| Soma said: This is an interesting thread although I don't understand anything :p. I'd like to invest but don't know where, how and how much is required. Maybe I can learn a thing from you guys =) |
I'm just an amateur investor and don't want to pretend to dish out wisdom. But I've had some success and just so happen to think Nintendo is a good investment right now.
But as to the "where" of your question, you need a Brokerage account. Most individual investors use discount brokerages, like Ameritrade, ScottTrade, E-Trade, so you'd have to open an account with one of them.
For the "how much" part, brokerages make their money off the commissions they charge you when you buy and sell a stock. It's around $10 usually each time, so $20 round-trip. The general wisdom is you don't want the fees to be more than 2% of your total money. So that means usually $1000 is an accepted minimum amount. But you also don't want to be investing money that you need. For example the money you'll need to live off of in a year or so's time shouldn't be risked.
Otherwise investing generally - whether in real-estate, stocks, or whatever else that gives you returns, over the long haul, is a good way to make wealth and help you retire comfortably. Why work when your money can work for you?
For the "how" part, once you've opened an account and put some money into it with which to invest, you then have to start teaching yourself about how buying & selling stocks work, and which ones you want. Then make your first purchase. There's so much to know in the investing world you can never know it all. And with investing you typically have to learn the hard way...make your mistakes early so you have time later to recover and prosper.
The way I make it simple, is by following just the companies I actually like, or hate - for whatever reason, and then look for good entry points into those. That method whittles the whole stock world down to something manageable, and keeps me inherently interested in what's going on.
