Investing

[Guest Josh]

Seeing as how I am finally going to pursue something I've been talking about for months and well really years I've decided it's time to start investing in some stocks, bonds, mutual funds. etc. However there's only one problem. I don't have any idea on where to start, or where to turn to for financial advice on stock purchases, et al. Recently Sprint made an offer to its salaried and comissioned employees. We get to take advantage of a 10% price drop from the current Sprint/Nextel (S) selling price on the 'Street. I've chosen to roll over 10% of my pay for stock purchases until end Q4. Ok, that's a start, right? Now what?!? I'd like to get into other fields and such but have no idea how to go about things. Anybody have advice?

[chris]

pay attention to the market and don't invest too much in your own employer. putting all of your eggs in one basket is pretty risky if you're not going to pay attention to what all is going on.

conversely, diversifying too much is not sufficiently risky, at least not if you want to actually earn anything from your investments.

i highly recommend the books "investing for dummies" and "rich dad, poor dad" (ignore the real estate dogma, real estate is not for everybody but there are brilliant insights in the book.)

[Cremazie]

Well, most people I know have been investing. Josh I think your first step is to talk to a financial planner, investments are as personal as you are. If there is any rule of thumb, don't over diversify, they will never go anywhere, sure some will gain, but some will lose. You have some in Stable sectors, and some in risky. Oh, Never play the Currency exchange game, that one is just too uncertain. Currency is just so unpredictable, sometimes there is no reason for the corrections.

[Drew Dowdell]

be consistent in your investing. Invest the same amount every month.