For instance lets say your broker has a $10 charge to buy a stock. This is called a "Load Fee"
That one buy of X shares is %10 of your $100 gone to the company purchasing on your behalf. You only get $90 in stock!
Even the lowest discount brokerages go for 4$ or 4% ( check out sharebuilder.com and "auto buys" )
I would suggest buying something that is VERY stable with all $100 and pays dividends.
Have the dividends returned to you. They can accumulate and then you can buy other stocks l8r.
I limit my cost to buy to under 4% as a reasonable loss to recoup on the quarter.
I would recommend Utilities as they pay a nice dividend and you will not be withdrawing soon. An ETF like Vangauard Utils can spread that across many companies for diversification in the sector.
Railroads are also a good bet going forward with the cost of fuel and commodities will be good for the forseeable future, long term.
You can purchase other stocks later as you save money. (Keep the load costs low! )
Since you are new to investing, it makes sense to go for a exchange traded fund or a good mutual fund.Vanguard has good ETFs and you can pick a performing fund from Franklin, depending on what you choose.
Before you start, you must get in touch with a good investment advisor like Charles Schwab and explain them what are you looking for. They will explain you the basics and may even provide you reading materials and tools to get started.
You can also refer to these links to get a basic idea of investing:
http://arihantcapital.com/knowledge-cent...
http://arihantcapital.wordpress.com
Go to college but use financial aid loans. No excuse for anyone to say they dont have money for it, more like finding excuses why not to go.
$100.? That's barely walking around money. Add 2 zeros and then get back to us. ($10,000.)
You would do better putting the $100 in a CD account at your local Credit Union. The amount is much too small to open a brokerage account. And, the fees to purchase and later sell the stock(s) it purchased would take years to recover from. Further, many stocks have minimum purchase amounts. All mutual funds have minimum purchase amounts. Since $100 is too small for all the Mutual Funds (e.g. a minimum is often $2,500 or $5,000 but some allow for $1,000). There are some funds that require a minimum investment of $100,000. Never the less, an individual stock might be possible. Most want to trade in blocks of 10 or 100 shares. But, these days, there are stocks that allow for a single share purchase. The best way to do this is in your parents plan at their existing brokerage house. That's because the hardest part is going to be opening an account with so little in it. If you can leverage your parents account, then it's much easier for them to accommodate this small amount.
If I were in your shoes, I would spend part of the $100 on a book about investing. Investing in your education creates powerful returns. You'll learn far more than anyone on Yahoo Answers can provide you. And, because I don't know even a CD account that will allow for less than a $100 opening balance, I would suggest you just save the money in a regular savings account and add to it until you've accumulated $1,000 and have read that investment book.
I am 19, and want to go to college but do not have the money. my parents work for GM so since about 7 years ago we've been broke(not poor but close). i dont have much $$ but i have at min. $100 for investing right now. i know i have to start small and work my way. im not looking for a fast return, it would be 10-15 years before i got into the money. i just need to know how to get started and how to invest with so little money. id like to invest various amounts of $ into 5-15 different companies to begin. I NEED TO KNOW VERY BASICS OF INVESTING. any help would be greatly appreciated.
