Comments on: Start Investing with Only $100?

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 22:49:16 +0000

Just get an excelsior fund after you save $500 (their minimum). Save via one of these funds till you get in excess of $2000 then shop around again.

The Excelsior fund expense ratios are reasonable and are much less than the 4% quoted above. You can buy into these funds free of charge via most brokerage accounts.

Enjoy!

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 21:11:35 +0000

NCNblog is right — the beauty of Sharebuilder is that you can make your transaction costs very low, if you are willing to wait to invest a larger amount. But you are assuming that something like INGdirect is going to pay 4% for the next 10 years. Also, the weekly trades aren’t really a big deal — do you really need a real-time gotta-have-it-right-now trade if you are going to hold your investment for 5-10 years? You’d better be holding it that long if you hope to make any money (and mitigate the transaction costs).

By: frugal underground » money: saving more, making more, enjoying more, needing less » Blog Archive » Festival of Frugality: number 8

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 12:31:25 +0000

[...] Start Investing with Only $100? JLP takes a look at a way you can start investing with $100. I found the comments on this post to be especially interesting. [...]

By: frugal underground

frugal underground — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 12:27:12 +0000

Festival of Frugality: number 8

Welcome to the eigth Festival of Frugality. There’s plenty here to keep you occupied on a lazy Tuesday, and it’s good enough stuff to make it worth your while even if your Tuesday is more crazy than lazy.
$20 isn’t what it used to …

By: ncnblog

ncnblog — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:41:47 +0000

I was wondering, and I know that I am new to investing, but if you invest 100 dollars for 12 months, that is a total of 12 trades and 1200 dollars. Now, that is going to cost you 12 x 4 = 48 bucks. So, you have paid 4 percent of your money, just to purchase the stocks or etf’s. Wouldn’t the stocks have to grow at LEAST 4 percent to break even, and ANOTHER 4 percent to match an ING type rate of return. Am I missing something? Why not SAVE up the 1200 dollars, and make a single annual purchase, for 4 bucks, or .33 percent. (plus, you would make 4 percent on your savings at ing or emigrant, etc.) Wouldn’t a stock or etf have to do BETTER than 8 percent, in order for you to make money this way? Thanks,
ncnblog.com

By: Chrees

Chrees — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:40:47 +0000

I finally opened a Sharebuilder account for two reasons: 1) I have been wanting to build up a portfolio of high-dividend stocks, and 2) an $85 bonus from Costco for opening such an account.

#1 wasn’t high on my priority list right now, but I know if I keep putting it off it won’t happen for a while. I wholeheartedly agree with your point that it isn’t best suited for the long term. I’m hoping by the time I get my higher priorities addressed and I’m ready to invest more, I’ll have built up a substantial position without even having noticed it happening.

By: JLP

JLP — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:33:10 +0000

Caitlin,

Just so you understand, you can do real-time trades with Sharebuilder, but they charge $15.95 per trade.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:27:27 +0000

Wow. All this time I didnt realize that sharebuilder only traded once a week. Interesting. I can see it’s use for a low barrier to entry, dollar-cost averaging solution (like this) but I’ll concentrate on getting my fidelity account to the better commission level.