Introduction to Investing

By now you all should be saving, budgeting, and consciously spending your money with the help of the previous blogs. If not you should check those out before you read this new post.

If you're like most young adults, you're curious about investing and the stock market but don't know where to start. I've scoured the internet and a couple books to find information to help those just starting including myself. So basically, I've done all the work and you can reap the benefits with your lazy ass.

I have a couple sites divided by topics to help you all out:

Online Investor Tutorial Sites:

1. beginnersinvest.about.com
2. www.aaii.com/invbas
3. university.smartmoney.com

Now while you're diving head first into all of these new tutorials with all of this new jargon you can use this site to look up the exact meaning of unfamiliar words.

www.investorwords.com

The most important factor with any investment is doing your research:

Research:

1. www.socialfunds.com
2. www.socialinvest.org
3. www.bloomberg.com
4. www.ft.com
5. investors.com
6. nytimes.com

Now after you've done your homework and research here are a couple sites that allow you to practice your newly acquired skills with play money without any penalties. Sort of like Fantasy Football. Some require a fee but it would be non frugal of me to recommend those.

Simulations:

1. www.marketocracy.com
2. virtualstockexchange.com