[TBH]

Somebody told me this when I was just learning about investing, and I didn't listen. You probably won't listen either. But if you're just starting out, and you only have a little bit of money to play with, avoid individual stocks. They're too risky. Stick to mutual funds.

I bought individual stocks in the late nineties, and I still have them even tho they're mostly below what I paid for them. I admit it's partly for sentimental reasons that I keep them. As I was just starting out in my career, just trying to get myself excited about saving and financial planning, it did help to buy stocks in companies I believed in, whose products I used. It made the whole thing more interesting.

With your first five hundred bucks, I'd just put it all in one fund (or at most, two funds) because otherwise you'll sacrifice a big percentage of your nest egg to the fees that you pay every time you buy shares in a different company or fund. Then, when you have a little more money to invest, you can buy a different fund, and so on, until you have a nice little group of four or five funds in different asset classes.