Learning to invest my money properly, any suggestions as to where to start?
July 3rd, 2009 | by The Broker |
Charleen asked:
I am currently looking to put some of my excess money into a place where it can grow.
I am currently looking to put some of my excess money into a place where it can grow.
However, I know nothing about stocks, or bonds, or anything…
I was thinking about investing in the stock market since it seems to be the most obvious choice.
I wanted to see if anyone had any reading material they could suggest in order for me to go about this with some sort of idea as to what I am doing.
Any tips really would be appreciated. Any personal experience would also be appreciated.
Thanks!
6 Responses to “Learning to invest my money properly, any suggestions as to where to start?”
By Sentient6 on Jul 3, 2009 | Reply
IRA or Real Estate but be prepared to work your **** off.
By Q-Rious on Jul 5, 2009 | Reply
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is a great book! It’s starts out simply and then he gets more complex as u get to the end. But he makes it easy to understand!!!
By Laissez-Faire Guy on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
You might want to read Investing For Dummies. As an alternative, the LA Times has a pretty good “Money Library” available for free. I’ve linked to it below.
A good place to start is a low cost indexed or balanced mutual fund that invest in many stocks, or many stocks and bonds, respectively. Vanguard is a great mutual fund company for this kind of thing. Their costs are the lowest, so more of your dollars work for you instead of paying fees. Check out their S&P500 fund or their balanced STAR fund.
By ron on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
the best place ive found for this is
By Andrew R on Jul 10, 2009 | Reply
If you do not have any experience in investing money, and I am assuming that you do not mean going into business but passively stowing it away (meaning you don’t have to do anything except wait for it to grow), then do it the safest way: open a bank account.
Time deposits earn more than savings accounts but require a minimum time (e.g. 30-, 60-, 90-, 360-day maturity). Should you need immediately cash before maturity, they charge you an early withdrawal fee. This is also the safest but earn the least of all types of investments.
Investing in stocks and bonds gives bigger returns than banks but have higher risks. They require understanding of the market. Something that one does not get from just reading a book. You have to know the fundamentals of the company issuing the stocks or bonds. You have to know if they are stable enough to ensure that even if the prices go down, they will also go up.
Check up on the corporate profile and how frequent dividends are declared. A company that regularly declares dividends is a “blue chip” company and is therefore worth investing in. However, I’ve seen blue chips companies affected by market forces and the economy, that when their business went sour, they stopped declaring dividends altogether.
I’ve also seen prices of blue chips shares plunge and not recover for at least a couple of years.
I trade in the bourses as a hobby. I invest only 10% of my excess money there. However, I select the issues that I put my money in. I don’t invest in companies that I do not know its business and financials by heart.
Yes, I also read the book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, and it actually inspired me to invest more in stocks and bonds. However, it took me more than six months for me to compile the data on all the stocks and bonds before I finally made the move to invest.
Investing, specially if its your savings, should not be done in a whim. True, it may earn you more than a bank account, but it can also clean up your savings.
I hope you consider my advise carefully before plunging into it.
By Donald F on Jul 11, 2009 | Reply
Hi Charleen,
Consider starting with these great websites catering to investing basics.
Great investing basics websites
There’s more of first-timer info I shared in answer to a similar Question today. You perhaps won’t mind referring back to that at.;_ylv=3?qid=20080516052332AAw92l6&show=7#profile-info-jqHMmt4Yaa