How do I start to invest?

I am young and trying to get a good investment established. I have stock through work as well as a 401K, but what is a good idea for someone like myself that would like to invest in something more...also keep in mind the lack of investment experience.

there are many ways to invest, but for someone that has little or no experience, the best way to invest is to set up a mutual fund with a company like vanguard and set it up so you can invest a minimum of $50.00 a month into a good mutual fund, they can set this up so the money comes right out of a checking account each month, it gets you in the habit of saving and investing all at the same time. over time try to save more and more each month. you can also do the same thing in a roth ira account which builds up money that you never have to pay taxes on. call vanguard on their 800 number and get started. the secret to making a lot of money in the stock market is to get started investing and saving at a young age and do this your whole life, and you will have a very good chance of being rich some day.

First, don't invest right now but follow the ups & downs in stocks for sometime. Secondly, try to find out the stocks with strong fundamentals. Thirdly, prepare yourself for long term investment & last, you have to learn how to be patient, intuitive, watchful, alert & "non involved".

Getting started in the stock market is actually very easy.

1) Open a brokerage account.

Check out a broker called Zecco (www.zecco.com). The company doesn鈥檛 charge a fee to buy or sell stock, doesn鈥檛 have a minimum balance, and won鈥檛 charge you a fee just for having an account open. Tradeking (www.tradeking.com) and Scottrade (www.scottrade.com) are other options.

2) Buy shares in an exchange traded fund. These are basically mutual funds that trade on the stock market, effectively allowing you to own a little stock in a large number of companies with a single trade. Two prominent examples are the iShares fund (IVV) and the SPDR fund (SPY) both of which hold all 500 stocks in the S&P 500 (a listing of the main US stocks). Both funds have very low costs and should track the performance of the stock market closely.

3) Sit back, relax and do nothing. The stock market averages a 10-12% return over long periods of time. Over 30 years an investment growing at 12% a year will increase 30 times (ie a $1,000 investment will be worth just under $30,000). Just keep adding more cash to your account whenever you can and don鈥檛 panic if the market drops a bit.

You can also look into buying individual stocks, but either of these funds will make a great core holding.