Is it a good idea to have an investment brokerage account?

Question:

I had a CD (a time savings account that accumulates interest overtime) through Wells Fargo. When that time account matured, the guy at the bank encouraged me to start an investment trade account used for brokerage and stocks etc.. which I have NO idea about. I just want to leave my money in a savings where I can make a certain amount of interest off of, but no one is telling me whats up with the whole trade investment account. It says "Not FDIC approved, No bank guarantee, may lose value," it seems too good to be true because the interest im getting off of that account beats the CD time account I had before (doubled). I wanna know what's the catch in having this account. Im not going to deal with the whole stocks and bonds thing, and I really don't know too much about finance and investment accounts such as this. Can anyone please, please help me out??

Answer:
It is good because you will get a higher interest than just having your money in the bank. I don't think there is a "catch". I have one of those and it just a safe way to make some money and not risky at all.

its a good idea to have a broker for investments,real estate,etc

Ok, because it doesnt sound like we have >50k I would recommend an online investment account. (Low fees and commission, but u must pick your own stocks) Account activity fees vary from firm to firm but I have found E-trade as the most cost effective. 1k opens a bokerage account(min) -- 2k for margin(borrowing agaist owned stocks) - and u can be inactive(place no trades w/ money sitting in brokerage account) for the first 12 mths. After that u have to pay $40 a quarter if you dont place 1 trade/quarter. The best thing is that e-trade has a savings account which you open under all the same name (but diff acount). You must link this account to your local checking or savings account but account earns 5.05% interest. (better than most cds). You can transfer funds to and from 5% savings and brokerage accounts within the same business day before 4pm. There is never any transfer fees to/from 5%savings/local savings(or checking) or any transfers fees within in-house accounts. BUT there is fees to transfer to/from brokerage/local savings (or checking). That fee is 25$ for partial or 60$ for complete transfer. THE LOOPHOLE - Transfer money from brokerage to the 5% savings same day and then transfer from 5% savings to your local saving/checking account. Oh yeah, and the brokerage has a debit card in case u really need funds u throw money in there same day. Good Luck
O Yeah:
-5% savings IS FDIC insured --- brokerage is not
-100% fraud protection(they pay) and if ur really anal they send u a keychain that displays a new code every 10 seconds that you punch in at login (fee for that)
- If account is over 20k alot of the fees i mentioned are nullified (they like money)
-Brokerage has .00000000006% interest rate so dont leave money in there if it isnt being traded.
-You can open saving w/o brokerage if u dont want to get into the market.
-They do have regional branches (major cities) so if u must talk to a face you can.
- Unlike CD you can withdraw money when needed out of 5% savings
- Im a 22 yr old carpenter, so this isnt as hard as you think

Is it a good idea to have an investment brokerage account?

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