What amount should you set aside for your first investment?

Discussion in 'Stock Market Education' started by thestoryteller1, Jul 19, 2014.

  1. My401K

    My401K Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 2014
    Posts:
    221
    Likes Received:
    3
    Seriously if you are just starting out get yourself in a Roth or some sort of annuity. look towards putting an investment in a house or something like that which will hold its value if not increase over time. Then think about stocks, blue chip nor an annuity is best, be conservative. When you feel stable then you can be more aggressive. there's a lesson to be learned about the market. There were many people that did all the right things, scrimped and saved and lost their shirts when the market bottomed out. Stock trading is for those that can afford to take a loss. Diversify and if so inclined invest in a business before you speculate.
     
  2. JR Ewing

    JR Ewing Super Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2014
    Posts:
    4,950
    Likes Received:
    39
    Add to it as much as possible as often as possible. If you can put aside $100 a week or even $100 a month consistently into wise investments, you'll do very well over time. And if it's in a tax-advantaged account, you won't have to worry about taxes for a while or even ever, depending upon the plan.
     
  3. teastocks

    teastocks Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2014
    Posts:
    56
    Likes Received:
    1
    I have been learning a lot late about trading stocks and I will tell you that you should at least set aside $500 to $1000 before you get started and I think this is just enough for learning but if you have a steady job hen your goal should be to add as much as you can to it so over time you will begin to learn a lot more and you will have more money so that you will be able to make better decisions
     
  4. Gelsemium

    Gelsemium Senior Investor

    Joined:
    Apr 2014
    Posts:
    937
    Likes Received:
    2
    The more money we invest, the bigger will be our return, but also bigger can be our losses. It's just a matter of how much money we can spare, we should not risk our life over it.
     
  5. JR Ewing

    JR Ewing Super Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2014
    Posts:
    4,950
    Likes Received:
    39
    Diversification is important. Even just buying shares of a S&P Index fund will be a relatively safe investment that should do well over time - especially if you're dollar cost averaging into it every paycheck.
     
  6. troutski

    troutski Guest

    Joined:
    Jul 2014
    Posts:
    256
    Likes Received:
    1
    Well, that's only true if you're earning money rather than losing it. You could easily invest a small amount and wind up with far more money than you would investing larger amounts of money elsewhere. It all just depends, really.
     
  7. Gelsemium

    Gelsemium Senior Investor

    Joined:
    Apr 2014
    Posts:
    937
    Likes Received:
    2
    Sure, but the fact is that most people can't afford to invest because they have all their money stuck in day-to-day expenses, but if we do manage to have some money to invest we can double it or even better with a good investment.
     
  8. Thejamal

    Thejamal Guest

    Joined:
    Mar 2014
    Posts:
    166
    Likes Received:
    1
    You should invest an amount where it doesn't affect you at all financially should you happen to lose everything. But I think it's a good idea to have at least $1000 in your initial investment so you have some room to move things around a bit and have enough invested where you can actually make a profit if things go well.

    The other thing is that you don't want to over-invest before you know or not whether you're good at investing. So finding that happy medium of a good price to invest is a matter of how much disposable income you have and how confident you are in your experience
     
  9. btatro

    btatro Member

    Joined:
    Aug 2014
    Posts:
    17
    Likes Received:
    0
    Personally, I started with just $500, but would have preferred around $2000 just to feel some more freedom and options. You can do it with whatever you have, but just remember your options, in order to come out ahead, will be much more limited.
     
  10. Peninha

    Peninha Senior Investor

    Joined:
    Apr 2014
    Posts:
    602
    Likes Received:
    1
    I think that any value will do and when we have return on that investment we build up to bigger ventures. Nothing like starting with a small amount to give value to making money.
     

Share This Page