Should I invest or not?

Question

I have about $300. Should I invest it even though I'm low funded? I opened a brokerage account and the commission is 14.50. I havent funded it yet. I will contribute about $100 a month. What I would do is just add up money to my account and when I have enough I will invest it. This is for the long term, maybe about 40 years, since I'm 18.

Answer 1

$300 is not too little to start investing with.  In fact, it's better that you start investing as early as possible.  However, $14.50 is way too high for commission rates.  If you are investing with very little money, the last thing you need is high commission rates to eat up at your, already very small, profits.  I don't know what brokerage firm you are using, but I do know that you really should get out of there.

I currently use Firstrade ( http://www.firstrade.com/ ).  They're rate is only $6.95, making them cheaper than the big name brokers such as Scottrade, Etrade, Ameritrade, and Schwab.  Their website is also very easy to use, making them perfect for beginners.  I would definitely recommend you to check them out.

However, I would not recommend Zecco.  First of all, you will need at least a $2,500 deposit to take advantage of their 10 free trades a month.  Second, their website is very hard to use, and not recommended for beginners.

Answer 2

why not? If it was me I'd get CD's until I had 1000. I would not pay that much for a commision, there are cheaper out there.

Answer 3

You need to start a savings account that has 3 to 6 months living expenses in it.  then you can decide how to invest.  I wouldn't jump into anything and I certainly wouldn't do anything on line at this point.  As you get older and more savy about investing  you should to go something like Scott Trade or a known on line broker.  There are many good books about investing.  Susie Orman has some but it is kind of geared for women and I don't know if you are a boy or a girl. You are very wise in starting to save now by the time you retire you should have plenty of moeny to have a good retirement

Answer 4

You should save money before you invest.  But your young so go for it.  Check out my blog for some ideas.  I've been investing for a long time believe me it can be tough.  I lost over 45,000 before I started really making money.  Now I'm 30 and retired.  You can do it too.  But make an effort to learn how to do it the right way.  Check out my blog.  http://unbiasedstockanalysis.blogspot.co...  post comments and click on a few ads at the bottom of the page.  Everything is free on the site.  Good luck.

Answer 5

i started with zecco.....still use it, still very happy. only ones with no fee for stock trades, and no minumums.  it took me some time to see that most of my gains were lost to the fees i paid to actually buy stock and sell it....all the others will charge you fees for trading, but compare and see for yourself!

http://friends.zecco.com/r/a7a2877caab81...