Wayne has it right. BUT---go directly to Vanguard investment company. Pick out a stock mutual fund you want in the divident growth arena and buy it. Minimum investment is usually 2k or 2500. Vanguard charges very little to own their index funds so your money will not be eaten up by fee's. Warren Buffet said invest in Vanguard 500 index funds if you don't want to spend 80hrs a week studying individual stocks. Open a brokerage account at vanguard and get started. If you really want to do some individual stocks buying as well in the future you can do the same thing at Fidelity---open a brokerage account. But start with an index fund for low cost.

Forget brokerage accounts and picking individual stocks. Open a mutual fund account with a growth-oriented (or dividend-oriented) equity fund. You can add to it as you are able. Vanguard or T. Rowe Price are two excellent fund companies. If you buy individual stocks or ETFs in small amounts, the brokerage fees will negatively impact your return.

I would save up for a while and then buy.

Buying 5 different stocks would incur 5 $7 commissions and defeat the purpose of saving up.

Also, I wouldn't buy individual stocks. I would buy mutual funds. You can find mutual funds that pay dividends as well and they are much less risky than individual stocks.

Save up your money until you have $4 or $5k.

DVY or VIG

Hey, so I was looking to open a Scotts Trade account with the minimum $500. My goal was to overtime was to build a dividend growth portfolio, but right now Im only making roughly $1000 a month so I have to invest slowly. Scotts trade charges $7 a trade so I was wondering when investing should i invest like $500 at a time so the fees don't eat up my profits too much? because I was thinking like if I invested $100 at a time then i would be losing 7% right off the top, so would it be better to just save $500 then invest and keep rinse and repeat? Or would it be suitable to do a lower amount? Also should i start by putting it all into one stock at a time? Or could i for example on my initial $500 buy like 1 share of 5 different stocks? Im very young and I know I still have a lot to learn, but thats why i ask these questions so I can learn from people more adapt. This isn't an immediate decision Im making, Im asking for future reference so I can already have a game plan.

I guess to summarize I could say, whats the optimum way to invest a little bit of money without having fees eat away your margins? Thanks!