New to investing, where to start?

Question:

I have had savings accounts, cd's, and savings bonds. I am now at a point where I want to get into mutual funds or maybe even stocks. I am looking for a really good beginners book that explains how it all works and defines the commonly used terms. I've tried to read magazines like 'smart money' and similar websites but the more I learn the more I seem to need to learn to understand what I have learned! I need a starting point in basic english. any suggestions?

Answer:
1) Mutual Funds for Dummies, by Eric Tyson is the best, all-around beginners book. This is where I started. This should be issued to all high school graduates, IMO.

2) http://www.invest-for-retirement.com... has a free downloadable book, by me. It is written for beginners. It focuses on retirement investing. However, you will pick up general investing knowledge as well.

3) For a slightly more advanced - but worthwhile - read, the classic book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street", by Burton Malkiel is highly recommended

4) http://www.investopedia.com has some great tutorials and is an excellent place to look up specific terms

Pay particular attention to the subjects of asset allocation and costs. These will have a significant impact on your investment returns in the long run.

"Getting Started in Stocks" is the best beginner book in my opinion. It gives a lot of information and is eay to read and understand. It's pretty cheap and I actually enjoyed reading it as opposed to some other books I tried.

There are a lot of books out there to consider. I would highly recommend that you consider the following financial columnist's website though. I've been reading his advice for at least 15 years now and think he's got some of the best advice for anyone interested in investing. Look for his "Couch Potato Investing" plan. It's easy and it will beat about 75% of most funds out there.

I would suggest looking into on-line retail brokers
schwab etrade scottrade and ameritrade are a few.

I would recommend everything you can read on technical charting and candlesticks at your local library. A good start would be to read Toni turners , A guide to short term trading for beginners. You should also visit the chart school at www.stockcharts.com

paper trade and monitor your trades here at www.clearstation.com

Try:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tr...

Look up some of the books on the front page, subscribe to Investors' Business Daily, and follow the TradingZoom picks for a while while talking to other traders.

Good luck!

www.stocksrus.instantecom.net

The best site I have found on the web.

To derobake's answer add "Investing for Dummies" an excellent primer on investing. I do take issue with "A Random Walk Down Wall Street". It is a classic, but I disagree with its precept. However, there is certainly a great deal of emperical evidence against me on this point. But I think there is also emperical evidence to the contrary also.

I am currently using a Forex Investment Strategy and I am averaging more monthly than what most banks and CD's and mutual funds pay yearly.
Email me at ramjohnterry@yahoo.ca for more details.

You might want to create a "practice" portfolio at http://www.top10traders.com - it's free - and each month the site ranks the best-performing investors.

Try this link for a beginners book...

you can do some investing seminars and buy some investing books for beginners. remember : invest in education first.

New to investing, where to start?

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