The Lounge Board

Joined: 01/05/2001 Posts: 124899
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To get started, you just request a prospectus from the company.

They'll send that to you, along with an application and "deposit" slips. If you've picked your investment house, but haven't decided what funds you want to invest in, invest in their money market account. Once you're in, you can open an account with any of their funds by moving your money market cash into them, and I think this can be done with a phone call.

Some funds have a minimum required "buy in," such as $2.5K. If you don't have the cash now, keep contributing into their money market account until you do. Monthly direct deposits are also a good way to build equity.

Remember this is still considered a "liquid" investment, so if an emergency comes up and you need to take money out, they can shoot you a check or do a direct deposit back to you in a couple days. It's not like buying a bond that locks your money in for a year (or longer).

I think when I decided to start investing, I bought several financial magazines that had fund comparisons...short term & long term. I went with funds with good "long term" success.

There is also a term called "load," which is when the company charges you for their services. A lot of these small investment & insurance companies that give you a steak dinner to sell themselves usually have front loaded funds. Basically you're paying the fees "up front," so you need to keep your money in their funds for the long term in order to recoup your investment. This isn't a horrible way to go if you can't save money any other way, and you don't plan to touch it until you retire. I'm not a fan. Generally speaking I recommend looking for "no load" funds with low expenses.

Index funds are also a great idea. Since they are tied to a stock index, their expenses are low. Their money managers are not spending hours looking for which stocks to buy. They just buy stocks in that "index."

One last thing to think of is whether you want to designate this as a conventional or an IRA investment. If you put your money into an IRA, there are penalties for early withdrawal. You can still get it back fairly quickly, but you may have to pay back the taxes you saved when you deducted your contribution. You probably know the difference between a "regular" IRA and a Roth IRA.

Read everything you can before you get started! With that in mind, Here's a comparison of two of the largest investment companies:

(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)

Link: Fidelity vs. Vanguard: Which is Better Suited to You?

Posted: 07/31/2018 at 11:11AM

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Current Thread:

How does one START investing in stocks? (i.e. Facebook, Netflix, etc.) -- VTizzle 07/31/2018 10:10AM

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I got some bonds through WuTang Financial. ** -- VTDante 07/31/2018 12:38PM

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Thanks! I appreciate all of the responses. ** -- VTizzle 07/31/2018 11:44AM

Step 1: get a broker, pay them alot to lose most of your funds -- fordham 07/31/2018 11:10AM

N Korean currency futures..... -- CrystalCoveHokie 07/31/2018 10:53AM

I might go more exotic than that -- jmanatVT 07/31/2018 12:51PM

Cochrane will make his pitch for index funds shortly. -- RoswellGAHokie 07/31/2018 10:46AM

That was nice. No longer have to micro-manage my investment advice ;). ** -- CochraneResident 07/31/2018 11:13AM

Ironic that your screen name is what it is. -- 48zip 07/31/2018 11:21AM

I didn't know that, but it's so hard. So many greedy people out there with -- CochraneResident 07/31/2018 11:25AM

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E*Trade has great analytics -- HokieHutch 07/31/2018 10:45AM

Easiest is something like E-Trade -- turkeywinghokie 07/31/2018 10:44AM

I recommend buying "stock funds" instead of individual stocks -- EDGEMAN 07/31/2018 10:41AM

To get started, you just request a prospectus from the company. -- EDGEMAN 07/31/2018 11:11AM

What year is this? ** -- vtbones 07/31/2018 3:03PM

Thanks! I need to do some research before diving in. ** -- VTizzle 07/31/2018 11:44AM

My guess would be to open a brokerage account with an amount of cash to -- Brown Water 07/31/2018 10:34AM

To get started, you just request a prospectus from the company.

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