<p>Ok, so I am not yet a college student, but I will be soon and I am interested in business and investing. I'm sorry if this doesn't have to do with "college life" but I have always gotten good advice at CC so I thought I would try. I have about $1500 and I would like to start investing it... stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, other stuff.... I really have no idea. </p>
<p>Does anybody already play around with their money and put it in investments? I am willing to take some risks but I want to be smart about this. Let me know how you got started and if you have any suggestions for me. How would you invest $1000 - $1500?</p>
<p>I, too, am intrested in this. I would recommand a book on the subject for college students. And I'd talk to a bank person about investing. I'd also post thiis in the parent's fourm.</p>
<p>your money is worth so much more to you now then it will be when you are 5-10 years older. you would have to be a top notch investor to make it pay off and keep your money at the same "value" to you, if that makes any sense. </p>
<p>if it didnt, consider how much $1500 would be worth when you were 10. now consider how much it will be worth after a few years with a paying job of $50,000+</p>
<p>if you want to get into investing for the fun of it, with higher risks but also bigger payoffs, consider penny stocks.</p>
<p>if you are still interested in traditional investments, i reccomend finding a stock trading forum, they are likely to have a beginners section with helpful faq's and the like.</p>
<p>1500 isnt much for stocks... Unless youre going for penny stocks. Mutual funds might work but if you only have 1500 you may end up paying a lot more in brokerage fees than it worth to do it...</p>
<p>I've had bonds since I was born. My grandparents bought me bonds for the first nine years of my life with the intent of using these for college. I got more financial aid and grants than I expected so I'll be using only about a third of those bonds. Given the fact I'll be staying at my place and driving an already paid off car for a while, I'll use whatever salary money I get from my first teaching job to go to grad school over the summers/nights (the school may even cover some of that, I'm not sure). That will leave those bonds to mature further. By the time I have a master's, I'll probably be tenured so my salary will increase then. I'll subsequently use salary money for a new Volvo and also look into getting my own house (my mom will be getting pretty old by then anyway and will probably want to sell the place). The bonds will have matured further and if I get a small house in a neighborhood right outside of the city I'll have a decent down payment.</p>
<p>The only reason any of this would change is if I got married, but given the lack of nice girls out there today that may not happen...</p>
<p>As far as other investments go, I have a few old coins and this old Apple computer that I've been told is worth some money (the thing's like 20 years old but it looks brand new and is in its box with all the books and disks). I don't have any art, but my uncle does and used a $10K Warhol painting to pay off debts due to over a year of unemployment. (Personally I'd love to get a Lichtenstein painting for my basement...but that's not going to happen given my budget).</p>
<p>As long as a ten year old Volvo 850 can last me another 9-10 years (it only has 63,000 or so on it, plus I drive under 5000 annually) I'll be fine with this plan.</p>
<p>Wow, you got your whole life laid out in front of you. That scares me, but kudos on the plan. I am 17, and know nothing, but I think it should all work out. And if not I'll just move to mexico and open a juice bar.</p>
<p>you're only young once. remember that, and spend freely :)</p>
<p>at 17, i thought 1500 was a lot of money, now its chump change :)</p>
<p>honestly 1500 is not enough to invest in anything substantial so don't think too much on it. I just put 5,000 in a stock portfolio that i will be looking after.</p>
<p>Unless you really know what you are doing and can keep close tabs while in college, you should not plan on being an "active" investor in stocks, etc., during college. Better to look into "mutual funds." There are many including large families like Fidelity, Dreyfus, Vanguard, Janus etc. which have funds where you can start with the amount you have. Large fund groups have various kinds of funds from low risk to high risk that you can choose from and should read their prospectus (on-line for any you look up) to see what it does and level of risk involved. The other options include CD's (but you can find bank money market accounts paying a higher percentage than many of those right now), and savings bonds. Going the mutual fund route means you really intend to keep the money in the fund for quite some time and if you are looking to use that $1500 in the next three to four years, the CD or money market route is safer.</p>
<p>Also, if you don't know, a mutual fund is a professional investing organization that takes in huge amounts (many have in the billions) from millions of investors and then invests that in stocks, bonds, etc. on behalf of all those investors.</p>
<p>best way to go is the stock market. you can't really invest in a business with such little money. stocks, on the other hand, are risky investments that could go up or down, but there are ways to strategically pick stocks based on press releases, takeovers, etc. Also, there are options you can play but it just gets more and more complicated from there.</p>
<p>Yeah, I invest in the stock market and actually do a lot of research in it to get published on a lot of websites. I would suggest reading my website for some good stock options (Investment banks, financials, oil) but I already got banned once from advertising it. If you need any help picking out stocks feel free to shot me a pm or email.</p>
<p>I'd just like to throw out that you should probably stay away from the foreign exchange markets. You aren't going to make any money through arbitrage (buying in one market and immediately selling in another), and just buying foreign currency you're most likely going to be shooting in the dark.</p>
<p>However if you wanted to go this root, Iraqi currency might be the way to go. $1500 isn't that much to lose long term, but the potential for profit would be huge. On the other hand, I'm not sure Iraqi currency is recognized everywhere right now, so this is kind of a fishy idea. Anyway, a large risk.</p>
<p>This really needs to be said: Index Funds. </p>
<p>For 95% of people, the best way to invest is simply index funds. Most managed funds don't beat index fund returns with their fees, very few of them (<10%) will beat it over a 20 year period. </p>
<p>Of course, you should add bond funds + money markets accounts so you don't go broke, because newsflash, stocks are risky. </p>
<p>That and Roth IRA + 401k's are pretty much all most people need to know.</p>
<p>lol, soccerguy there is such a thing as inflation tax (or something like it). otherwise there would be tons of people buy and selling currency to make money off inflation.</p>
<p>bruinboy, when there is more money in the economy today than yesterday, there is inflation. When there are the same amount of goods in the economy today that there were yesterday, each good will cost more because there is more money fighting for the same amount of goods. This is also part of the reason that exchange rates constantly change (well, most of them).</p>
<p>Check out how the people in Argentina felt about their hyper-inflation a few years ago. I assure you they didn't feel rich. One day a gallon of gas costs $10, and the next it costs $75.</p>