[Obstructions]

Um..we don't really have a finance forums, so I though this was probably the best place to put this.

I've been saving up money all my life. At 16, I'm prepared to finally start investing that hard earned money. But...I have no idea what I should invest into. I'm not here to get a hail marry plea from you all, but I want some of your honest opinions on what would be a good idea to invest in. I have very little knowledge with stocks, and am not very comfortable with investing myself yet. I'm currently thinking mutual funds and/or fortex investing at the moment.

Also going to see a broker with my parents so I can get some stuff straight.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

 

[socalmtb858]

Nah, blow it on a big party for all your friends! Stay out of fortex but mutual funds are fine. You have plenty of time to recoup any losses you incur so be aggressive. Check out morningstar.com for highly rated no-load or low-load funds. Index funds are great too. If you MUST invest in individual stocks, I like railroad companies. One, high barriers to entry. Two, whatever the next big thing is, chances are it will get to market via the railroads. Three, Warren Buffet invested billions in BNSF. Good luck. P.S. brokers are evil!

 

[jbking]

Just an answer...

Figure out what kind of time horizon you have with that money. Does it need to cover college expenses? Do you want to use some of it for vacations or a home in the near future? Once you know what kind of time line you have for the money, then you can start to look into which kinds of investments you want to have in terms of stocks, bonds, real estate, collectibles, and of course mutual funds that can cover any of those to some extent. You also need to figure out what kind of structure do you want within your investments, e.g. are you using a self-directed discount broker, a full-service financial advisor picking mutual funds, mutual fund families directly, or some combination of the above. Last but not least, find out if there are types of accounts that may be advantageous for what you want as in Canada there are Tax-free Savings Accounts now that may be of interest to some people while in the US there are various IRAs that people may suggest you use. Getting educated here is key and isn't necesssarily an easy thing to do.

 

[ygolo]

Diversify, diversify, diversify.

If you don't know what you are doing, it is best to spread the money around...you know, don't put your eggs in one basket.

With that said, if you want to invest in stocks or funds it would be safest (for the return) to put money in ETFs (exchange traded funds--just google it).

Ticker QQQQ tracks the NASDAQ
Ticker SPY tracks the S&P 500

I can't post links but there are ETFs tracking particular industries.

I also suggest you learn how to use options to secure you investments. Learn in particular how to "collar" a stock (just google "collar stock"). This strategy has to be used judiciously, however. It limits your losses, but also your profits.

This is out of my depth but the people who are really well versed and very tolerant of risk trade futures and currencies too.

 

[InvisibleJim]

It depends on your area of expertise, if you know about oil, as I do, you invest in oil stocks after observing trends etc. Always remember that the reason you invest should be some calculation based upon maximizing return; not tips from looneys on websites.

 

[Zic]

You can always try opening demo forex and stock accounts... there's plenty on the Net.

I think the safest investment would be foreign bonds or a time deposit in CHF/EUR/USD, maybe even CAD.
Gold is also fine.
Funds are also pretty good, but carry more risk.
If you're looking for high-yield, but very risky, investments, you can try with IPOs, I think you can profit the most from biotechnology companies.
Safer bet would be stocks of renowned companies who pay a yearly dividend.
But the most important thing is to diversify your investment.
And I second InvisibleJim, don't believe anyone.We can't really give you great tips. Those who know aren't posting in forums, they are earning money by themselves. Consult your broker.

 

[Cghee]

Its kinda hard at the moment as far as investing your money. 5 years ago i would of suggested investing into CD's. Its typically a savings account that draws more interest than a savings but the catch is you got to leave the money in the account for a period of time such as 6 months, 1 year, 18 months etc. the interest rates are different depending on how long you want to leave the money in for. If you encountered a hardship you can debit the account but you wont receive the interest so there is no way to lose on them. 5 years ago you could of got CD accounts for like 4-6% interest but now the numbers have dropped to like 1-2%. My advice in today's time would be to keep saving and invest into real estate. Buying forclosure homes would be an excellent start, why pay rent when you can own? You will always progress investing in real estate. Hopefully my advice will work for you, its always worked for me.