[jiwonstr]

Hi everyone,

I just finished reading a book called 'Rich Dad Poor Dad" and really inspired me to do some serious investment. I'm 24 year old with couple of years of experience in engineering and now I'm in business consulting.

How do I start investing my money in stock and bond?

For example, a Lehman's stock is at $.15 today, meaning 1 share of stock is selling at 15 cents. How do I buy Lehman's shares and who do I go to buy it? (Just an example)

Is E-Trade the only way to do it? Are there any other ways/tools to buy stocks/bonds?
I know they take commission for buying stocks, but can I personally buy stocks and bonds without paying commission?

Your help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[ebaines]

E-trade is certainly one place to start. Once you set up an account with them (or any other brokerage, such as Schwab, Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, Fidelity, etc) you can execute trade orders through the brokerage. Most brokers have on-line tools where you can specify how many shares or what stock you want to buy, and at what price. Obvoiusly you need to first establish the account with sufficient cash to pay for any trades (unless you are going to be executing short trades, which I would strenuously discourage you from doing). Depending on the fitrm you may be able to provde initial funding via credit card, but many require a check. You can not buy or sell securities yourself, but rather must work through a brokerage - the brokerage has the infrastructure in place so that when you buy stock the seller can get paid and you get your stock. Transaction fees are quite minial these days, especially compared to the old days. Spend some time on line researching some of the brokerages and their fees. Traditional institutions like Merrill and Smith Barney are generally known more for their service and having brokers who may give you advice than the low-cost trading houses like E-Trade, but usually with higher fees. You really can't go wrong - at any time you can always change houses and transfer your stock holdings.

For someone first starting you may want to consider buying mutual funds rather than individual shares. This will allow you to get a diversified portfolio (and hence reduce your risk) with minimal investment.