beanie babies ... you can buy hundreds of them

Put all your money in Forever Stamps. They can never go down in value.

The only good tip was the first one. Think, plan and study. If you do that, you'll walk away from mutual funds, options, shorts (most involve extra fees, extra risk, etc.). All you need is growth stocks. And it doesn't matter how little you start with; you can find a way to buy just one $13 stock if you're that tight. Research it, don't buy anything that you don't feel comfortable holding on to for five years, and ignore what the news tells you about the ups and downs. Review your portfolio once a year (quarterly if you must) and make adjustments as necessary.

/thank you Peter Lynch

tricycleracer: [24.media.tumblr.com image 480x360]

Put all your money in Forever Stamps. They can never go down in value.

Actually... I can see a scenario where the USPS goes tits up and declares all outstanding, unused postage null. Then they go back to only selling postage with a defined face value, somewhere in the range of $0.75 for starts.

Which reminds me, I have to stop by Walmart and pick up some more .223

What the heck did the article have anything to do with investing strategies specifically targeting ppl with less than $3k? It basically just listed ALL of the ways to invest through a discount broker.

I started with and IRA and taxable account, each with about 2k. My taxable account I test strategies in and have basically made 2% over the last 52 weeks.

My IRA, I invest in 1) Low PE ratio, 2) middle range dividends (3-7%), 3) consistently pay dividends by increasing and never decreasing. I am up over 20% on the year by patienty waiting for entry points.

It's so sexy when learning to invest in stock to talk about companies like apple and google. But the real money is in the non-sexy stocks. I own Pitney bowes, intel, at&T, and am looking at coco-cola and am trying to pick a pharma stock. Well rounded, under-valued, and very high probablity of maintaining around 5% returns in dividends a year plus appreciation. It is the easiest strategy in the world that anyone can do. I would suggest starting with around $500 per stock and NOT trading in and out. To bad no-body tries this strategy even though it is repeated all over the place because it is too simple to believe and (gasp)... boring. Not to mention that if everybody followed this strategy wall street would lose their bonuses.

pute kisses like a man: My dad taught me a valuable lesson when I was young:

we were living in California, and some kind of economic crisis was at hand and the threat of total nuclear war with the russians of yesteryear was a constant, although unrealistic thought. Our neighbor was a kind of hippy and started a pretty impressive garden.

My dad and the neighbor were in a conversation. My dad complimented his garden. The neighbor said that he had grown the garden in case of nuclear apocalypse so that he could support his family indefinitely with his garden. My dad asked, what's your opinion on gun ownership? The hippy was opposed to guns. My dad said, well, thanks for all the food in case of an apocalypse, because I'm just going to come over with my guns and take your garden.

my mom said to my dad, you're such an asshole. I loled. But, I learned a valuable lesson about apocalypse survival that day. My family would become raiders in fallout. (and people thought the swedes were a genteel bunch)

Err.

The garden would be useless because the ground would be radioactive. The hippie would know how to get the garden working again and grow more food that isn't irradiated. Your father might have gotten whatever the hippie had stored up, but you'd all perish not long after the food ran out. Were the hippie still alive, he'd be able to keep growing and provide food indefinitely.

/Didn't think his cunning plan all the way through, did he?
//me? I can brew beer. Know enough I could probably distill if needed.

enry: pute kisses like a man: My dad taught me a valuable lesson when I was young:

we were living in California, and some kind of economic crisis was at hand and the threat of total nuclear war with the russians of yesteryear was a constant, although unrealistic thought. Our neighbor was a kind of hippy and started a pretty impressive garden.

My dad and the neighbor were in a conversation. My dad complimented his garden. The neighbor said that he had grown the garden in case of nuclear apocalypse so that he could support his family indefinitely with his garden. My dad asked, what's your opinion on gun ownership? The hippy was opposed to guns. My dad said, well, thanks for all the food in case of an apocalypse, because I'm just going to come over with my guns and take your garden.

my mom said to my dad, you're such an asshole. I loled. But, I learned a valuable lesson about apocalypse survival that day. My family would become raiders in fallout. (and people thought the swedes were a genteel bunch)

Err.

The garden would be useless because the ground would be radioactive. The hippie would know how to get the garden working again and grow more food that isn't irradiated. Your father might have gotten whatever the hippie had stored up, but you'd all perish not long after the food ran out. Were the hippie still alive, he'd be able to keep growing and provide food indefinitely.

/Didn't think his cunning plan all the way through, did he?
//me? I can brew beer. Know enough I could probably distill if needed.

So the lesson here is to enslave the hippy?

/heavily armed hippy
//make my day

Don't, the trading fees, taxes, and other assorted bullshiat will eat away far more than you could possibly earn.

Lost Thought 00: Don't, the trading fees, taxes, and other assorted bullshiat will eat away far more than you could possibly earn.

I dropped $500 on SIRI about two years ago and it's now at $1800. Normally you'd be correct, and always consider any money you put in the stock market to be lost.

enry: The garden would be useless because the ground would be radioactive.

Quite obviously "enslave the hippy" is the next logical step.

1. Obtain a quarter
2. Buy big stack of scratch-off lotto tickets.
3. Get to scratchin.

My .02 ... just put money in a low fee index fund and leave it alone. Don't go out swimming with the sharks with nothing but a pair of floatees.

enry: Lost Thought 00: Don't, the trading fees, taxes, and other assorted bullshiat will eat away far more than you could possibly earn.

I dropped $500 on SIRI about two years ago and it's now at $1800. Normally you'd be correct, and always consider any money you put in the stock market to be lost.

It only works that way if you trade often. If you limit your trading to about once a year, the fees and taxes don't kill you that much (if they did, how the hell does Warren Buffet have so much money?). Day traders are the worst, and I laugh at the thought of them doing their taxes. Imagine getting the equivalent of a W-2 for every sale, and then having to put that into your taxes. What a nightmare.

Edward Jones didn't like me much, because I refused to listen to the guy who was peddling Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Pepsi stock and instead was looking at Corning and Cummins (Cummins has doubled since I started looking at it). They also don't like that I wasn't trading often, so no commissions and trade fees and the like off me.

Peki: The only good tip was the first one. Think, plan and study. . . All you need is growth stocks.

Tips on selecting a brokerage? Also, do you recommend linking the account to one's bank account, or just doing things the old-fashioned way? I don't plan to be a day trader so I don't need instant transactions.

enry: Lost Thought 00: Don't, the trading fees, taxes, and other assorted bullshiat will eat away far more than you could possibly earn.

I dropped $500 on SIRI about two years ago and it's now at $1800. Normally you'd be correct, and always consider any money you put in the stock market to be lost.

Guy I know at work bought $50,000 worth that day it hit about seven cents a share....Needless to say, he retired.

Also....buy an Equity REIT that has a VERY low debt-to-value ratio, and sit on it. Most pull between 5%-10% yearly dividends, distributed quarterly. It's better than a Mortgage REIT in that the Fed Interest rate doesn't affect it as greatly. People always need a place to live!

Not the most helpful article in the context of beginning investors. Noobs need to hear statements about how first paying down debt gives them guaranteed "returns," how spending 99% of your income is fundamentally different than spending 101%, and that any time they shake hands with financial types, they should make sure to count their fingers afterwards.

What's some good advice to try to cash in on the Facebook IPO? I remember there was a great amount of hysteria around the google IPO during its first few days. I don't trust facebook long term, but I'm sure that masses will just eat it up.

dragonchild: Peki: The only good tip was the first one. Think, plan and study. . . All you need is growth stocks.

Tips on selecting a brokerage? Also, do you recommend linking the account to one's bank account, or just doing things the old-fashioned way? I don't plan to be a day trader so I don't need instant transactions.

I don't go through brokers. They run with herd mentality. You know all those ups and downs we've been seeing; direct result of two things. 1) Brokers telling customers "You need to buy/sell this!" (They have millions of customers, and they are all telling those millions of customers the same thing, you do the math). 2) Information saturation - you can't go anywhere without knowing what the Dow is doing, and people invest with their stomachs, not their heads, so if they hear the market drops, they get on the phone with their broker and go "Sell! Sell!" Now the Dow has just dropped 500 points.

If you MUST go through a broker, pick a small firm that doesn't follow "normal" trading methods. You want growth, medium risk, etc. A friend of mine worked at a place named something like "Contrarian Investing". That's the kind of feel you're looking for. If you're older, keep the money in growth stocks, but take out a CD with a one-year term, with enough cash to get you through a year. You keep those CDs cycling so you get a little interest on the money but can still handle short-term shocks. And yes, the deal about reinvesting dividends is key if you don't need the income.

I have ING, and I linked my bank account. Makes things simpler, but do your own research to figure out what works for you. If you hop on my blog, I have a much bigger guide on how I pick stocks, step by step. YMMV, I have a B.A. in English, an A.S. in Automotive Service Tech, no accounting experience. Also, pick up "Beat The Street" and "One Up On Wall Street" by Peter Lynch - he's where I got my strategy.

plcow: I would suggest starting with around $500 per stock and NOT trading in and out.

I bought $500 of NFLX a few weeks back thinking it had hit its floor.

/sigh

Peki: I don't go through brokers. They run with herd mentality.

I wasn't planning on listening to the douches; I just need a means of pushing the damn paper. Within minutes I can probably access two dozen different means of buying equities, but (after so many years of focusing exclusively on reducing my debt load) I have zero reliable information on what's the best way, and I'm not keen on promiscuously sharing my financial information just to experiment. I just need a means of investing securely, reliably, transparently, efficiently and cheaply. In that exact order. You would (or should) be amazed at how thin resources are on just getting into the damn system. Almost all investing advice is what to invest in, including every damn "how to get started" ever written. Absolutely nothing out there on the options available to people to get into the markets except by the people and sites trying to sucker you in so they can make money off fees -- and the brokers have every incentive to keep things that way. But it's hard to get rich through a damn gatekeeper.

I have ING so I can use that, thanks.

Nexzus: What's some good advice to try to cash in on the Facebook IPO? I remember there was a great amount of hysteria around the google IPO during its first few days. I don't trust facebook long term, but I'm sure that masses will just eat it up.

You want to make the most amount of money on the Facebook IPO? Stay away and bury the money in a coffee can. High end traders are going to make a killing but the average Joe looking for an investment are going to lose their shirts.

dragonchild: Peki: I don't go through brokers. They run with herd mentality.

I wasn't planning on listening to the douches

I lol'd.

As far as ALL the options to invest in - hell, I have no idea. I would grab books on each asset (REITs, stocks, bonds, etc), preferably written by people well-known in the industry but who don't get on the front page much. The minimum you want is to stay ahead of inflation (figure roughly 3% on average a year), with an eye towards replacing working income with investment income. I'd stick to stuff I know - for instance, I'm a mechanic, so it's natural for me to invest in Cummins (and have, and made some good money). You may know real estate, so REITs may be a more natural fit for you. Don't assume that because you're investing you have to invest in something you know nothing about, like supercooled photo-transistor circuit boards (no idea if those even exist, totally making it up). One of Peter Lynch's rules is that if you can't explain what the company does with a crayon, don't buy it (you don't understand it well enough to know if they are doing a good job).

If you want to "test" a strategy, Investopedia.com has a great stock market simulator. I started my simulator in 2008 and have doubled the "money" they initially give you. I haven't explored all the options on that site, so you may find more of what you're looking for there.

pute kisses like a man:
The hippy's plans were poorly thought through. If he could create a sustainable garden, someone would just came and take it, unless it could be defended. So, the hippy's argument for the benefit of his garden was bankrupt.

/ my dad what never kill people for food, nor would I. But, I might to defend it. the notion of apocalyptic cannibal raiders is a failure of imagination. People don't work that way, despite what hollywood know it alls think

Both of you didn't think it through enough. Then you would realize that the hippy could pay your dad in food for defense, and you both win off each other's specialties.

/trading ftw

pute kisses like a man: The point he was trying to make was not what we would do, but what would happen. If you have food and people are hungry and nothing else matters, plan on defending it or losing it. It was a form of argument, not a threat.

The hippy's plans were poorly thought through. If he could create a sustainable garden, someone would just came and take it, unless it could be defended. So, the hippy's argument for the benefit of his garden was bankrupt.

/ my dad what never kill people for food, nor would I. But, I might to defend it. the notion of apocalyptic cannibal raiders is a failure of imagination. People don't work that way, despite what hollywood know it alls think

The hippie knew exactly what he was doing - giving himself a skill that would be useful if all else fails. Having all the armaments in the world doesn't help you at all if you killed or scared off the guy that knows how to farm. I'd say his skills would be more useful than that of owning a firearm.

*shrugs* I'm lazy. Index mutual funds are cheap, diversified, and emotion-free.

Such funds make it trivial to enter the US and international stock markets, as well as the bond markets. I'm a fan, as they offer a degree of abstraction from the underlying assets (e.g. I don't need to actually buy or sell bonds) and one can have dividends reinvested automatically (you can buy fractional shares of mutual funds, so you don't have cash lying around the account waiting to be invested). You can't buy fractional shares of ETFs and you can't automatically reinvest dividends for 100% hands-off investing.

Vanguard and Schwab have absurdly low fees on their index funds. If you have a Schwab account and buy Schwab funds (or a Vanguard account and Vanguard funds), they don't charge you any purchase fees.

I don't have the time or expertise to play the market, and don't think that "experts" can consistently beat the market. I'm also really lazy.

Unless you put that $3000 into the market in 2000. You really should have just bought a motorcycle instead.

heypete: one can have dividends reinvested automatically (you can buy fractional shares of mutual funds, so you don't have cash lying around the account waiting to be invested). You can't buy fractional shares of ETFs and you can't automatically reinvest dividends for 100% hands-off investing.

ING Sharebuilder will let you do this. I had like 1.0000167 of Cummins stock at one point. Kinda funny.

pute kisses like a man: My dad taught me a valuable lesson when I was young:

...My dad said, well, thanks for all the food in case of an apocalypse, because I'm just going to come over with my guns and take your garden.

Yeah, that was a really valuable lesson in how to make enemies. Your dad is a rotten piece of shiat, and if he isn't already dead, I hope he will be soon. We don't need people like your father in this world. Seriously. You're lucky that your neighbor was a hippie, because they're generally peace-loving people. Had your father said the same thing to most people, he'd probably have to sleep with one eye open from then on.

Peki: As far as ALL the options to invest in - hell, I have no idea. I would grab books on each asset (REITs, stocks, bonds, etc), preferably written by people well-known in the industry but who don't get on the front page much.

Argh, argh, it's still not getting through. I can easily get this sort of advice on the order of 5,000,000 hits on Google in a second.

My point is I want to do all my investing through a single service (because there's no farking point in using more than one) and I don't know how to shop for services. I'm talking about that "Ooh I want to buy this stock so I will access my accout in this {SERVICE} and use this {SERVICE} to process this transaction. (Click) That was easy! Because I have this {SERVICE}; thank god for this {SERVICE}. You know, something 100% of investors use and 0% ever say anything about.

This seems like an absurdly simple thing to do and it is, but I'm getting cold feet because I know a hundred people who can tell me what stock to buy (I DON'T NEED that advice though thankyouverymuch) and zero who'll say even a single thing about HOW to buy it! I am NOT going to select a transaction service through trial & error!

Is there any farking difference between ING and E-Trade? Does one charge more, is one known for security breaches, or does one rape your personal information by spamming you with broker ads? Are there any limitations on what investments one can access? I have no farking clue, and apparently neither does anyone else!

dragonchild: I have no farking clue, and apparently neither does anyone else!

Gotcha. And yes, you're right. I went looking for the same thing. Couldn't find it. Decided on ING because it was convenient, easy, and (at the time) wasn't attached to any of the major banking companies that were behind the recession. I think ING was cheaper than E-Trade, but don't quote me on that. I would only go to a brokerage service if I wanted the face-to-face contact or was a luddite.

/sorry for being thick, yes, it's a deceptive question, because people assuming you're looking for a more complicated answer, myself included

relcec:
fidelty is one of the most highly rated online brokers I think and their trades costs are competitive. I have ameritrade and tradeking. tradeking has $4.95 trades if your into that and you can get a margin account with as little as $2k deposit they say, but I like ameritrade's think or swim app that you can load about a million different technical studies into.

ING had no minimum to start when I signed up with them. It was one of the attractions as I didn't have much money to put into it.

dragonchild: This seems like an absurdly simple thing to do and it is, but I'm getting cold feet because I know a hundred people who can tell me what stock to buy (I DON'T NEED that advice though thankyouverymuch) and zero who'll say even a single thing about HOW to buy it! I am NOT going to select a transaction service through trial & error!

The problem here is nobody can tell you THE service to use because only you know HOW you want to invest. Personally, I use Scottrade because I don't have a huge portfolio, I'm mostly interested in buying individual stocks and ETFs, I don't trade frequently and I don't need a full service broker or feel like I need much in the way of guidance. It works for me in that situation so if you feel like you're the same, I'd say you'll probably feel comfortable with them. My only beef with them is the lack of a dividend reinvestment option, so every time I get dividends and want to buy additional shares I have to eat the $7 fee again.

dragonchild: My point is I want to do all my investing through a single service (because there's no farking point in using more than one) and I don't know how to shop for services. I'm talking about that "Ooh I want to buy this stock so I will access my accout in this {SERVICE} and use this {SERVICE} to process this transaction. (Click) That was easy! Because I have this {SERVICE}; thank god for this {SERVICE}. You know, something 100% of investors use and 0% ever say anything about.

My wife uses Scottrade for buying stocks and some ETFs. They do trades for $7, which is lower than the $8.95 that Schwab charges me. However, since I mainly invest in Schwab mutual funds, Schwab is cheaper for me (as they don't charge for buying their in-house funds or ETFs).

Scottrade also has a better website, but that's just me. However, their no-fee ETFs are from a much smaller company which isn't really my cup of tea.

For general stock trading, it's hard to go wrong with a discount broker like Scottrade, ING, or your bank. If you'll be buying index funds from a major company like Vanguard, you might as well just open an account with them as it keeps the costs low.

toraque:
On the bright side, if the farmer does manage to convince the guy with the guns that he has valuable skills, he has a long slave life of farming at the barrel of a gun to look forward to.

Yeah, but the farmer would know to grind up apple seeds and stick them in the gunner's drink. You'll always get more from voluntary cooperation than forced enslavement.

/loyalty is the reward of a good leader, not something you can get from either end of a gun barrel

heypete: *shrugs* I'm lazy. Index mutual funds are cheap, diversified, and emotion-free.

Such funds make it trivial to enter the US and international stock markets, as well as the bond markets. I'm a fan, as they offer a degree of abstraction from the underlying assets (e.g. I don't need to actually buy or sell bonds) and one can have dividends reinvested automatically (you can buy fractional shares of mutual funds, so you don't have cash lying around the account waiting to be invested). You can't buy fractional shares of ETFs and you can't automatically reinvest dividends for 100% hands-off investing.

Vanguard and Schwab have absurdly low fees on their index funds. If you have a Schwab account and buy Schwab funds (or a Vanguard account and Vanguard funds), they don't charge you any purchase fees.

I don't have the time or expertise to play the market, and don't think that "experts" can consistently beat the market. I'm also really lazy.

From my opinion, lazy is good. Really good. I just can't bring myself to pay even $5 a trade for a $500 chunk. Plus knowing I'd have to pay another $5 to get at it again. If I was throwing $5000 at a single stock, okay, 1/10-of-1% isn't much. If I trusted my stock-picking.

As for the who, Vanguard is rarely a bad step. Just as long as you're comfortable with online-only, since they charge annual fees if you want paper statements beyond your tax statement.

Schwab in the traditional mutual funds sense is good for S&P 500/Total US market index funds. They'll also let you start with just $100 and additional investments as small as $1. They're a little weaker in ultra-low-expense/indexed international or bond funds. But, the Schwab in-house ETFs do cover those bases absurdly cheaply, no commission, etc. Plus, a Schwab account ties in to their ATM-fee-refunded online checking account. I keep a couple hundred in that checking account just so I have a card I can use at any ATM in the world for $200 and pay no fee. I have dividends from the Schwab ETFs sweep into a Schwab fund (SWPPX - S&P 500 idx). Again, lazy is good.

Ameritrade, Fidelity, and several others have lists of no-commission/low-cost ETFs. They're all pretty good.

Peki: sorry for being thick, yes, it's a deceptive question, because people assuming you're looking for a more complicated answer, myself included

NP; as you can see it's a mistake EVERYONE makes. But that's what makes it particularly frustrating.

dragonchild: Peki: sorry for being thick, yes, it's a deceptive question, because people assuming you're looking for a more complicated answer, myself included

NP; as you can see it's a mistake EVERYONE makes. But that's what makes it particularly frustrating.

Yup. I suffered from it too, and had to think back to researching where to go to remember the annoyance of it. It's akin to finding a pair of shoes online, but not being able to find a store you can go try them on at.

Peki: heypete: one can have dividends reinvested automatically (you can buy fractional shares of mutual funds, so you don't have cash lying around the account waiting to be invested). You can't buy fractional shares of ETFs and you can't automatically reinvest dividends for 100% hands-off investing.

ING Sharebuilder will let you do this. I had like 1.0000167 of Cummins stock at one point. Kinda funny.

Yeah, but it makes filling out your yearly taxes hell.