stock market investing

lotas · Post by **lotas** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 11:42 am

hey guys, now that I'm 18 and I can do some things on my own I'd like to do a couple things. One thing I'd like to do is put away about $500-1000 in an account and just earn interest off of it. Just wondering what you guys reccomend. I don't know the terms or acronyms for the "accounts", but can you give me any do's/dont's?

The other thing I'm looking to do is invest in some stocks. Not play the stock market and try to win big $ fast or anything, but just get some in there. Might be a bad idea, but I'd really like the experience. I know there is http://www.scottrade.com, but do you know any other sites that let you do something like this, without having to get a stock broker? Thank you.

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 6:25 pm

Toyota or nike.. i'm in an economics class at school and one of the assignments we had is to pick a few stocks, "invest" 10,000 and follow them... not sure how much money i put into each, (they're expensive stocks btw) but i was able to get a good amount of "money" out of those to. i also belive you'll want to look for astock with a fairly low p/e ratio and stocks with a high "div & yeild" (forgot the exact terms, sorry

) (finance.yahoo.com will explain it all.) I'm giong to do the same once i turn 18...

. IF you're not looking to get huge returns, maybe you should look into mutual funds... not sure exactly how (scottrade probably does it) but basically they take your moeny and spread it out into different stocks and investments.

JeremyC · Post by **JeremyC** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 6:26 pm

Hay lotus check into Roth IRAs. If your planing on investing for the long run, they are a pretty good way to go. The main diffrence is you pay interest on the money you put in up front instead of when you pull it out in 20 or so years. So it can save you tens of thousands over a regular IRA.

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:21 pm

401K

As soon as you hit 21 and work at a place that has it USE IT. Put away at LEAST the most your employer will match...

Once of our 401K funds at work had a intrest of 21% year ending... Openhaimer fund it was (spelling?)

Also you can invest in some stocks that arent to expensive. Toss in 200-400 and play around. Just know that you can LOOSE it all.

Lucent Technologies
Owens Corning
Owens Illinois are reliable I hear...

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:30 pm

i rember learing in my class about how if you were to invest $1000 a year for say 10 years and then stop after that, you could have a good amoutn of money if you let it sit and compound for 40 years or so. what are these investments called? i never actually learned what they were. anyway thats what i plan on doing..

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 8:32 pm

"i rember learing in my class about how if you were to invest $1000 a year for say 10 years and then stop after that, you could have a good amoutn of money if you let it sit and compound for 40 years or so. what are these investments called? i never actually learned what they were. anyway thats what i plan on doing.."

You're probably referring to an IRA. Basically, you could invest money that you made during a couple of summer breaks (just $2000), invest that in a Roth IRA for a couple of years, and you'll reap quite a bit by your late 60s (if you start early). I wish I had the option of the Roth IRA when I was a teenager, you are lucky to live in the time period you're in. If you start investing young, you could be a millionaire just from what you'd accumulate from a few summers worth of work.

lotas · Post by **lotas** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:38 pm

so is a Roth IRA something I do with my bank? Or is it something I do at an online site?

JeremyC · Post by **JeremyC** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:04 pm

lotas wrote:so is a Roth IRA something I do with my bank? Or is it something I do at an online site?

Either really. I would check out the internet first, and see if you have any questions, and then go talk to the bank. That way you can do some reaserch, and then talk to a live person, and really start to figure out how it all works.