So, a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to invest money in some stocks. Why did I decide this? Perhaps boredom, maybe I thought I'd get rich doing it, I don't know. I have the money, I need to start saving . Although I am hardly at anything near an age where retirement is about to bite me, but I've listened to all of those money gurus and they say 'invest while you're young and you'll be a millionaire! I'm all for that.

So, I want to start investing... How? Well I needed to find someone to buy and sell them for me, since I am sure as hell not going to stand on wallstreet waving those little pieces of paper with a cell phone to my ear. Let's see... I need someone online... What do they call them? Are they brokers or just online stock traders? I don't know, does it matter?
Ok, online broker... Hmm... God these people are expensive. $5000 minimum balance? $19.95 per trade? I'm not made of money.

Hmm... Well, for a beginner like me, it looks like the best bet is ShareBuilder, they don't have a minimum balance, their basic plan has no monthly fee and it's $4.00 per trade... if you do it on Tuesdays (and make the stock pick by 5:00pm on Monday). Ok, that's not too bad, it's good for investing. The con? If you want to sell the stocks you buy, you have to make at least $19.95 to break even. Yep, it's $4.00 to buy if it's on a Tuesday, but $19.95 to sell any day.
Ah well, such is life. I have to start somewhere, and I sure as hell don't have $5000 to hide away.
Don't like the idea of $19.95 to sell a stock? If you have $500.00 you can join Scottrade. I only have $300.00 right now so I'm going to stick with Sharebuilder, they only charge $50.00 to transfer out, so if I ever get above $500.00 I can move to another firm. I know what you're thinking "Only $50? That's a hell of a lot of money!" Yeah, I know it is, but I don't plan on moving until I have at least a few thousand in this firm, but once I do it will be more profitable for me to move on, so rather than pay $19.95 to make two (and a half) trades, $50.00 will get me to another firm with cheaper commissions.