I wanted to start investing and wanted to know the easiest/cheapest way to start.?

Do your self a favor and save at least $900. to $1000. to start with, otherwise the commissions eat away your profit.

The commission at Scottrade is $7. That means $7 to buy stocks and another $7 when you want to sell stocks.

$14 is 2.8% of $500, but $14 is only 1.4% of $1000.

When starting out, you need to be as accurate and as frugal as possible to protect your meager profits. In time, your portfolio will reflect your aggressive stance toward making sure it grows by every percentage point it possibly can, while keeping the overhead down.

I tried to start out with $500 a few months ago, but commissions were killing my profits. So, I quit investing and saved another $500 and have recently resumed trading with better results. When you make it to $5000, the sno-ball effect takes over and you'll have $30K in no time. The $5K mark is a good milestone of which to look forward. And from $30K, you'll soon achieve $100K and so on.

Good luck.

Contact me if you want to talk 'stock investing'.

-Larry
larry@virtuallee.com
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Get yourself set up with yahoo finance. Its free and a great way to keep track of the stocks you are interested in.
The next thing to do is find some online brokers to trade through. Examples include Brokers: Charles SchwabTD AMERITRADE, E*TRADE, FINANCIAL, SCOTTRADE.
They typically charge less than $10 per trade and some offer the first 100 trades free. But remember to read the print.

Good luck and remember research is a good way to avoid dumb beginner mistakes.

Zecco Trading is free. 10 free trades per day, up to 40 per month. Perfect if you are not day trading. There are fees for options and mutual funds, but as long as you stick with securities it's free. Every time I read something like, "I earned x amount less brokerage fees," I smile, because I never pay fees to trade online. I've compared them to every online broker and they're the best for stocks and ETFs.

The easiest/cheapest way to start will also cost you the most in losses.

Remember this is investing not gambling.

EASY
If you don't start reading several books & understand the terms, what to look for and how to manage your losses and profits...... your going to lose big time.
Looking for the "easiest" way to invest is not recognizing that people put in time to understand the process, make up an asset allocation & pick the investments that will follow the asset allocation. In other words, hard work.

Cheapest
The deep discounters that charge lower broker fees are the last place for a "newbe". Use Charles Schwab or Fidelity Brokerage. They charge a few dollars more, but they also have have resourse a beginner needs. I like Schwab the best (for this type of need).

Be smart. Be honest with yourself. Don't pick investments on a hunch. Don't take tips from the media. Don't take tips from anyone. Develope a "style" of investing that works for you. Take time to do the research.

Good luck.

If you are interested in investments then you need to first educate yourself very well. And if you want people to help you there is a great company you need to check out. Go to the Citigroup website, click on 'Our Businesses' and go down to Primerica.
These people are here to help everyday folks and they offer a written plan complimentary. To get a written plan anywhere else costs $1200 on average.
They can give you great advice and have a wide range of companies you can invest with.
Go learn more about them and I believe they are the best place to start.

Zecco is FREE.

IMO the easiest & cheapest way to get started is to invest in mutual fund. you don't have to do that much homework. but if you have the intention to drive profit further, try to invest in stock yourself. don't trade so much though. start small do your research. this might be good resource for you,

Step-by-Step Stock Investing for Beginner
http://www.stock-investment-made-easy.co...