Lux Investing
Stock Market for a Beginner?
I have never ever done any kind of investments, stocks, bonds, or whatever its all called. Ive always been interested in it, and always wanted to learn as much as I could about it. I am a complete idiot when it comes to the stock market, dont know anything, and so far online all I can find are articles for people who already know the basics of investing. And even when I find something for a true beginner, I still cant understand where its coming from and what I have to do to learn. If anyone has personally used a good book or DVD, that basically went from step one, to the last step of personal investing, even if its a few books to make a set, please let me know about them and tell me what they were like. Also I know a lot of people that have had someone invest for them, and they have profited quite a bit, but Im hard headed and am the kind of person that wants to learn and practice what Im interested in, not have someone do it for me. Thanks for any advice, appreciate it.
Public Comments
- You should invest in a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You want to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks as individual stocks are too risky. Most folks have a dificult time buying a properly balanced portfoilio of stocks on their own. They will misbalance their portfolio by buying all small stocks or all growth stocks, or some other misbalanced assortment of stocks. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best to buy mutual funds. I like Vanguard.com, other people like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, and DFA. Buy no-load, low cost funds. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money aggressively in stock funds, and part conservatively in money market funds and bond funds. Vanguard.com has an on-line questionnaire which will give you an idea of how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of fund. If your company offers a 401K plan at work, try to invest the most you can. The money grows tax free, and some companies will match your contribution. Investing in a mutual fund IRA is also a good idea. If you have children, you may want to consider a 529 plan or other college savings plan that grows tax free. I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund. However, there are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and form your own opinion. If you have high-interest debt, like credit cards, it is best to pay this off first before trying most of the investment ideas above. You should also have 3-6 months of salary saved up as an emergency fund in a bank or money market fund before trying more risky investments. Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however. Sources: http://www.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation http://www.fool.com/school.htm http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetallocation.htm http://www.diehards.org/readsites.htm http://finance.yahoo.com/education/begin_investing http://finance.yahoo.com/funds/basics Asset Allocation Calculators (Determining how much to put in stocks and how much into bonds and money markets is a personal decision depending on your financial status. These Asset Allocation questionaires give you a rough idea how to do this. I like Vanguard best, but try some of the other sites as well.) https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/FundsInvQuestionnaire?cbdInitTransUrl=https%3A//flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation/education https://ais2.tiaa-cref.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects.exe/DTAssetAlcEval http://www.ifa.com/SurveyNET/index.aspx Web forum: http://www.diehards.org/ (Many investment web forums are overrun by scam artists. This one seems the most legitimate site.) 529 plans: http://www.savingforcollege.com
- The following site is one of the best on-line resources for learning the stock market. Please check it out. The market can be a vicious place, especially if you don't know what your doing. I don't want you to lose all your money http://www.investopedia.com/ Mike
- I suggest that you open an account at Scottrade and select mutual funds. One of the best research sites is Morningstar.com. If you choose mutual funds with a high rating, you should be able to beat the market averages in good times or bad. If you are still confused look at the mutual funds based on Nasdaq top 100 stocks. It was called qqqq but they recently changed their symbol. Good luck, - CarlD
- http://hsbcinvestment.co.in/ provides investment oppurtunity,investment banking, investment services, stock investment guide.
