Thinking about starting an investment account, have some questions

[Argo]

I have about 10k on my savings account and I've decided to invest part of it. This seems to be the right time and 1.5% interest rate I'm getting from my banks seems like a joke.

So like any intelligent person I want to do some research before jumpin on this ship. I want to know what are good online brokerage firms and what I should watch out for. Any other information I should watch out for, as a first time trader?

 

[amdskip]

Same here, have about 9k in some of my companies stock and its doing nothing so I'm considering investing some of it somewhere.

 

[Mardeth]

Well for one, dont trust banks too mutch because their doing it for their own intrest. Read alot before doing anything...

 

[DaveSimmons]

www.fool.com and search "stock" and "invest" in recent and archived threads here.

As usual, I'll suggest buying a stock index mutual fund like VFINX based on the S&P 500 index. Buying shares of this is like buying fractional shares of 500 major stocks at once. Buy and hold those shares and over the long term you'll outperform most "actively managed" (stock-picking) funds. The historical earnings over decades is a 10% annual return.

If you don't already have a brokerage, you can start an account directly at vanguard.com and buy VFINX without a transaction fee.

If saving for retirement, and you had over $3K in earned income last year, you probably want to also start a separate Roth IRA account there or at your brokerage (before April 15), and put $3K of your money into that as your 2003 contribution. Roth IRAs grow tax free, so when you retire and take the money out, you pay zero in taxes.

 

[jamesave]

There are Maybe this book first..

If appropriate, open an Roth IRA first if you don't have it yet.
That way you'll save even more by tax deferrals.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: amdskip
Same here, have about 9k in some of my companies stock and its doing nothing so I'm considering investing some of it somewhere.

another tip.. I don't think you should have any money invested in your company (unless tehy are giving you restricted stock, or you know some material non-public information 🙂). Your salary is already highly correlated to your companies performance. There is almost no reason to have your retirement money also correlated to it.