I'm a college student and a newbie at investing and could use some advice...?

I'd like to start an IRA and a stock portfolio and am wondering where to have my accounts at? Schwab? Fidelity? I need low-cost services due to being a student. Thanks for any help.

First create a financial plan of where you want to be in 20 years (retired or well off or whatever). Then design how to do this without causing undue financial burden.

Now for the account, open an online one with very low costs to trade (buy).

SOmeting a lot of people do is buy stocks and then sell when they go up a little and then buy again etc. BUt each transaction costs. Doesn't matter if buying or selling it costs.

SO the plan should be to buy and hold. But what to buy. Here's an idea. Buy only those stocks in companies that have staying power, that you know and everyone uses the products and that pay a dividend. So a food company (everybody eats), a natural gas distribution company (other gas companies buy their services), a personal products (how many don't buy toothpaste or deoderant) and such things.

NOw about the dividends. This is money they pay you as a stock holder. NOt a lot but remember that it is money coming to you. So if all your stocks pay it to you, you have extra money coming in to help buy more stocks.

Now a minimum of $200 per month (evey month without fail) to buy, the added income from the dividends (adds up over time) and when the stocks go down in price, buy more (very important) and hold..... never sell until you are retired and just want the cash. Now a decent portfolio of over half million should give you a dividend income of 30000 a year (more or less depending on how much they pay). NOw when you sell in retirement you only pay tax one time not every time each year you sell. So only pay tax on one sale. You'll actually come out ahead of someone who sells every year. You'll wait longer for your money. Buy only selling once you will come out better off than the guy who bought and sold every year as he paid more in taxes and fees than you. Further he probably didn't worry about money coming in as it seemed too low of an amount, but it's money to you.

Something to think about.

vanguard has a very succesful record among mutual funds
and to the best of my knolwdge all of their funds are no load
funds, meaning no commission to you.

Since you're a student, the answer is simple.. STUDY!

My best choices are Investing for Dummies and Jim Cramer's books..

After that, Barron's, Investors Business Daily and the Wall St Journal.

Educate before you invest !

I normally dig a big hole in the ground and hide my tasty treats. It always works for me......

As stated by someone previously, DRIPs are good but perhaps a little difficult to navigate if you're brand new to investing.

I'd suggest sharebuilder.com. They only cost $4 to trade a stock and are made for new investors. They're owned by ING which is a big non-US bank (Swedish?), so they're totally legit.

When you purchase stock, you typically need enough to buy at least one share (i.e. if a share costs $75, you need at least $75 to buy a share of stock). With sharebuilder you can actually purchase A PERCENTAGE of stock, so if you've only got say $50, you can still buy that $75 stock and begin to build a portfolio. They're also oriented towards long term focused, newbie investors. Plus sometimes they run promotions for an extra $25 they deposit in your account upon account opening, so be sure to ask about that.

It's how I started years ago and it works very well.

buy waffles lots and lots of waffles

First - don't invest in individual stocks, especially if you are a new investor. You need to educate yourself - investing without knowledge can be extremely expensive.
I would suggest Vanguard Star fund -$1,000 minumum, no commission, invests in large, small and international funds and bond funds.
As a student you probably are in a low tax bracket so a Roth IRA is probably best.
I recommend you go to the web site below and browse the questions or join and ask a question you might have. They also have a good reading list. One good book for beginners is the Boglehead's guide to investing. by the founder of Vanguard and of index funds.

Hard to beat Fidelity for ease of use for your situation.

May i suggest:

Go to : low-cost-stock-recommendations

.com

Click on the "DRIP's" Button on the navigation Bar

Check these Dividend Reinvestment Plans out.....they are safe and give double-digit returns over the long term

Also, click on the ad on the same page. It is for "ING Inc."
They have the lowest, that I am aware of, means of purchasing stocks.

These plans are great.

Good Luck

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