I finally got tired of getting .02% interest on the money I have saved, so I recently opened a self-directed investment account online for the money I can spare for now.

I bought stocks with it, and I've done pretty well so far. I just invested the money a week ago today so it's really to early to tell right now, but so far I've gained almost 3%

Does anybody else have any experience with investing? I'm curious to know

Yeah, {^#%* are a sound investment.
Solid demand, high turnover and }>¥ free.

Sure beats .02 %.

Don't look short-term, think big picture. It'll usually rebound well. Don't freak when things tumble, just stay put. Obvoiusly don't stay if it's the company failing, but if it's a general downturn, ride it out if able.

Do your homework each week (CNBC's Jim Cramer says about an hour a week for each stock you own if memory serves). Adjust as necessary, but don't jump to conclusions.

DIVERSIFY! One tech, one healthcare, one agriculture, one manufacturing, one transportation. Or whatever flavors you like.

Watch sectors more than individual corporations. Watch sectors that relate to the sectors that that stock are in.

Buy more if you can on low points to average your position down.

REINVEST THE DIVIDENDS! If you do it right, you'll eventually make in dividends what you put in and then you'll be playing with the house's money.

Also, don't own any (or as little as possible) stock of the company that you work for - why take a double whammy if they go under - you lose your income AND your savings!

Quote from dekojester :

Also, don't own any (or as little as possible) stock of the company that you work for - why take a double whammy if they go under - you lose your income AND your savings!

You know, as true as this is I know a lot of people who do exactly this .

It's basically a form of online gambling these days and you know what happens with gambling, in the end you always lose.

Good luck.

Ignore cargame.

You will however lose if you're not prepared to put the effort in and / or you're not financially savvy enough to interpret the data and advice that you research. Don't forget that your investments don't take a holiday when you do.

There are many diversified funds you can put the money into for a managed investment. There are fees on those (say 1.5%pa for the fund itself and then 1.5%pa on the funds that it invests into), but they are professionally managed.

If you think you can consistently get to within 3%pa of the professional diversified funds and you can spend the time then go for it. Otherwise, consider professional management.

Quote from cargame.nl :

It's basically a form of online gambling these days and you know what happens with gambling, in the end you always lose.

Good luck.

great words of inspiration there

I already know that I will be ignored, but at least I've said it. There is a world economic crisis going on, first shutdown 'we' just had.. Nobody knows how the MASSIVE debt needs to get covered (not only US but also EU), the worst thing you can do is decide to do 'investments' on stock markets.

Better thing to do at the moment is invest in possibilities to get your monthly bills lower.

Quote from Cornys :

Does anybody else have any experience with investing? I'm curious to know

I am investing in myself - I can gain 30-50% of annual income (annualy) every 3 years

Quote from cargame.nl :

I already know that I will be ignored, but at least I've said it. There is a world economic crisis going on, first shutdown 'we' just had.. Nobody knows how the MASSIVE debt needs to get covered (not only US but also EU), the worst thing you can do is decide to do 'investments' on stock markets.

Better thing to do at the moment is invest in possibilities to get your monthly bills lower.

Actually now is the best time to buy. The stock prices are down and can only go higher.

If you look at the stockmarket crash here in the USA, those who sold when things were turning down lost the most money. Those who hung on and bought the others stocks cheap are making money.

Car game is right, it's a rigged game and you will probably lose it......

Listen to as much advise as you like, believe what you like.
If you can play the game and make money, then well then and good for you, just be aware that it's a rigged game that's set up for you to lose.

My advise is put your money into your own game and play to win.

Whoosh, I expect is your reaction to this advice

Quote from Cornys :

I finally got tired of getting .02% interest on the money I have saved, so I recently opened a self-directed investment account online for the money I can spare for now.

I bought stocks with it, and I've done pretty well so far. I just invested the money a week ago today so it's really to early to tell right now, but so far I've gained almost 3%

Does anybody else have any experience with investing? I'm curious to know

I was wondering about insurance companies. With Obamacare, the forced buying of insurance should make for higher profits.... But with increased people draining premiums, would those be something to invest in or avoid?

Quote from Racer Y :

I was wondering about insurance companies. With Obamacare, the forced buying of insurance should make for higher profits.... But with increased people draining premiums, would those be something to invest in or avoid?

http://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=UNH
http://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=AET

I didn't get into any of these myself, but they probably wouldn't be a bad idea. They will receive more business anyways, but I personally don't like the government having a hand in any market. They screw more things up than they fix, so I'm avoiding that.

The government debt is bad everywere, but how will that effect the earnings of companies? Tax, maybe, but the US receives plenty of money in taxes as it is. We just spend it in some of the most inefficient ways possible. (almost $500 mil. health care website that doesn't even work )

Google internet might be a good investment

The stock market (and particularly hedge funds) is the mechanism by which the super wealthy fleece the wealthy.

There is money to be made but it is high risk.

its relatively straight forward, when it comes to stock market and Forex everything works in patterns 95% of the time, market interferences like business takeovers(stockmarket) and Government interference(forex) are your main concerns.

If you want to make real money I would suggest buying a course but do your home work to find the best ones, the really good ones will cost over a grand, but they definitely work.

That being said, Forex is a much more consistent market as its not possible for a single person to change the market direction, it usually requires 10s of billions in one hit do to anything to it.

I've been thinking about investing for a while (actually after I started playing GTA V ). My problem is that I have no clue about economics and I'm not interested in learning them either, and you obviuosluy can't win a game that you don't even know how it works or what the rules are.
At the end is like everything in this world: the better you are at something, the better the results.

Quote from NitroNitrous :

I've been thinking about investing for a while (actually after I started playing GTA V ). My problem is that I have no clue about economics and I'm not interested in learning them either, and you obviuosluy can't win a game that you don't even know how it works or what the rules are.
At the end is like everything in this world: the better you are at something, the better the results.

In this case I'd suggest that you stick to something a little less risky (and easier to understand) such as bonds . Or, you could have a company manage your money if you have enough to make it worth your while

Just research and learn it. Mainly smaller stocks.

I'd have thought that GTAV would have suggested where the big bucks are, CIA etc are there already but there's still money to be made if your careful.

If you really want to make the big bucks, start either a bank or a religion. That's where the money really is........

Or contract for the rebuild of the 'Obamacare' site, 3/4 of a billion building the current joke, guess it helps being BFF with the First Lady, but if your a web designer who's happy stealing open source coding then there's a goldmine !

Quote from Racer X NZ :

stealing open source coding

lol.

The latest indication of the haphazard way in which Healthcare.gov was developed is the uncredited use of a copyrighted web script for a data function used by the site, a violation of the licensing agreement for the software.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/ ... hted-software_763666.html

So, basicly they removed the only requirement to freely use the software and claimed it as their own work, probably for charging purposes.
However, they also forgot to remove the original programmers comments, making pretty easy to prove the theft.

But i guess if your building a site on a tight budget then you need to cut corners.

"Meanwhile, figures released Thursday say the total cost of the deeply flawed website and healthcare exchange has topped $1 billion, according to a devastating new report by a widely respected government analyst."
http://www.newsmax.com/newswid ... idgetphase1#ixzz2jB2Hjg6y


So, if you want my investment advice, build websites for the US govt !