help me to get started plz...

[moira]

hey guys,
Im the definition of an investment-noob, but I have some money, that I dont want to have uselessly sitting at my bank - so I figured Im just gonna start here and ask some questions:
as I looked around the forum, I found out, that the main advice for noobs like me is to invest in some index-fonds. and thats what I was planning to do.
but then I didnt know which investor/broker to choose - I dont just want somebody to invest for me, I want the ability to trade by myself over my internet-connection, especially as I hope to consistently gain knowledge and experience. so what would be my best option to do so (Im living in germany, that may be something to consider.)?
then I plan to simply put 90% in some index-fonds and 10% in some stocks.
but another thing that concerns me is the rumour of an upcoming downswing of the whole market. I mean it has been rising incredibly high over the years. therefore Im afraid that it starts dropping now that I start investing and that my market-oriented index-fonds will drop and I lose money. would it be more reasonable to just put my money on a bank-account for ~4% interest. can someone like me earn money at the financial market at the moment and the middle-term (1-2 years: maybe long-term for the market reconsodered) future?
sorry about that post, but I would be happy about any constructive answer.
thx

[moira]

bump

[Moonshine]

www.Vanguard.com

you dont have to hold stocks. There are bond indexes, real estate indexes, emerging market indexes, etc.

The US is very shakey right now, yes (it's pretty much the slowest growing company in the entire world) but the rest of the world is growing at a very strong pace. If this is money you want for a retirement fund and you wont be touching it for a long time then you can afford to put it into some risky high yielding indexes. If you need it in 5 or 6 years, you may be better of in bonds.

Putting your money in a bank account is stupid, regardless. At worst you could still put it into a money market fund and earn 4.5% easily

No one can tell you what the market is going to do. If they could they would be rich. You need to figure out how long you're going to be investing for and diversify your portfolio on a risk adjusted basis across a variety of assets (When I say risk adjusted, I dont mean put half your money in stocks and half in bonds. Stocks are way more volitile. A risk balanced portfolio may look like 65% bond 35% stock if you want equal exposure to each)

[moira]

thx.
I have to look up a bunch of stuff and let sink what u said...

[2mb]

I'm in about the same situation as you. I signed up with 2 online brokers, one for the Euro market and Zecco.com for the US market. Zecco offers 0 transaction costs for stock trades, and you can sign up for an international account.

I put some money in ETFs (check out fool.com) because they are liquid (lots of trading) and they're available in all sorts like index ETFs, emerging markets and so on. I don't mind taking a little risk since I'm trying to learn something from it. Normally markets grow in the long term so I'm counting on that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]