My personal money is too small to hire some one to do this for me. Can any one help me to find good resources that may guide me? at least i want to start If you are 25 today and you retire at 67 with a million dollar investment portfolio, that will safely generate $60K/year. But when you are 67, that 60K will only have the buying power of a little over $16K/year. It gets worse though, because at 67, you will still probably have 30 more years to live and that 16K will shrink each year until it鈥檚 only worth $8K/year at age 90.
A million dollars isn鈥檛 what it used to be鈥?and it will be even less in the future.
So鈥? We must all become educated investors much more so then our parents were and start sooner. These are some basic steps to get you started. You鈥檝e got to jump in now.
Step 1.
First decide what kind of brokerage you want to work with. You can open a brokerage account in your bank, with a large full service brokerage or an internet brokerage. I find when I get help, most people want to sell me things that are better for them鈥? So I use http://www.scottrade.com because it鈥檚 cheap and easy with low frills. I like their streaming quotes and I do my own research and make my own investments. But any low cost internet brokerage service is fine.
Step 2. get a subscription to Barrons or Investors Business Daily鈥?Do this for 6 months or a year. At first, It seems a bit mysterious, but pretty soon you start to understand the terms and things that investors are looking for and what they are afraid of
Step 3. If you have some money to invest, put it in 3 month CD鈥檚 right now. First the market is unstable and second you have some homework in Step 4 to do before you do any investing.
Step 4. Go out to the internet and search on the following subjects. Become very familiar with the concepts.
Asset allocation
Long term investing
inflation
Roth ira vs ira
Large med small cap
Value vs growth
Indexed mutual funds
No load mutual funds
ETF
Sector funds
Bonds CD preferred stock
dividends
International funds
Market cycles
volatility
Fundamental analysis
Technical analysis
In most cases, I think it is wise to use indexed mutual funds and ETF to build the base of your portfolio.
Step 5 go to http://clearstation.etrade.com/ and sign up for a free account. Play around there by looking at graphs and fundamentals. If you click on the graph names, you will get clear information about what the graph is based on and how to interpret it. I think it鈥檚 also a good idea to pretend you have $10,000 and start buying and selling on paper. Keep track of where you are each day for a month鈥?It鈥檚 a lot easier to lose play money then real money鈥?
WARNING: don鈥檛 rely on technical analysis alone. These graphs are good at telling you WHEN to buy and sell, but now WHAT to buy.
Step 6. It鈥檚 always a good Idea to see a CFP (certified financial planner). Their job is to work for your benefit, not to sell you investments. They can cover subjects like employee benefits, insurance, budgeting, living trusts, 401k, taxes and real estate as well as investment types and investment types to keep away from.
Always strive to do your own research鈥?you鈥檒l find everyone sounds like an expert so take everything people tell you with a grain of salt. It鈥檚 not easy in the beginning but soon you will be the expert.
Don鈥檛 get involved with futures, currency, options (unless you get stock options at work), commodities, annuities or other derivative type investments at this time.
Good Luck Yes you could learn invest by yourself. it is your money, you should know how to do with it. for starter check this site out.
http://www.pathtoinvesting.org/index_fla...
http://www.stockcharts.com
http://www.streettalklive.com university section . a lot amount of information. It will serve you well
I accumulate in good amount in 401k at the young age.I could share with you. when consider invest in stock market. you should consider basic 3 things:
fundamental analysis==(economic data,finincial health, management, business model, competetion)>>what to buy
technical analysis==(chart+indicator)>> when to buy
Sentiment/schycho analysis==>>mood of investor, Contrarian point of view.
Market cycle===>> check out book Trader Almanac by jeff hirsch will give you inside stuff
When you combine 3 thing, It is one of the powerful knowledge goinh with you for the rest of your live
At the age of 32. my 401k is amassed 73,000.00 and 30000.00 in taxble account. by follow simple rule Start by visiting your libraray's investment section. Check out a few books on investing. There are litterly hundreds in print. Start with a basic book such as "investing for dummies" and "mutual funds for dummies" "Random Walk Down Wall Street" has some good material although some of his statements on tecnical analysis I disagree with.
Once you learn the basics you can begin to create your investment plan. Many people start out by investing in mutual funds. They do provide diversification for small investors. But you have to be real choosy because 70% of mutual funds underperform the market. There also index ETF funds. These are designed to mirror the market. You will discover all of this in your readings. |
