If you are a little worried about taking a dive in the stock exchange and buying individual stocks, buy a mutual fund which consist of many different kinds of stocks. For example you could buy a mutual fund of Microsoft, Apple, and Ishares. At the closing bell the average of those three stocks will show how much you made. This helps balance out your account. Also some stocks offer a dividend. Those stocks you would also like to buy. At the end of each quarter they will write you a check based on how many shares you own of there company. Now to buy stocks most people have a brokerage firm they buy stocks with and get advice from. I prefer Fidelity. Last time I checked you need a minimum of 1,000 to open a stock account with them. They offer live charts a stocks from market like NY stock exchange. How they make money from you is that the earn a percentage of how much you make. So there is really no hidden fees.
