Where to invest $ 500?

I don't know much about the stock market.
I am totally debt free, including my house, worth $ 150,000 am 53 yrs old, retired, have monthly retirment (company pension income of $ 3,600/month), and am provided company health insurance. I have $ 25,000 invested with my stockbroker (and I have a $ 7,000 rainy day fund in a MMMF checking account. I want to use $ 500 just to play around in the stock market on my own, rather than thru my stockbroker. How to I go about investing the $ 500, so that if I want to sell it in 3 months or 7 months, I can and pull the money out ? I just want the fun of having a little money to play around investing with. I really like vanguard.com but there are so many places out there on the internet. What would you do ?

A great site to look at if you are looking for some investing ideas is http://www.top10traders.com The site lists out which investors are doing the best and what stocks they have bought. Just click on the portfolio of the best investors and you can see the stocks they like.This is a totally free site. You can create your own portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in 'play' money, and then watch how your stocks compare against other traders. When you feel comfortable with a stock that you have in your 'play' portfolio at http:www.top10traders.com then you can go out and buy the real thing. Good Luck!

best would be mutual fund with growth fund for long term

Try ishares ETFs. You can get diversification even with a small investment.

Well. Interesting question you asked. Today (10/16/2006), some investment services are recommending United States Steel. The symbol is X. Enter that symbol on the Yahoo home page, and find out the price right now. Then read some of the news articles posted for today on the subject of US Steel. I'm thinking of buying some. But remember that if you take my advice, you have to do it at your own risk. There are no guarantees. Good luck.

In my wallet, please?

Congratulations on your current financial situation. A couple of thoughts:

1. You actually don't want to play around with this money. The reason is that there is nothing worth playing in which you can guaranteed get your principle back in 3 to 7 months. If you are willing to kiss it goodbye if your investment fails or see it triple if it does well then you're willing to play. So you have to decide if this is play money or if you want to maintain the principle. If you want to maintain the principle you should look at CD's or money market funds. Both your bank can help you with and so can Vaguard for that matter. In addition you will have a tough time finding a broker (like Vanguard) to open an account for you for only $500.

2. I would recommend you have more than $3,600 a month in a rainy day fund. The general consensus is six months of income so at your stated income you're looking at $20K.

3. I would also recommend you attempt to save some more money. As you may have heard in the news some companies default on their pensions. If your $3,600 a month were to be cut to $1,800 a month or $0 a month you would be in serious trouble. I would highly recommend trying to set aside some additional funds (in addition to your rainy day fund) in case this happened.

Good luck and congratulations on being debt free at your point in life. Not many people can say that!

Vegas Baby!

The Stock Market IS NOT a game.