Instead of rehashing posts on topics like religion, Sarah Palin, Fox vs MSNBC, how about something a bit light and hopefully non-partisan like investing. What is your respective investing philosophy today? Do you like specific stocks, sectors, prefer mutual funds, ETF's, commodities, or do you prefer shorting stocks and indexes? We could all use a little extra money for our favorite hobby.

I don't trust or understand the market. I am financially conservative and prefer CDs, Bonds, Money Market. You're a young guy compared to most of the posters. How are you planning for your future, other than your govt job and expected pension and SS?

The one thing I wish our secondary education would focus on is basic understanding of finances. Getting kids ready for college, workforce, future, whatever.

Wish I knew enough to answer intelligently.

I've looked into commodities and options trading, but still haven't quite got the hang of them (paper trading only, not real green stuff). As for the rest, I haven't found a local company yet who'll help anyone unless you have at least $10K up front to invest.

I'm all ears and eyes on this one St. Croix! Care to be a teacher?

If you are a novice, I would avoid commodities and options for now. Commodities are much more volatile than stocks, and options trading is very complex.

Just a couple simple things you can do to start. First, even if you only have $1K or $5K, you can open an account with Fidelity, TD Ameritrade or Scottrade. They are discount brokerages. You can temporarily hold your money in a CD, Money Market, just like a bank while you learn and get comfortable. All have online educational information about stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and the like. Second, drive over to Barnes and Noble. Grab a cup of coffee and loiter at their magazine rack. Start reading Kiplinger, Money, Smart Money, Fortune, etc. to get a feeling about investing. Also a great place to meet guys.

There a few investing books you can look into to help understand the process and lingo. But most important is to take your time and start very very small by buying a few shares of a specific company. Your in Oregon, maybe a local Oregon company like Nike. But once you buy the education doesn't stop as you need to stay on top of your stocks by reading annual reports, 10Ks 10-Qs, etc.

Hope this helps as a start

Most of those magazines - and the educational info on the sites - speak in a jargon that's just enough over my head to be frustrating. Even their glossaries are difficult. I understand maybe one in eighteen concepts.

Setting aside meeting guys (thank you for that tip that I can use immediately!), which ONE magazine or ONE book would you recommend for rock-bottom newbies learning the language of investing? If I can comprehend the one, I'll be on my way to making sense of the rest.

mutual funds (how there's far more sinking companies in them than is reasonably healthy for a good stock portfolio) and corporate bonds (can you say Enron?) scares me as badly as watching the real estate go south and the banks treating customers like collateral damage.

One of the eighteen concepts I actually get...

As I told St. Croix above, I need to learn the language first. Nike notwithstanding, I want to learn to understand what I'm reading or looking at before I actually do anything.

1. If you have only $10,000 to invest, you should not only avoid commodities and certainly options as St. Croix says but probably stocks as well if you plan to pay for stock picking advice. The reason - transaction costs will kill you unless your adviser lucks into a real winner.

     2. Mutual funds are the place to be for the beginner and the Vanguard Index 5000 is the fund of choice bc it has the lowest "cost ratio" - i.e., what you effectively pay the mutual fund company -of all funds short of the Vanguard Admiral Funds which require a $100,000 minimum.

       3. But do not invest at all if there is any chance you are going to need that money in the next five years. Put it in the index today and in five years you'll probably average  5 to  7% per year unless we have a repeat of the last decade in which case you will be flat.

    Diversification? The experts "yes" but I say "no" with only $10,000. The index is diversified enough for a beginner and splitting into three funds pretty much guarantees you will not make any money, though it reduces the risk that you will lose it as well.


      And watch Fast Money at 5:00 on CNBC to learn and get excited about what you can do with you have ore disposable funds.

Good advice . Some of y'all know more about it then me and I would add looking for a good solid stock that pays a good dividend.

http://www.smartmoney.com/
I like the real magazine but this site is very informative.

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First, "Investing for Dummies". Yep, that little yellow book. It's easy to read and great for the beginner. Second a classic, and still my favorite, "The Millionaire Next Door".

Just take your time, have fun, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

add "Dollar Cost Averaging". Never ever invest all at once. If you select a diversified low cost Vanguard fund like marikod suggests, make contributions over time. Why? Stocks go up and stocks go down. If they go down, you can buy additional shares at a lower cost thus reducing your cost basis. So, there are two important terms you will learn at the outset - Dollar Cost Averaging and Cost Basis.

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Although they are way too mainstream and simplistic for my tastes, it is a great start for a novice to learn the basics.

One further word of advice, many "financial planners" are nothing more than salesman, usually former insurance salesman, who get licensed and use the license as a platform to generate commissions. Do your homework before hiring anyone to plan your future.

don't take advice from "non professionals" like Willie. I know his intentions are good, but take it from me, he has no business giving financial advice until he learns the basics himself.

His statement about mutual funds is a prime example. Most mutual funds are simply a basket of stocks run by a fund manager, if you are averse to the stock market, mutual funds are not where you want to be.

Another thing I would avoid are bonds. Bond prices trade inversely to interest rates. Most people will agree that we are in a rising interest rate climate right now. If interest rates rise, the price of bonds will plummet.

Financial advice is like legal advice, get it from a professional, BTW I am a professional, and wise enough not to give off the cuff advice on where a neophyte should put her money without knowing a lot more about her situation.

I don't have $10,000; I said no one I've spoken to will even give me the time of day without it. I don't even have $1K that I can invest with yet.

However, since I do have the interest (no pun intended), and I have the time, and I'm building my savings in order to invest, I'm jumping with joy that someone is willing (lots of someones, thank you!) to help me figure it out.

Thank you.

dividend (or did when I bought it last summer) that is rock solid.

      Because it is a regulated utility, the income flow is always there for the DD and the stock trades between 12 and 21 based on the fortunes of its coal subsidiary. Up 80% from the March low Buy any time it drops under $14.

but their fortunes over the last year or two seem to mirror those of the underlying energy prices, but with about a three month lag.

Given these lagging indicators, a person might conclude that with oil prices rebounding nicely over the last week or two, the stock should enjoy a nice bounce for the next couple of months. Remember, I said "might conclude" lol