I wanted to start investing but know nothing about it?help!?

Congratulations on getting started. Itâ€™ll help you more than you know!

Your first dollars should be spent on getting educated on investing. You don't have to train to trade them professionally, but we are talking about your future here. So the more you learn, the more it'll help you! So let's start there.

You ask a very broad question, so be prepared for a pretty long answer. Just take it in chunks!

How to invest depends on what you already know. We'll assume that you're beginning!

A good primer is How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neil. You can get it cheap just about anywhere. Itâ€™s widely available new or used.

Another good one is one of Jim Cramer's books like Real Money (heâ€™s got a few).

But books will only get you so far. At some point, you'll also want to get at least a little training. There are some great education companies if you want to make the investment. Investools.com or optionetics.com are both very good companies as is tmitchell.com

For free, you can start by visiting thestreet.com and investopedia.com. That'll get you a pretty good primer so at least you'll understand what the markets are and what a stock is, etc.

If you get a chance, watch Mad Money on CNBC. Don't trade any of his picks until you track many of them over time. Just use the show to get you to understand some basics and get a feel for the market itself.

Next, subscribe to something like Investorsbusiness daily or something like that that can help you identify good stocks.

Once you understand stocks, go to 888options.com. It's a website that'll help you understand options (what they do, how they work, etc). You don't need to trade them, but the more you know, the more you'll see how options can really be the safest way to invest (once you're educated).

For discipline (which is crucial to successful trading), probably Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas or Mastering the Trade by John Carter

I know thatâ€™s a LOT to absorb. Just take it one step at a time for now. Start with a book or two to give you an idea of where to begin. Take your time, and let it seep in.

As you get up to speed, you should papertrade to practice (highly recommended). This should help reduce your losses in the beginning as you get used to buying/selling.

You can practice for free on almost any reputable broker site (optionsxpress, scottrade, thinkorswim, etc). And yes, you can definitely deal easily online.

Start slow, then as you figure things out, you can buy more shares.

Congrats again on getting started. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Hope this helps!

First you need to start an account with a company like Schwab, Scottrade, Vanguard, or T. Rowe Price. The kind of account depends on what you are saving for. If retirement then a Roth IRA, college, then a 529 Plan, or for long-term savings with stocks, then just a regular stock account. After filling out a application, you send in the money, and it goes to your account. Then you get to pick what you want to invest in.

For a younger person it is better to be more aggesive in investing, so invest in stocks rather than CDs or bonds, and maybe mutual funds. Mutual funds are more diversified yet they usually don't make as much if you do proficient research for stocks.

So what do you want to look for when buying stocks from a company? Look into different companies that you know that you think do well, sell good products and have room for growth. Once you do that, look at the history of how the stock has done. Also look at the recent new, the ratings, more on what the company does, and what others say about it. Then when you narrow it out to a few companies that you know a good amount about, watch them some before you buy them, and see how it responds towards the recent new about them.

If you really don't have time and don't want to keep looking into new companies and you just want to forget about it, then you'll never get the full potential, but mutual funds will be a little better for that situation.

More on a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is a retirement account where taxes are payed before hand. You can take the money out at 59 1/2 or later tax free. Otherwise you will be penalized 10%. However you can take out any money you put in at any time, just not the interest.

Read Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson.

First of all, I think that's really great, especially if you're as young as your Avatar!

I'm no expert, but I got my initial education by reading magazines-Kiplinger's and Money Magazine especially. I read the hard copies, but I'm sure they have websites too.

Banks sometimes have people who can offer advice, but be careful, their main interest is often in selling their own products so they can make a commission.

As the person above wrote, investing is dependent on many variables. If you're young, healthy and can leave the money in for a long time (ten years or more), I'd definitely go with no-load (no commission) stock mutual funds. They're managed by professional money managers who invest in a large group of stocks, minimizing your risk of losing alot of money if one stock loses value. And they don't require a large initial investment (some as low as $25 or $50).

Whatever you choose, good luck.

Since I help people with their finances ( I have a series 6, 63 , and 7 securities license as well as insurance licenses) I would love to help you, but I need to know WAY more than we have space for here.
Starters include age, income, lifestyle, dependents, job, health, avocations, family needs, inheritances, ad nauseum.
If you feel inclined, please e mail me back.

Watch "Mad Money with Jim Cramer" @ 6pm or 9pm on CNBC

Also, go to CNBC.com and enter the contest where you use fake money to buy and sell real stocks. This is good practice and will build confidence in starting your own porfolio with your own real money.

PS contest begins March 5th. Try it. it'll be fun.

Open a brokerage account at Zecco.

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