<p>I'm planning on breaking my piggy bank and doing some investin'. Any advice?</p>
<p>We are approaching an economic recession/are in a slump; you should consider investing in "staples" such as laundry detergent, paper products, etc.</p>
<p>Go to your local library and grab a couple books on investing.
Everyone will have different advice, but of course, you should pick that which you are more comfortable with.</p>
<p>Well, I was looking more into international mutual funds...</p>
<p>Investing in shares of stock is the best and quickest way to make money. Of course, most people don't know (even the phd's) how to properly invest in it (technical/fundamental analysis etc). If you don't have enough money, I suggest investin in options.</p>
<p>9854, please teach me how to properly invest! I always hear stock market is good, but I am too scared!</p>
<p>My friend invests in the stock market. He said "its easy. Just buy a share and then sell it later!" but it can't really be that simple?</p>
<p>And it seems like you have to keep up with it. I just HAPPENED to find an article about microsoft wanting to buy yahoo and I told him and he said "Oh yeah, i already bought stocks" and I was like "Do you think yahoo would do that?" and jeez. So much thought required!!</p>
<p>That's the fun part!</p>
<p>Ugh, really? I don't want to be HAVING to read the news, though. And looking for articles and stuff! I just want to pick up the paper and then put it down. I don't want this to be a big investment of my energy.</p>
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We are approaching an economic recession/are in a slump;
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<p>Exactly. Prices are low and if you wait out one or two more drops there'll be nowhere for them to go but up. A long way up. Perfect time to invest if you're willing to wait it out in the long run (which will earn you A LOT).</p>
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Well, I was looking more into international mutual funds...
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<p>I don't know heaps about mutual funds, but from I do know, they shouldn't be any different. Everyone's prices are falling. The only place they're going to be able to invest your money is in some sort of stock or bond. Wall St. and American interest/inflation rates affect almost every other stock market / economy in the world. International mutual funds won't be that different. I guess you could go look in China or Japan or Russia, but if you're looking for a quick buck, I'd say you should look elsewhere, like poker.</p>
<p>commodities, commodities, commodities..</p>
<p>mutual funds!? who the hell is giving you advice ?? lol</p>
<p>hewey.. if you think poker is a quick buck you are obviously not a poker player</p>
<p>omg what are you talking about? Argh! Its like taking another subject in school!</p>
<p>Going long there are only two options: buy low and sell high or buy high and sell higher!</p>
<p>take a look at copart (cprt), exxon (xom) i bought them a while ago, they might be overvalued now.</p>
<p>also, international oil/ resource stocks might not be a bad call, PBR (brazil oil NYSE), UTS (TSX: uts oil corp), and Barrick Gold Corp on the TSX.</p>
<p>doct.. wow...</p>
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<p>Morningstar, an independent investment research provider, ranks funds based on performance history. In the last 3 years, the best performing funds have been those based on Latin American (Brazil + Mexico) and Russia.</p>
<p>Morningstar:</a> Fund Quickrank</p>
<p>Given the currently high commodity prices, it is likely that those funds will continue to outperform all others, as long as the American slowdown won't suck the rest of the world into its quicksand.</p>
<p>mutual funds are generally seen as teh safest investment. The general rule is, as you get older, you move your money from risky investments to safer investments. The safest investments are things like CDs.</p>
<p>You can invest in the stock market, but only invest what you are willing to lose. If you can't afford to lose the money, it shouldn't be somewhere that could cause you to lose it.</p>
<p>Be wary of mutual funds. They can be laden with high fees that chew up returns like a hungry wolf. My suggestion for your situation (low energy required, no imminent usage), just place the money in a safe company with good long-term prospects and let it sit there. You won't need to keep up with the news, you can sleep at night, and in the long haul you'll get some nice returns.</p>
<p>These would be companies like General Electric (GE), which had a little rough patch recently but over the long haul will be absolutely fine, Intel (INTL) which you should probably know, has a dominant hold over the microprocessing industry as AMD fades ever more into insignificance though Nvidea is rising up to replace that threat, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), etc etc.</p>
<p>I would not suggest actively investing with anything less than 10k, because with less than that the transaction fees and taxes can eat into returns very quickly. Example: You invest $5000 into Warp Enterprises, it goes up 5%, you sell. 5% is $250, but you subtract $25 in fees = 225, and you pay higher taxes (up to 35% vs 15%). Since short term capital gains are taxed as income and assuming this account is under your parents' names, that's probably 25%, or another $62.5 off right there. So that nice gain of $250 is in reality $162.5. That healthy 5% is cut down to 3.25%.</p>
<p>Investing is a complex and difficult topic as is trading. </p>
<p>If you can get Bob Brinker's Moneytalk radio show in your city, I'd suggest listening to it on a regular basis. It takes a fair amount of time to keep up with markets and I'd say years to learn how to invest and trade and even longer to do both well.</p>
<p>Some things that help are learning technical analysis (see Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by Murphy), how to read financial statements, the time value of money, bonds.</p>
<p>Something else that can help is to find successful traders and watch what they do.</p>
<p>If you want to try it without risking anything, there are many websites with paper trading features so that you can try making trades to see how you do. This is not the same as really trading as the psychology is different when you're not really risking capital.</p>
<p>hi quirky. before you break open that piggy bank, do a little bit of reading and research. learn about mutual funds (load vs no-load, index vs. actively managed, small-cap vs mid-cap vs large-cap, pure stock vs. balanced vs. bond, annualized returns, etc.). learn about active stock trading (day-trading vs. short-term vs. buy-hold, long and short selling, technical analysis vs. fundamental analysis, etc.). You don't have to be an expert but at least have a good idea about these things. And then, assess yourself as to what level of risk you can take, how much money you can set aside for this, how much work you want to put into it. After that, you'll have a better idea of what you want to do. You might end up putting a monthly contribution to an index fund because you're young, a long-term investor, and don't really have much time to actively trade. Or you might end up having a brokerage account and be looking at charts, trends, p-e ratios, etc. because you have time and might like doing that and want to actively trade stocks. It's best to learn some stuff about investing and about yourself first before you do the actual dive. Good luck!</p>
<p>I'd like to tell you what I know, but the less people know,the better it is for those who do.</p>
<p>ya can feel free to PM me if you have general questions, i'm fairly experienced at investing.</p>