Prairie~Phlox Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 My daughter is 19 & is in an accounting program at the local CC. After her teacher was talking about stocks & bonds, she's interested in stocks, but has looked online and is turned off by all of the extra fees, which is common, but is there a way to invest inexpensively or where should she look? Any good books/magazines on the subject. We've never had enough money to invest, and so I'd like to encourage her to do this. Thanks, Kristine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Buying just a little stock is indeed expensive. The other problem is of course that if you need the money soon, you may not weather the ups-and-downs. She may not earn enough to have to pay taxes, but there are also tax implications to owning stock. Sometimes you can find mutual funds with a minimum of $500 that will buffer the risk, and frankly that is what I'd encourage a young person to do. Our accounting major is working, and he plans to open an IRA with a mutual fund in 2017. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingersmom Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 www.betterinvesting.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 My husband highly recommends Investing Made Simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I would've suggested ScottTrade, but I think they were just taken over by TD Ameritrade. If memory serves the minimums to invest there (ST) are pretty low. Hopefully TDA is the same. She still might check there. She will save on fees as compared to a traditional brokerage house. That being said, if she has a job you could encourage her to start a ROTH IRA or other type of retirement type plan within a more traditional brokerage house. She can still invest in stocks by doing so, but she would have the benefit of an advisor. Just do your research on the specific advisor if possible. Not all are great. Also, if she can handle his personality a lot can be learned from watching Jim Cramer's show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 DS (soon to be 21) started investing through TDAmeritrade when he was 13. At that time he and DH researched it and decided that was the best option. Of course things may have changed in eight years, but DS is now well on his way to a degree in economics and he still uses that same account. So I assume he doesn't think there's anything better available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 (edited) Vanguard. Hands down. They have the lowest fees and she doesn't need a managed portfolio. They don't perform better over time, especially with the strategies young investors should be using. And this free online guide, hands down: http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/ He keeps it very simple and so, so useful. He does have a book as well, but everything she needs to get started is detailed in the series. Collins is fantastic and sensible. Edited November 21, 2016 by Arctic Mama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plateau Mama Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 (edited) Fidelity has certain Mutual Funds that are no fee to purchase. My 8 yo has been buying them for about a year. I don't know what the minimum is to open an account as we just buy them on our account right now but it is nice because he can buy a share at a time as he has $ Edited November 21, 2016 by Plateau Mama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplejackmama Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Yep, I agree with AM. Vanguard. Hands down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debi21 Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Agree with vanguard. Check out the book bogleheads guide to investing and bogleheads online forum. (Bogle is the name of vanguards founder). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetoread Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Yep, Vanguard. Even if other funds are no fee to purchase, they often have higher ongoing fees that can seriously eat into profits over the long term. I am a firm believer in Vanguard index funds for the majority, if not all, of your portfolio. Once those are set, if you want to have some fun playing with individual stocks then set aside some money you can afford to lose and use that. It's boring and not what many younger folk eager to capitalize on the latest stock tip want to hear, but I stand by that advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 I would start with SP500 mutual fund and not make it too complicate. Preferably Roth. Picking individual stocks is very tricky and time consuming. If she is really that interested, there are tons of books on it, but most people benefit much better from mutual funds and ETF's. Investor's Business Daily is a great newspaper Fundadvice.com Investorwords.com Books: Learn to Earn The Wall Street Journal Guide to Money and Investing The Little Book that Beats the Market A Random Walk Down Wall Street The Intelligent Asset Allocator There are so so many more, but that would be a good start, I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpyTheFrog Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 If she has an earned income, I would encourage her to start a Roth IRA, preferably in an index or targeted age retirement fund at Vanguard. Simple index funds beat about 80% of actively managed funds every year, plus the annual fees are much lower. The behavioral economics stuff I've read indicates that people who try to buy and sell based on the news usually do worse than people who buy and only check the results once a year. Fear leads many people to buy high and sell low. I've seen people on this forum talk about making zero gains (or even losing money) in their retirement funds during time periods that the market overall was up 75-90%! I suspect they fell prey to trying to time things and it didn't work out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherGoose Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 If she has an earned income, I would encourage her to start a Roth IRA, preferably in an index or targeted age retirement fund at Vanguard. Simple index funds beat about 80% of actively managed funds every year, plus the annual fees are much lower. The behavioral economics stuff I've read indicates that people who try to buy and sell based on the news usually do worse than people who buy and only check the results once a year. Fear leads many people to buy high and sell low. I've seen people on this forum talk about making zero gains (or even losing money) in their retirement funds during time periods that the market overall was up 75-90%! I suspect they fell prey to trying to time things and it didn't work out. I agree. If she starts a RoTH at her age she could be very wealthy young. My feeling about buying single stocks is this: buying them implies that I think I'm smarter than all the fund managers out there who are moving stocks around in mutual funds. Better to let them spread out the risk among different stocks for you. Dave Ramsey, even if you don't agree with all his other teachings or are not Christian, has some excellent, simple advice on investing if you Google him and investing or Roth IRA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Another recommendation for opening a Roth IRA. If she has any earned income of her own she can do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 (edited) What does child want to Do? For individual stocks, TD Ameritrade seems to have lowest fees. I think being aware of transaction fees (which apply of course when you buy and sell) is part of the investing lesson :) But if child doesn't want to play in the stock market( thus learning about valuation etc) and just wants to pile some $ someplace, then I agree index investing like the previously suggested Vanguard is a great idea. Edited November 22, 2016 by madteaparty 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I don't have funds to recommend, but this is a nice little book our financial advisor gives to clients' kids: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=n3UXxmxU8wEC&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gclid=CKHasJ3WvdACFUG8NwodYHQIHA&gclsrc=ds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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