How hard is it to make money investing,trading,etc

[stockriderman]

I am 23. I make about 40K/year(about 20K after those canadian taxes...)
I was sitting the other night,checkign my email, thinking about my career and it's not going anywhere. Some spam came to my email with stock prices. It got me thinking.
How hard is it to start trading or investing. I know nothing about it. .I don't even know what people trade or invest in. Do people go to school for this? Are there any online courses I can take and start doing it? I have about $10K saved up and can use it for something to help me with my future. Can it be turned to say 50K in a year?
Any advice,thoughts,links,?

 

[Epic Fail]

400% return for your money? Good luck.

 

[DaveSimmons]

That kind of return would require very high risk investing. High risk = high chance of losing most or all of your investment.

If you want to try for that kind of return, go to the nearest tribal casino, find the roulette wheel, bet it all on black. Repeat twice more and you're done! (Or broke.)

Professional stock pickers with access to all of the insider information have a hard time outperforming the S&P 500 stock index over time, and it has historically returned only 10-12% not 400%.

 

[Stunt]

Any ideas you get from spam can't be a good idea.

"I mean I could get a 10"er and do pr0n...that'll make 50K/yr" :roll:

 

[mchammer]

Ha ha ha ah ah ah see you in the poor house.

Put aside a good amount of money per year in sensible investments. That is the way to do it IMO.

 

[Stunt]

1) Keep Job
2) Maximize Income
3) Minimize Costs
4) Buy ETF's
5) ...
6) Profit!!

 

[her209]

You realize that your alias IS stockriderman and joined in Nov 2004... AND you just came to this realization NOW?

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: her209
You realize that your alias IS stockriderman and joined in Nov 2004... AND you just came to this realization NOW?

lol
I didn't even notice that...haha@OP

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: her209
You realize that your alias IS stockriderman and joined in Nov 2004... AND you just came to this realization NOW?

stock car comes to mind first.

 

[JS80]

1) learn options
2a) strike rich
2b) go broke

 

[stockriderman]

Originally posted by: yamadakun

Originally posted by: her209
You realize that your alias IS stockriderman and joined in Nov 2004... AND you just came to this realization NOW?

stock car comes to mind first.

someone is thinking...

 

[stockriderman]

What about forex? I've heard,those people make like 30% weekly

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: stockriderman
What about forex? I've heard,those people make like 30% weekly

I've heard those people lose like 30% weekly.

Guessing is more like gambling than investing.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: stockriderman
What about forex? I've heard,those people make like 30% weekly

The ponzi scheme ones pay that well, to the first to cash out.

Your odds really are better with the roulette wheel.

 

[DaWhim]

the rule is KISS. keep it simple, stupid.

 

[HombrePequeno]

Everything you need to know about financial planning

* Make a will.
* Pay off your credit cards.
* Get term life insurance if you have a family to support.
* Fund your 401(k) to the maximum. (index funds and bonds)
* Fund your IRA to the maximum. (index funds and bonds)
* Buy a house if you want to live in a house and you can afford it.
* Put six months? expenses in a money market fund.
* Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement.

(Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel)

Don't EVER go for get-rich-quick schemes. There is no such thing as easy money, if there was it would be insanely exploited and the returns on that easy money would fall drastically.

 

[SuepaFly]

<--- Know some people in hedge funds (usually among the best returners and usually only for really really rich people to get richer), general consensus is no. Especially with 10k, there's nothing to buy that could have a great success rate of returning you 50k, you'd have to buy penny stocks...more volume, a slight change for the worse would kill you.

You may look at the YTD numbers and see some days where the prices changed drastically, but keep in mind that this is instantaneous, someone releases bad news and the first person that can get/read the press release or whatever is the one that wins. It's nearly impossible to beat the competition out there as an individual.

 

[stockriderman]

How's forex a scam? Isn't it second to Nasdaq???

 

[vi edit]

Common sense says: "If it was easy we'd all be doing it".

Probably the simplest method that I've seen that is halfway easy to follow is the people that swing trade the Q's.

 

[brtspears2]

Slow and steady is my strategy. You are still young, just start out with a little bit, and keep making a monthly contribution to a IRA. Invest funds into a index mutual fund.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: JS80
1) learn options
2a) strike rich
2b) go broke

Options are the lowest dollar investment with highest potential return for investors without much capital, but they are much more risky.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno
Everything you need to know about financial planning

* Make a will.
* Pay off your credit cards.
* Get term life insurance if you have a family to support.
* Fund your 401(k) to the maximum. (index funds and bonds)
* Fund your IRA to the maximum. (index funds and bonds)
* Buy a house if you want to live in a house and you can afford it.
* Put six months? expenses in a money market fund.
* Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement.

(Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel)

Don't EVER go for get-rich-quick schemes. There is no such thing as easy money, if there was it would be insanely exploited and the returns on that easy money would fall drastically.

My suggestions:

*Make a will (absolutely)
*Universal Life might be appropriate if you have the extra cash and want a stable investment for kids education fund. Money sunk into a death benefit can't be counted when assessing parents ability to help pay for school (a.k.a. provides a shelter for money that's earmarked for school, but doesn't dink you when apply for financial aid).
*Don't get into credit card debt in the first place.
*Fund 401k to max, but be aggressive when you're still young. Find one or two good index funds because fees will kill your portfolio when you're first starting out.
*Put 6 months expenses into a liquid, interest bearing account.
*Buy a house with 20% down to avoid PMI and make sure payment is no more than 30-40% of take home income.
*Fund Roth IRA to max for both spouses if you have the extra income.
*If you've still got money left after all that, play the freakin' market because you're set no matter how you look at it. Anything above and beyond is gravy.

 

[cchen]

Originally posted by: stockriderman
How's forex a scam? Isn't it second to Nasdaq???

please stop asking about things you have no idea about.

 

[Nerva]

Originally posted by: cchen

Originally posted by: stockriderman
How's forex a scam? Isn't it second to Nasdaq???

please stop asking about things you have no idea about.

hahahahahahaha, well said.

seriously, the best of the best hedgefund had 52% return, and this was back in 97-98. to turn 10k into 50k in a year, you seriously have better luck playing blackjack than investing in the market.

also one thing to keep in mind, 10k isnt a lot of money where the high return funds will come knocking on your door. in fact, it's pretty far from being enough. what you need to do is just plant your two feet solidly on the ground, take your 8-10% post fee return from a mutual fund, and be happy.

 

[stockriderman]

Originally posted by: cchen

Originally posted by: stockriderman
How's forex a scam? Isn't it second to Nasdaq???

please stop asking about things you have no idea about.

Well,it seems you know even less about it than me.

Forex market is the largest and most liquid market in the world.The investor's goal in Forex trading is to profit from foreign currency movements.

I don't know what scams you are into,but you should do some research on this. Is Nasdaq a scam? I don't think so...