What's the best advice you can give to a first time investor?

I only have about 5k-10k to start with so I was guessing I would go with Charles Schwab being that they have lower mins. My economics teacher said index funds were the best way to go - any opinions on this? Any advice?


Thanks!What's the best advice you can give to a first time investor?
This site will help you learn proper investing principles.





http://www.saveyournestegg.com/diy.htmlWhat's the best advice you can give to a first time investor?
First. Investing in options like the last guy said is terrible advice. Options are not bad, but they are difficult and not for a beginner. 85% of options expire worthless. What you invest in depends on your goals and commitment. Stocks are good if you enjoy that type of thing and are willing to spend a lot of time learning and doing research. Index funds are good if you have less time or want a more hands off approach. Mutual funds are a lower on the list than index funds because of the higher fees. (A very well managed mutual fund is better than an index fund, but they are few and far between). Bottom of the list is CD's and bonds because of the lousy return.
Without having more information about your personal information, such as age, current income and other data such as risk tolerance, martial status, and demographics it would be very inappropriate for me or any other person to provide specific information in this type of media





There are thousands of people just like you that are, or were looking to invest and those that did buy Mutual Funds. One purpose of mutual funds is to help investors like you, who are either just entering the investment world or who have no experience investing.


Fund companies have an entire array of products many will fit your needs.


You can go to the MSN.Money website it has an entire section on mutual funds. Read about the various funds and in doing so you will be getting investment ideas and at the same time educating yourself about investing.





The cheapest broker is not always the best one that meet your needs. Try to stay with some of the larger ones, and if your buying only funds, the cost should be same regardless of what firm you use.


The only advantage of using brokerage firms for mutual fund investments is that you can invest in various fund families very economically.





Unless your teacher if very active in the market place I would not put much credence in any advice the teacher gives, especially an economics teacher. The world of academia is a lot different than reality.
Well, personally, I would stay away from mutual funds. About 75% of them under perform the market. All of them have management fees and some have sales loads. There are better options available.





May I suggest looking into DRIP Plans or ETF's.





Best of Luck
Read and research. Maybe try option trading? More leverage and especially good in volatile markets.





I decided to invest my money in a home business.





Check out my experiences (good and bad) with various home businesses http://youtube.com/watch?v=i5ZMgycKRPQ
Start with the most safe investment, and learn more about stock market. You can choose your strategy from fundamental analysis and technical analysis.
Index funds funds are safe and boring


Try and learn about the market in and outs


It really pays if you do some homework
I agree that index funds are very good way to go.





It is best to never, ever invest in any ';single stocks';. But if you cannot resist the urge to do so, invest no more than 10% of your total portfolio in single stocks. The more money you have in single stocks, the higher your risk of losing money.





Diversification is what you must always remember to do...don't put all, nor most, of your money in one place.....the more spread around it is, the lower your risk...and higher your profits.





www.morningstar.com is one of my favorite places to do research about stocks.


Also, I would go to www.daveramsey.com and read what he says about how to invest, which is to invest only in mutual funds.