so what has happened here is a spammer who works for "seeking alpha," whatever that is, has posted numerous times in this thread with very, very bad advice that only an idiot should follow.

Anonymous wrote:

That's one approach, but you'll never grow and evolve as a capitalist and that is really your goal. Index funds are for lazy minded people with no imaginations and who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own financial security and independence.

It's kind of impressive you fit so many inaccuracies into a couple sentences.

Taking $8000 and investing so astutely that you become independently wealthy is not a realistic goal.

Isn't there someplace else you could go tout your financial good fortune? Someplace that loves words in all caps? Someplace that doesn't mind your sloppy use of the word "capitalism"?

It is possible to spend only a couple of hours a week on your finances and still be secure.

Open a brokerage account at Schwab, ETrade, Scott Trade, etc. it only costs $7-10 to make trades. It's very cheap.

Seeking Alpha is a good source of information. Google dividend champions and dividend achievers for ideas about what companies in which you want to purchase shares. What companies would you like to be a part owner in that enterprise. I can't tell you which companies to buy because we all have different ideas. For instance you may think that Apple is the greatest company in the world because of their great products. You might think that Proctor & Gamble is a bad investment because they sell Tide Detergent and toilet paper?

However, for my investment dollars I know Apple's share value is only as great as their next product cycle and someday they may get beaten out by Samsung or Google. On the other hand I believe people will alway need laundry detergent and I'm fairly certain they will always need toilet paper as well. Realistically, there's competition in the TP busness too.

Start with about ten dividend champions. Reinvest your dividends and watch your wealth and investor knowledge grow. It will take several years, but while you are still very young, you'll have already become a CAPITALIST on your way to becoming independently wealthy.

^^^gradually, you'll begin to accumulate more winners and wealth than losers.

Anonymous wrote:just buy a low cost, broad market index. you will do better than about 80% of people in the stock market.

That's one approach, but you'll never grow and evolve as a capitalist and that is really your goal. Index funds are for lazy minded people with no imaginations and who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own financial security and independence.

It's about more than beating the indexes. It's about being active and involved in your own financial future. If you just mindlessly put your money in a vanguard fortune 500 index fund and forget about it, you'll be fine, but you may never attain the status of being independently wealthy.

When you are an active investor you will use and expand your body of knowledge because you're are tuned into the goods or commodities which you can envision growing over time and creating great wealth. Some investments will richly reward you and on others you'll lose money, but win or lose you'll be gaining a valuable education. Gradually, you begin to accumulate more win miners and wealth than losers. These are also valuable skills you'll pass on to your children. Be a CAPITALIST not just one more mindless index fund customer!

axih

Anonymous wrote:Seeking Alpha is great forum for individual investors.

And Re: index funds. If you know what you are doing, you can beat most funds.

you do not know what you are doing. nobody does. anyone can beat the market in a given year. have you done this consistently for 30 years?

Anonymous wrote:Seeking Alpha is great forum for individual investors.

And Re: index funds. If you know what you are doing, you can beat most funds. It is not easy, takes a lot work and research, but the rewards can be substantial. I had 91% gain last year as a whole in my investment portfolio (major gains mainly from swing trading and investing in Nokia, Blackberry, AMD etc). And active investing is a lot of fun too

Also, $8k is so little money that in order to grow it to anything substantial you have to play hard and bold, take some calculated risks...but beware of the trading fees as those can easily kill gains when investing smaller amounts...

Don't tell someone with only $8000 in investable money who doesn't know what an index stock is to actively trade. What awful advice. They can easily lose everything. I know you want to brag about your returns, and that's great and all, but your advice stinks in this situation. They should stick in in an index stock that tracks dow or s&p and forget about it for 20 years. When they check up on it they will have a nice surprise.

You sound like a professional day trader. Totally different situation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plz OP - I'm trying to be kind here but if you don't know what a low-cost index broad market fund is then you have zero business buying stock. That is a risky venture, best left for institutional investors, not Harriet Homemaker.

Get online with Vanguard or Fidelity. Research their funds. Funds are basically a bucket of stocks manage by the company and not by you.

OP, no offense taken but ya gotta start somewhere, no?

Yes, and as PP pointed out, that somewhere is buying a fund from vanguard or fidelity (I would go with V, because their expenses are very low). That somewhere is not buying individual stocks. You might as well go to the casino and play blackjack (quite honestly, that also goes for many people who "know what they're doing," which is why I will probably never actively buy stocks and stick to index funds - nearly impossible to beat the market over a 30-year period.).

My dh, a very very smart man who is good at what he does but not a finance guy, went through a period of boredom and decided. That he was going to play the market. I had my reservations but you gotta let a man dream, right? Well, he lost $60,000 in a year. That was the end of that hobby. I took over his etrade account. We now keep our money in index mutual funds at vanguard and fidelity and sort of forget about it. Don't play the market, op.

Op, some good advice given here. Open a fidelity or vanguard account (don't go through a middle man--open directly with them) transfer the money from your bank to the new account, and buy shares of index funds. Oh, and if the market tanks, don't sell. Grit your teeth and leave it there and let it grow again. Pulling out after a loss locks in the loss.

Seeking Alpha is great forum for individual investors.

LOL. But don't read their articles. It's all a pump and dump scheme.

Buy anything with a load.......not.

Seeking Alpha is great forum for individual investors.

And Re: index funds. If you know what you are doing, you can beat most funds. It is not easy, takes a lot work and research, but the rewards can be substantial. I had 91% gain last year as a whole in my investment portfolio (major gains mainly from swing trading and investing in Nokia, Blackberry, AMD etc). And active investing is a lot of fun too

Also, $8k is so little money that in order to grow it to anything substantial you have to play hard and bold, take some calculated risks...but beware of the trading fees as those can easily kill gains when investing smaller amounts...

If this will be the only investment you have, I suggest you look at the Vanguard Life Strategy Funds:

https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/lifestrategy/#/

If you want all stocks, look at the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund:

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0085&FundIntExt=INT

With $8,000 to invest and no knowledge of the stock market, you should not be choosing individual stocks yourself.

are you looking to buy individual shares of public compaines?