New Investor. Help/Advice needed...

Ryan0000 said: "Hi, this is my first post on this forum, and I just wanted to see if I could get any help or advice on starting out investing. I'm 22 years old and I want to try and get the ball rolling early. I will have $30,000 to invest by this upcoming summer in 06'. A lot of the advice I have read for early investors talks about trying to start out with $500 a month, etc, but I have not found any that addresses my situation. I have been looking around at differnt companies and websites, but a lot of the information is confusing to me. Basically what I am wanting out of this, is a long term investment that is somewhat "protected" from the riskier portfolios/funds, but not necessarily the safest. I have heard some advice that went as follows : If you are just starting to invest, it may be more to your advantage to start out in a more aggresive fund, because the cons of possibly losing (say %10) in the first year or so is outweighed by the possible benifits of gaining that added % early on in an investment, because a high gain early will eventually (in 15+ years or so), lead to a better long run gain. Then after you have gotten a year or so of successful growth to switch back to a more moderate , fund/portfolio, and let it work. This makes logical sense to me, but as I've said I dont have too much knowledge in this area, and I of course want to be careful and do it right. Any advice on how someone would invest $30,000 at age 22, for the long term (15+ years, or more), I would greatly appriciate it. Reply With Quote"

AlfredSokol said: "Put it all in GOOG."

mar31977 said: "GOOG is a safe bet, I would put half in GOOG and the other half in ING FUND (LETRX)"

TheShadowWRX said: "It's is still a good bet to go with goog? I feel like it has grown so much already. Mike"

HappyHarry said: "Take a look at CHS. Google will probably get a whole bigger, before they go down. They are the number one hype machine going."

Ryan0000 said: "hmm, i have about $10,000 in stocks right now, mainly techs like verizon and the bells, and im kinda wanting to sell those and get behind a portfolio investment. I dont know if i would like the idea of all my money being in Google, or even half, soley because it is only one stock and not spread out. I havent heard about this ING fund, if you have a url to it, I'd love to look it over, any any other advice on how to start, I'm really looking to do something long term."

Harry said: "[QUOTE=TheShadowWRX]It's is still a good bet to go with goog? I feel like it has grown so much already. Mike[/QUOTE] I lived and lot in the tech bubble of the 90s. I have a hard time getting excited with google. The good fundamentals are too clouded by the hype for me to feel safe. This is not a prediction...just my own tension with that stock. My take on google... -people will start taking profits suddenly -others will panic -there will be a tumble -new buying opportunities will present themselves. These talking point can obviously be off...I'm not trying to pee on a parade...it's just my 2 cents."

mar31977 said: "Go to any stock site and type in LETRX. I was going to take 10k and invest in GOOG when it was 180.00 but i was scared. I was going to buy at 230.00 but I was scared and soo on 320.00 380.00 400.00 Invest all you 10k and put it outn in a month........it will be at 450.00 I has gone UP 2% per DAY!! Its a safe bet and holly hell will break loose when it splits."