I'm looking to start learning about how to invest in the stock market, any tips on where to start?

Honestly, I have NO idea what I might be getting myself into, but I'm looking to start doing a little investing. I'm 20 years old and don't really have much money right now, only what I've earned on my internship, so I'm not looking for anything crazy. Really what I'm looking for is maybe some online text that I can read. Maybe some good site that offer free simulated investing? thanks..

Standard investment advice is that you should invest in a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You want to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks as individual stocks are too risky. Most folks have a dificult time buying a properly balanced portfoilio of stocks on their own. They will misbalance their portfolio by buying all small stocks or all growth stocks, or some other misbalanced assortment of stocks. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best to buy mutual funds. I like Vanguard.com, other people like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, and DFA. Buy no-load, low cost funds. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money aggressively in stock funds, and part conservatively in money market funds and bond funds. Vanguard.com has an on-line questionnaire which will give you an idea of how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of fund.

If your company offers a 401K plan at work, try to invest the most you can. The money grows tax free, and some companies will match your contribution. Investing in a mutual fund IRA is also a good idea. If you have children, you may want to consider a 529 plan or other college savings plan that grows tax free.

I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund. However, there are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and form your own opinion.

If you have high-interest debt, like credit cards, it is best to pay this off first before trying most of the investment ideas above. You should also have 3-6 months of salary saved up as an emergency fund in a bank or money market fund before trying more risky investments.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

Sources:

http://www.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation
http://www.fool.com/school.htm
http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetallocation.htm
http://www.diehards.org/readsites.htm
http://finance.yahoo.com/education/begin_investing
http://finance.yahoo.com/funds/basics

Asset Allocation Calculators
(Determining how much to put in stocks and how much into bonds and money markets is a personal decision depending on your financial status. These Asset Allocation questionaires give you a rough idea how to do this. I like Vanguard best, but try some of the other sites as well.)
https://personal.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/FundsInvQuestionnaire?cbdInitTransUrl=https%3A//flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation/education
https://ais2.tiaa-cref.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects.exe/DTAssetAlcEval
http://www.ifa.com/SurveyNET/index.aspx

Web forum: http://www.diehards.org/
(Many investment web forums are overrun by scam artists. This one seems the most legitimate site.)

529 plans: http://www.savingforcollege.com

Learn to both trade and invest. It's the only way.

www.beanieville.blogspot.com

Jim Cramer's 'Sane Investing in an Insane World' was what i used to learn about the stock market. I think it's the best book to start with. Although you probably should have somewhat of a basic knowledge of stocks before reading this book.. you can probably type in stocks in answers.com and then go ahead and by the book.

It's great that at your age you're interested in investing because the earlier you start the faster you'll be to achieving financial freedom. The fact that you don't have much money to invest is ok, there are stock simulations at www.investopedia.com that you can play and practice how to invest. With your investopedia account you should practice investing into stocks because stocks can give you great returns. Investing in stocks is not that hard either, all you have to do is find companies that you understand and love. Companies like Apple and Google have been great investments because young people like you love and use their products. After you save enough money, you can start investing and making great returns.

If you want to learn more about investing you should check out these websites,
http://financiallyhip.blogspot.com
http://www.fool.com
http://finance.yahoo.com

Stock simulation,
http://simulator.investopedia.com

Read the following, in order:
"Investing For Dummies"
"Stock Investing For Dummies"

There are on-line investing tutorials at morningstar.com and investopedia.com, among other places.

Below are some sites that offer information on personal financial planning and investment.

I have been in your situation before. What I did was to start accumulating capital and most importantly, improve my financial literacy. Because it takes a long time to build up knowledge in personal financial investing and planning.

Hope the information is useful.

The Motley Fool is a great website for investing and financial planning information. They have some sections about basic investing that might help you. Investopedia also has a lot of information. You could also just talk to someone at your local bank branch- banks can do a lot of the same investment accounts that brokerage houses can do.

What you want to do though is start with savings in a money market or just plain savings account. When you have a cushion in liquid funds built up in there, then start investing in something else. What you don't want is to need the money quickly, and have it all invested in the market. If the market happens to be down when you need the money, you're out of luck.

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