Stock Market Today

You should probably swing by a library and pick up a book on the basics of investing first…it’ll help you with the terminology and the various kinds of investments you can make in the stock market.

Most people start off pretty simply by either buying individual stocks or a mutual fund (or two). If you don’t have a lot of money to invest, you’re probably better off buying a no-load (i.e. zero-fee) mutual fund that invests in a broad sector of the economy…something like T Rowe Price’s Growth Stock fund.

If you have your heart set on owning individual stocks, you might find a web site like sharebuilder.com helpful– it lets you cheaply buy individual stocks and has an automatic investment plan function so that you can put your buying on autopilot.

In terms of *which* stocks to buy, that’s really up to you. A lot of people will get really academic about analyzing their stocks. Others will throw a dart at the wall street journal and do just as well. There is one school of thought that goes by “buy what you know”…in other words, if you use Netflix every month and really like Netflix, then buy ‘em.

Good luck!