I'm new to investing. How can I get into the stock market and find some safe stocks? CNBC is too complicated

There is no such thing as a safe stock. All stocks have the potential of dropping in value. Safety is only obtained through diversification over time.

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

You know what, your honesty is your greatest reward here. Becuase so many people harbor the same sentiment as you but continue to fake their way through...all the while making huge mistakes and misleading others.
I would advise you NOT to get involved in direclty investing now until you learn the ropes a little bit. FOR ME, I started by watching MadMoney (CNBC) and reading Cramer's Books. Now I am not a die-hard fan, so this is not a plug. What his books did was break through the mist. There is some complex schemes on WallStreet and the jargon was specifically designed to keep newbies from the game. The books broke through that, and explained some key points to analysis. I then moved on to watch CNBC in the morning, while I was waking up with my coffee...it gave me a chance to list to what was going on and seek out an understanding of what i didn't understand from the morning programs.
The drive to succeed starts with the opening of a book. So I encourage you to harbor that senitment and focus on learning the ins and outs of the world you are about to partake in.
I hope this helped. If you have specific questions, drop me a line on my 360 page.

money is poor teacher,investing requires discipline.Remember one thing stock market is like flee market lots of products lots of bargaining and variety of vendors. you really have to know what are you shopping for and what are you willing to pay and why.
My best advice to a new investors set a goal to be a long term investor.Think about business that will survive the next century.then find the company that run the particular business.Once you selected the company check there sec. filings, check their earnings.who are the major share holders read related articles find if company has any litigation's or legal problems,if everything clear in your mind.wait for the right movement to buy into it.This the time when you sit tight with your money and wait for entry point.Market is fare to every body it will presents the right opportunity it self you just have to be patient.Member you are buying into a business not a ticker symbol.At end buy best of the breed,buy slowly not company,buy at the right time and buy the stocks that pays dividend.Good luck ,http://partnercnbc.blogspot.com/

Well if you'd like to practice first, go to Wall Street Survivor on the web. It's fun, free and good practice if you think you'd make it in the stock market.

I found a book that is easy to read and lays it out in pretty simple terms. It is called the: The little book that beat the market. Written by Joel Greenblatt. It is well written and has a good strategy to employ. It is not a long book nor is it boring or complicated. It should work well for you.

I remember when I was in the same boat a couple of years ago. While it might seem complicated, if you wish to invest in individual stocks there is no alternative to understanding the basics of how the stock markets work and how to read financial data. Things like P/E , revenues , net margins , EPS... these parameters have to be understood well. There are several websites and books where you can expand your knowledge.

When I started, I first looked at mutual funds (too risky to put money in one stock, especially in the current market conditions.) . Look for low expense index funds or ETFS. Fidelity and Trowe Price offer several kinds of inexpensive and well rated funds for different categories.

Good luck!

You might want to create a "practice" portfolio at http://www.top10traders.com - it's free - each month the site ranks the best performing investors.

You need to know there is no safe stock.

A lot of people thought that MCI was a safe stock (Bankrupt in 2001);

A lot of people thought that K-Mart was a safe stock (Bankrupt in 2001 - out of BK after, but prior shareholders lost all their money);

A lot of people thought that Enron was a safe stock (Bankrupt in 2001);

A lot of people thought that Adelphia (cable) was a safe stock (Bankrupt in 2002). Get the idea?

Only invest risk capital in stocks, or for retirement planning 10+ years out.

For most people, buy broad market index funds.

S&P 500 (SPY)

80% of mutual fund managers under perform the S&P. So you're likely to be 80% ahead of the pack.

1. Suggest dollar cost average. Place the same dollar amount in the fund every month. If the market has a huge down day 300-500 points at curr levels, put 1/2 of the money you intended to put in over the next 12 months.

2. Have a min 5-8 year time horizon for non retirement money. Never invest in the market money you will need in 2-3 years or less.

3. Open IRA, or Roth IRA. Contribute the max each year and on a monthly basis.

4. Max out any employers contributions each year.

5. Pay yourself first (retirement). Use the rest of your earnings to pay the bills.

100% Safety: US Treasury Bills ($1000 min). Federally tax free, Guaranteed by US government.

Good Luck!

--See my bio (18 years in the biz)

hello,always invest into the sensex or nifty stocks,because they are the safest.Always invest for a longer period.In sensex reliance industry & suzlon are the best picks.Buy them at any level for minimum 1 year & you get maximum return on your investment.

Consider starting of small. If you have a bank account with a major bank ask them about investing look into mutual funds. They are very low risk and have good interest rates and if you have online banking it's fun to watch your money grow. If stocks is your thing than do your research and consider seeing a stock broker. The best place to start would be with your bank. They will be ready and willing to answer all your questions regarding investing.

You should start with a basic book on investing.

There is a reason that finance professionals make big money. It is not easy. There are no safe stocks. Every stock has risk and you need to have at least a basic understanding of that risk. If you want safety then you should stick with treasury bills or money market funds.

Some stocks that may not fluctuate much would include companies that are in defensive industries but you really need an understanding of the business. Don't invest in companies that you don't understand. Keep it simple.

Read annual reports and pay attention to the notes.

You should learn how to read an annual report if you want to invest in stocks. Beware (run in the other direction) if anyone guarantees anything in terms of investments. It's illegal for one and unethical for another. No one can predict the future.

There are 2 kinds of risk: Systematic (Market) and Unsystematic (specific to company and industry).

Be careful

rising interest rates are bad for stocks

Also Baby boomers are starting to retire and will be pulling money out

so what is important is

At 7.2% your money doubles every 10 years

so as rates rise people will prefer CD"s at 7% over the risk of the stock Market

Now is the time to watch and learn if you wait you can buy stocks cheap when interest rates Peak

check out moneycontrol.com ... and join the yahoo groups "ways2gain" ...this a very experienced group of investors in india...

just go to google and try and look it up to find out if there is any other thing you can do in your area

Invest in foreign currency.. Ours is plummeting. Right now a 15% return in $ means a loss. Find a broker w/ international experience and tell him you need international diversification. (I love this country too, but going down with the ship is not patriotic. This is retirement for you and your family do not be hard headed and consider this advise carefully.)

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