What stocks are best to invest in?

Answer 1

Individual stocks are a crapshoot. If the company goes bust you lose your money. Mutual funds are a much safer bet. One mutual fund might contain 100 or more stocks, so if one company goes bust you only lose 1/100, so you don't lose much. There is a lot to know and books like "MUTUAL FUNDS FOR DUMMIES" is a good reference. But in a nutshell, do this: * Buy a no-load (no sales fee) mutual fund. * Buy from a company with very low operating costs. * What kind of mutual fund? An Index fund mutual owns the stock of a stock index, like the S&P 500. It owns those 500 stocks. If that index goes up, your mutual fund goes up. *Don't buy and sell. Buy and hold for the long term (over 10 years) *Use "dollar cost averaging". That means you will buy the same $ amount of mutual funds every single month (eg. $50 or $100 per month is purchased automatically, regardless of whether the market is up or down. These principles are advocated by old Wall Street gurus like Warren Buffett. I like the "Vanguard 500" index fund. If you read the book you won't need a financial advisor. The fees that they charge can make a huge difference. Keep the commissions in your pocket, not theirs.