What is the easiest way to get started in investing in stocks?

My wife and I are starting life, so to speak, and I have come to the conclusion that we are somewhat horrible with money. While we make it paycheck to paycheck with comfort and enough to spend, it is nigh impossible for us to save, as anything that goes into a savings account gets spent out of necessity or pleasure. However, if I would be able to buy stocks, that money would be untouchable by me :D

Another reason I ask is that I'd REALLY like to invest into XCOR, the most viable commercial space travel company at the moment. I don't know what websites to look at, what fees to expect, who to go through, or any of that. I don't want to sign up for etrade or any similar companies until I'm comfortable enough with the process not to get shafted.

Thanks a lot, guys!

Justin

I would say go to investopedia.com and read all the tutorials on stocks. There are some for beginners and advanced traders. I would suggest you read them all. I am 17 and entering the stock market myself, and after maybe 2-3 hours of reading those tutorials I know as much as my brother who is a Business Finance major graduate. If you are looking for the cheapest broker, look at Tradeking.com first, it is owned by Dow Jones. If you are looking for a broker that can give you more financial advice, it will be a more expensive company but the advice can help you greatly, and will be best if you do only a few trades a year. If you want easy and simple, invest in the biggest companies, which will yield about 7-9% a year. Smaller companies have larger yields, but require more research. You can learn all of this on investopedia.com.

I know this isn't what you want to hear so I don't know why am am saying this but you should join Ameritrade. It is really great and it will earn you money. I am 14 and have been investing in stocks since I was 11 so I think you are starting a little late but better late than never right? Okay, good luck.

If you are just starting to invest, I would not invest in one stock. I made that mistake when I was younger, and while there is potential for the stock to zoom up..there is just as much potential for it to zoom down. Trust me, it's not fun to lose thousands of dollars that way. I would recommend index funds which thoroughly diversify your investment. Diversification protects you from firm specific risk. You'll own small portions of many many stocks so if one goes down it's not a huge deal. Vanguard has many many great index funds with very low fees. (you need to watch fees since even small ones can take a bite out of your earnings over time) Or look at money magazine's "money 70" list of recommended funds.
With vanguard...you can expect a minimum investment amount of $3000. If you really want to try your hand at investing in individual stocks, I would consider scottrade.com.
The fee will be $7.00 each time you buy or sell a stock. However, I strongly suggest you keep individual stocks to a small percentage of your total portfolio since they are riskier.
If you have any more questions just e-mail me : damnnatzis@yahoo.com

Hello,

I also had a similair problem as you have.
I had a good amount of money, and wanted it to grow.
So I looked around on the internet to find something that is:
1) giving me great returns towards a relatively small risk

2) Professional people who know what they where doing with my money.

I'm glad to say I finally found a moneymanager who is capable of giving me good returns and give me a great support.
On this blog you can follow up all the results that he is making:
http://my-robottrader.blogspot.com/

My money is working for me, in three months time I already have a ROI of 92%.
So you don't hear me complaining!
Annyway if you would like to get in touch with my moneymanager to have some more information feel free to contact me you can send an email to me at derrekmay at gmail.com.
Then I'll give you the email adress of my moneymanager

Hope this has helped you!