My Husband has G.E stocks and we don't know any thing a bout investing?
Question:
I am just trying to get a estimate.
Answer:
You do not have enough knowledge to play around with individual stocks. You will get burned. If someone tells you how much would be made or lost on an individual stock in the future, they are lying.
Rule No. 1: Do not put money into the market that you cannot afford to lose. The market is a gamble based upon perceptions. A good basic guide of how a trading floor works is PJ O'Rourke's Eat The Rich.
Rule No. 2: If your barber and your shoe-shine guy are discussing their stock portfolioes, it is time to get out of the market. Amateurs cause overvaluation followed by panic selling.
Rule No. 3: If you don't know what you are doing, do not continue to do it. You can either get educated about finance, or you can stay out of the market and keep your money, but not both.
My advice would be to start researching no-load mutual funds. They are less risky, and you don't have to hover over them like you do individual stocks. Investing takes discipline and patience. There are no get rich quick schemes that work.
Go talk to a broker or financial planner. Just by the way the question has been asked you have no business trying to handle this on your own or with advice from random strangers.
Your statement from your account should indicated how many shares of GE stock you own currently. Apparently from what you write they pay a dividend and your husband spends this money.
There are many books on DRIP Dividend reinvestment Plans or you can do a search on the internet to learn more. If this account has been your for 25 years witha number of shares had you reinvested the dividends in steading spending them you could have accrued alot of money.
You do not need to become an investment expert, nor go to a financial advisor shark. GE is a great, safe, company with very good future.You can buy more of the same shares, say $2000 worth at a time, to add to the previous lot. Or better still buy other good shares like CISCO, or Microsoft, Bank of America etc. In the longer term you should do far better than from a savings a/c.
When you have enough shares, sell them and buy some real estate. You collect rent and its value will be rising with time with fewer ups and downs than shares.
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