your risk level.

Edit 2: I forgot to add something that's fairly important. Mutual Funds are less liquid that stocks and you can only sell them at the end of the trading period. So if you see that your mutual fund went up 400% at the beginning of the period, and at the end of the trading period it tanked to -10%, you're not going to get to experience that 400% capital gain. You're going to be stuck, and you're only going to be able to sell at the -10%. Lucky for us Mutual Funds generally don't fluctuate like that.

[lavmonga]

I think I've decided to keep my money. "Buy a bass" was sound advice.

[guitar ed]

There is another idea, but I don't know how much you need to start with, and that is called Direct Investment Plan, or DRIP. A good many companies have these, where you can buy stock directly from them, in a small incremental fashion.

There are web sites dedicated to this investment approach, so check it out that way.

BTW: I disagree with those who think that now is not a good time to be investing. Prices are very low, and many companies are selling below what their asset value is. In other words, if they went broke, sold off all their assets & paid their bills, their would still be a ton of money left over.

edg

[Bassic83]

I'm looking for the threads that have gone over this in great detail right now...I started one.

Edit 1- here is one thread...Beginner Financial Investing.

[Mark Wilson]

Financial Panther, Eh?

[Dirk Diggler]

Glad I could help clear your head.
Nice one Mark, although for some reason a financial Cougar has more appeal. LOL!

[mothmonsterman]

how on to your money and watch the rest of the economic collapse.

[Ericman197]

I wouldn't throw the money away on a new bass just yet, unless $500 would be a serious upgrade. You can always buy that new bass a year or two from now when you're more secure.

If you don't have quite enough money to put into stocks, or you're too worried about losing it all, consider a money market account or CD. You may not get rich off it, but you'll make a little money... and in the mean time, you can play stockbroker and pretend you put the money in different stocks, and see how they do. If they do well, maybe you're ready for investing. If they tank... keep it in CDs!

[Bassic83]

Or, take it to Las Vegas and put it all on Black 13!

Wait, we're not supposed to be taking trips to Vegas any more...