New to Investing

[Hayate]

Hey guys,
Well for the past few days ive been looking around and various investments, different ways to invest money, etc.
Well im fairly young, ive bought almost everything i need (car, college education..etc.) and im just looking for a smart way to manage my money
Should i maybe take a business class to learn more about managing my money, or do you guys believe that being self taught can be sufficient enough in learning ways to invest?

[adam c]

if your young then u should invest into some RRSP before u start throwing money into the stock market

[Rat Fink]

.

[Hayate]

Yeah i was thinking about RRSPs, they make the most sense for me. But I never thought of that paper trade idea, which is actually pretty smart. Thanks for the info guys.

[Canmorite]

Originally posted by Rat Fink
For sure.....RRSPs, and then if you're really interested in getting into the stock market on your own...paper trade for a couple years.

paper trade meaning....pretend to trade. Think to yourself "okay, i have 3000 dollars, I can buy XXXX amount of shares of whatever company" Keep track of your profits as if you would've been trading. You'll find it's not as easy of a game as a lot of people think, and it will save you from jumping in as a greenhorn and losing real money off the bat.

This is a great way to start. There are many online simulators that mimick exactly what the market does. You can place fake buy/sell orders and see what happens.

Of course, there is no risk involved and when you trade actual money its a LOT different.

Keep all your records on a spreadsheet too.

[Wraith]

Try http://www.globeinvestor.com/ we used it in school and it works pretty well.

[Euro_Trash]

www.howthemarketworks.com

[anarchy]

Those sites sound very interesting.

I took an intro to stock market class a few years back and they taught us how to follow the trends and I've always wanted to try it.

But where would you start and how much would you recommend? Also, do those sites take into account how much trading costs are when you buy and sell?

[Canmorite]

http://www.investopedia.com

EDIT: Anarchy, investopedia's stock simluator takes into account transaction costs.