Investing: I dont know where to start?

[HappyT90]

Firstrade has no minimums and it's $6.95 per trade (same for buying and selling). That's still a big chunk of $100, so I would recommend that you save up a couple more hundred before starting.

[mrpaseo]

Sharebuilder can cost as little as 4 dollars per purchase (With automatic investment set up) and I believe selling is 9.95 now (I have not sold).

For the record, I suggest a good base retirement portfolio, then a pre-retirement portfolio. Once those two are set up, then, and only then should you invest in stocks. You will not make money with 100 dollars in stocks.

I started my portfolios when I was 23, I am now 35 and both my portfolios are underway and going strong. Now at the age of 35, I dropped 2 G's in sharebuilder as a play fund to learn the ropes of stock trading (Long term and short term). After six months, I can tell you the chances of making any sort of money in stocks with less than a few thousand is minimal.

Just my two pfenning,
Ray

[Marketiva]

I am 21 and haven't saved a penny in my life. I have horrible spending habits but would like to change that. I just don't know where to start.

I have about $100 right now that I am willing to invest or put away in a savings account. Can you guys give me some suggestions on where to start? Savings, CD's, Money Market, Stocks? I am thinking about going with an online savings account with decent interest. Are all the banks listed in the sticky reliable? I was thinking about going with E-Trade. What do you all think I should do?

The online trading with currencies can be a great chance for you. I think you can make 1,500 USD from your 100 USD within 2 year. You should try the Marketiva, which is a great company.

[Broken Arrow]

Any word on the risks involved?

[Bonks22]

batman,

I am 20 years old and was in your shoes just a year ago. I started my career with a decent wage just before I was 19. The day I got this job I was $4000 in credit card debt and 8 months later I was another $11000 in auto loan debt. I was working part time @ $15/hr for about 30 hours a week. This kept me on my feet and I was only paying only about $200-300/month on debt. The rest went to food, rent, and leisure. Rent and utils were only $200 because I had roommates. I could barely save or have fun being paid ~$1000 a month.

Then I started working full time and paid salary, which was 38k. Although being underpaid, I do work and go to school full time and the job is not too demanding so it was OK for me. Being paid this much allowed me to pay about $400-600/month on debt and one year later, I'm close to paying off those credit cards (that fluctuate), have fun, and worry less about next month's bills.

My plans are to pay off all my debt (while saving about 100-200 a month on the side). Once I pay off all my cc debt I will shift those payments to go to a MMSA as an emergency fund (3 months paycheck worth), but I will still have my auto loan. Once I complete my emergency fund I will refinance my autoloan to pay off in half the time and by the time this occurs is when I graduate from school and land a well paying job and start paying for my student loans.

I hope I made sense there, I don't think it flowed well because I'm really tired. But what I can tell you is that $100 doesn't do me much, I spend $250 a month on groceries LOL. You need a well paying job and start budgeting. Figure out what you really want to do with your money and how you're going to do it. Think about the future and calculate how much you want to save by X # of months so its measurable and try to reach that goal.

Ok I'm going to end here, if anyone have advice for me or can add to this, please do.

batman if you have any questions for me that is about my financial life experiences let me know.

- Ryan

[jIM_Ohio]

$100/month is a good place to start, IMO. It might not appear to be much, but can be increased over time. Start small and build from there.