Where To Begin?

Alright, you've decided to start investing! Maybe you have $1000 or maybe just $100 or $25, but you've made the commitment to put that money into the stock market. You're not going to spend it on a new outfit or a weekend away. You want it to work for you...but where do you start? Having an online brokerage acount is appealing, but maybe you don't feel ready to do it on your own. Yet, you don't want to spend a fortune on brokerage fees. Many, many questions, with many different answers. In this article, I will provide some of the best places on the web and in print for anyone to start investing. I invite you to start a discussion and ask any questions you might have.

The first place to visit online should be The Motley Fool at http://www.fool.com. They have a great introduction to investing called "The Fool's School". The Fool's give very basic and very effective investing strategies. They encourage you to manage your own money, and invest for the long term in the stock market. They are not big fans of mutuals, and they'll tell you why... Explore this site to the fullest. Also, see if you're library has these two books buy Tom and Dave Gardner (the founding Motley Fools), "The Motley Fool's Investment Guide" and "You Have More Than You Think". These are great guides for anyone beginning to invest, and they are not dry financial babble! They are funny and extremely intelligent guides to investing.

Check out E*Trade at http://www.etrade.com. You can sign up as a member without depositing any money, and get the benefits of most of their online tools (e.g.stock quotes, portfolios, etc.). You can also play their game...they give you $100,000 in "funny money" and you can trade for a month, in "almost" real time. It's a great intro to picking out stocks and watching them perform on a daily basis. It really gives you a feel for online trading, although the game does operate much slower than real trading would.

If you want to avoid brokers altogether, try DRIP (that's a dividend re-investment plan) investing. DRIP investing lets you purchase stock, for a minimum investment (usually 1 share, sometimes as low as $25.00), directly from the issuing company. Charles Carlson writes great books on this topic. My favorites include, "No-Load Stocks" and "The Individual Investor Revolution". These websites will also get you on your way to successful stock purchasing directly from the company...

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