I can't be your broker. You will probably loose your money by using a broker anyways :lol:. They charge you a nice amount when you buy and sell even if you're loosing money. I used to charge $100 for every transaction or 5% which ever was higher. Check out the best online place that suits you and begin your research. One advice and I'll say it again, bet on good companies with solid returns and look for the ones with plenty of cash on hand. I like companies that pays dividends and what ever online service you choose ask them about DRIPs (DRPs) Dividend Reinvestment Plans or DPPs Direct Purchase Plans (It gets very complicated, but it's good to ask questions). This might be the best advice I'll give you that will not make you loose money if the market plays nice. I know Finnster and others will help out as well.

Go to vegas.... put it all on red and then close your eyes and pray!!! LOL


I'm kidding of course. But like everyone says... dont invest what you cant afford to loose. The stock market with a fixed timeline like you are describing may not be a great idea. If the market turns down and you are forced to withdraw then you will be forced to take the loss. You need to have time to ride out the lows and have enough dicipline to sell while you are up to realize your gains. I know people that made alot of money in the market (or so they thought) only to ride the market all the way back down and actually wind up behind where they started. The whole time they thought it would come back but then their time ran out and they needed the money and were forced to get out. Its like educated gambling with the main difference being that the longer you invest, the more likely you are to come out ahead and with gambling the longer you play the more likely you are to loose becasue the odds are against you.

So short term.... put it on red or a big hand of blackjack! LOL

Long term... pick some solid investments, diversify your holdings and dont get stuck in the loop of checking how your money is doing 10 times a day. Think big picture and long term.


EDIT: If you can figure out away to start stashing just 10% of the money you make and investing it for the long term you will be way ahead come the time you are 30, 40,50,60! With investing time is your friend. The longer you have money invested the longer it has to grow and come the time when you want to retire that $1000 you invested when you were 19 will look mighty nice. If you can average 7% anual return on your investments (which historicaly you should be able to manange) the money will double every 7 years so theoretically that $1000 now could be $16,000+ when you are ready to retire and start using it.

EDIT AGAIN: Now if you want to see the real power, invest the amount you invested the prior year plus 7% more each year, and do that for the next 41 years and by the time you are 60 years old you will have over $650,000 dollars! All that from starting with your first $1000 now and some dicipline to keep at it over the years.

START NOW! I wish I had started at your age. Time is your friend, and it runs out faster than you think.

Whenever I need cash, I just pickup on crack dealing and stop whenever I get what I need. Pays bills nicely, you should try it. Remember, be the nice crack dealer, not the scary one. Scares all the suburb kids when you do that. Make sure to smile when you're there too, they like that.

Crack really? I'm more of a ex dealer
everyone who pops ex is happy and as long as your
cliental is happy your happy ;)


I'll reply to everyone else later I'm on my phone right now and it's
difficult to quote n stuff

thanks for all your replies
I got alot of research to do

Wow. If one could make real hard cash selling crack, everybody would be doing it. If crack dealers were smart enough and knew how much money real investors make, they would stop selling crack in a heart beat. I don't invest for myself anymore, but I do it for another person. I'm a poor bastard just to make sure that person is set for life. That person makes more in a day then many crack dealers make in a year. Smart money will always beat illegal money. Lets try and keep this about stocks and helping one invest in his future. It that was a joke, it needed some of these: :lol::rofl::whistle::party::na:.

Better? :mdr:

I read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-You...2916714&sr=8-2

Basically goes to say that we are headed for a "mega-depression" which will last 20 years once the US$ and debt bubble pops within 1-3 years time. This is the author's 2nd book after the 1st book, which was published in 2006, accurately predicted the fiasco which happened 2008-2009. Opinions?

I told a few people about this, but I'm hoping it doesn't happen. At the moment it seems that foreign investors are flocking to the Brasilian market and if our Government doesn't stop them, they'll drive the Brasilian economy to the ground. I hope Brasil doesn't depend only on the BOVESPA. I find it funny how the industry just fired people here in the US based on the stock market and then we see many companies posting nice profits, but they're not calling people back to work. If the US wants to export more, it needs to hire more. So I'm hoping it doesn't get really bad.

man you make it sound so easy! are you talking about CD investments or long term stocks or what?

i would like to start saving like you mentioned because i would love to retire at 50 with a few hundred thousand in savings.



so it sounds as if right now the stock market is not the wisest decision.. i have a few other tricks up my sleeve in how to use my money.. nothin terribly illegal :whistle:

anyways i appreciate all the help!

If you do your homework you can make some $$$. I was going to mention a risky stock to you, but if it went down, I would've felt bad. The best thing is to do your research on good companies that pays dividends. Keep them for as long as you can and you should retire in good shape. The market might go down again, so you should play carefully. I know a lot of guys that makes a good chuck of change day trading, but it can be very addicting specially if you're making money. Try and keep out of the Pinksheets, OTC or Penny stocks. The company I was going to mention was GM or MTLQQ which was somewhat low and going down everyday, but the news came out with the new GM battery factory that started production, the stock went up. You can make some money there, but you can also loose it all if the company you invest in gets out. A good example can be found in the stock game a few of us are playing. I bought some CIT thinking it would stay there for a while, but man I was wrong. Lost a good amount of money there.

thanks for the info luciano

No problem. Look around a other types of things that can give you a nice return such as High Yield Bond, ETFs and a few others can give you solid returns.

In one sense its a great time to be in the market as there is a lot of volitility, and you need moving prices to make money. OTOH there is a lot going on and you need to be careful on what you buy/invest in, as there are sharp gains up as well as down.

I think one of the biggest lessons to be learned in all this is one has to be vigilant and really watch their investments. I believe I read the avg return for many mutual funds over the last 1yrs is 2%. Granted things were way up, and now way down, but if you were planning to retire soon, like a number of baby boomers, a number of them are going into retirement with decimated retirement accounts that they may not have the time to wait out for the rebound back up. OTOH, don't count on having pensions from your job (they are nearly extinct) and I'm not counting on SS to fund my retirement either. Who knows what shape it will be in in 40 yrs.

So, you have to look out for yourself. The earlier you start the better off you will be and will have the benefit of time to recover from mistakes. Don't get too caught up in trends (usually doing the opposite of the crowd or your instincts/emotions is better ironically,) don't be too risky, but don't be so timid you never make up making any money either.
Seriously. So many people never save any money, get to retirement age and realize they are going to be broke. The avg baby boomer is retiring w/ savings = to less than a yr's worth of their working salary. Maybe I should invest in Fancy Feast, as a lot of these bitches are gonna be eating a lot of cat food.

Finnster is correct. Listen to him.

One thing to look for when you're doing your research is if the company you invest in is buying back their stock. That is a sign the stock is very cheap and there's good money to be made. When you sign up with a good online trading place they offer tools that lets you see how large the blocks of stocks being bought or sold are. The larger it is tells you a big investor, institution or any of the market makers are going to move the stock up or down. Like Finnster said, sometimes doing the opposite is good specially when the stock is going down, but the company is buying back their shares. I don't follow anyone and go one guts alone. I will sit on a stock forever up or down until I feel the need to get rid of it. I might even buy more when it's down or have a feeling it's going up by how the market is feeling. Green is all the hype now and it might stay for a while until it's bubble bursts.

thanks guys ^^

heres a question.. looking into the high yield bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs it seems that all charts shown give a given 10000 dollar investment.

is this just the typical number invested or is this what is needed?