When did you start a stock portfolio?

Well I have some spare cash sitting in my savings account and it's been doing nothing for a while. The interest rates you get from a savings account obviously can't cover the rate of inflation...so I was wondering when would be a good time to start a stock portfolio? I don't have time to manage it during the school semesters but think it might be a good time to look into long term stock ideas over the summer.

Thoughts or opinions? When did you first open your trading account? I have one with trade king right now.

 

A starting portfolio should have at least $5000.00 as a minimum, but have you done any research in ETF's?

 

I've glanced at them briefly; along with mutual funds. What has been your experience with those?

I remember a friend starting a portfolio with around $3k and it worked out fine for him since it was more of an experiment/play money to see if he could day trade/invest successfully.

 

I started off with ETF's before upgrading into stocks, the nice thing about them is that they invest in a certain sector so you don't get the daily up and downs of individual stocks. You don't want to start off with stocks because you'll have brokerage fees that will be charged to buy into a position and to sell it. You will pay taxes on all gains, unless you are trading through a tax-exempt/tax-deferred vehicle, like an IRA or 401K.

The ideal set price to start is $5000.00 so that taxes and brokerage fees don't overwhelm you. I would definitely*start in something such as ETF's so you're not jumping into something you're not prepared for.

 

Wow thanks for all the information, it was very helpful. ^_^

I'll look more into etfs, there's some articles on it in the trade king database. ^_^

Thanks again.

 

No problem!! :love:

If you ever need help or have any questions with stocks or investments periods just send me a PM!

 

Will do.

It seems like you're very knowledgeable about it!

Thanks for your help. ^_^

 

I started when I was 18, did short term trades and turned $500 into $1500 then cashed out and bought a car.

 

I started when I was 16 with a friend of mine. We took our savings from the previous 4 years of work (added up to about $3k for each of us) and started screwing around with penny stocks and the like. We quickly ran it up to about $6k each, then lost it all but a few hundred in the next few months. Needless to say, we learned some very valuable lesson.

Now I'm 19 and just opened a Scottrade account and got started again about 3 weeks ago, this time with much more conservative picks.

Also: after reading above, it was suggested that you wait til you have $5k to start due to taxes and commissions. In my opinion, you should start pretty much as soon as you can. Taxes are proportional so that shouldn't really be a factor when depositing. Also, as long as you're not making trade frequently, commissions aren't awful. $5-7/trade are pretty typical if you shop around. Also, I know Scottrade offers commission-free ETFs, which is probably what I'd suggest for you to avoid commissions.