I could use some advice

ff81 said: "I am a 25yr old medical officer in the US Air Force and I have decided to being investing my money. I'm one who always does alot of research before jumping into things and I have done alot of reading. Everything I see says "invest for the long term" and "prepare for retirement" and "diversify." Now that is all fine and good, but one of the advantages of being in the military is I have a fairly good retirement plan (75% of my base pay at 30 years of service). So if I was an O-6 (Colonel) today, I would retire at 52 with a pension of about $60k a year. That's plenty of money for me to live off of, which leads me to my question. I have no debt, minimal bills, etc, and I plan on investing about $20k a year to begin with. Since I don't need to really worry so much about money to live off of when I retire, I can naturally afford to be alot more agressive with my investments. The bottom line is I want to be a multi-millionaire so I can afford the finer things in life. So I plan on doing it big or not at all. If I lose everything in the stock market, I won't be rich, but I'll still have $60k a year to live off of till I die. Don't get me wrong, I'm a very humble person, but I'm not going to lie about what I want. I've started reading some investment books and online sites, but everything seems to be related to retirement, and not actually making a daily income from the stock market. I probably will still open up an IRA with moderate risk, just for the tax-deferred savings. I work a standard 8-5 Monday-Friday job, with the occasional deployment to Iraq or wherever else they need me. However I do have time to do proper research and look over earnings reports, but I don't even know where to look for that kind of stuff. I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal online, and I watch CNN quite a bit, but other than that, I don't know where to look. Sorry for such a long post, but does anyone have advice for me on where to begin or required reading or how to begin investing in the style I want? I'd appreciate any help you could offer! Thanks!"

crankitdb711 said: "First of all, thanks for serving. Second, scrap CNN and start watching CNBC. Watch Jim Cramer's Mad Money which is a 1-hour show each weekday (there are a few rerun times as well). Third, how and where do you trade? Whatever online brokerage account you use should/will have a ton of info, with news, analyst opinions, earnings projections, etc. Do you have good knowledge of any particular industry or group of companies? What business ventures do you see to be the wave of the near future? And I don't mean satellite radio. If you think more defense tech spending, then look at Boeing, BA... oil prices to rise, then think Tenaris, TS or Valero, VLO. If you think tech will rebound and Intel (INTC) inexpensive then go that route. Take those ideas and plug them into your broker account as well as places like Yahoo finance or whatever and follow the news and opinion links around to help spark your thoughts. Also check the company website of what you're looking at. Godspeed."

ff81 said: "Well, I opened an account at sharebuilder.com without really knowing much about penny stocks. I haven't found a single penny stock available to buy on that site. I'm paying the $12 a month for 6 free investments, but what I didn't read close enough is that's only 6 buys, on scheduled Tuesdays. I'm thinking about pulling my money from there and moving to Scottrade or something like that. Do you have any good reccomendations for sites to trade penny stocks?"

crankitdb711 said: "[QUOTE=ff81]Well, I opened an account at sharebuilder.com without really knowing much about penny stocks. I haven't found a single penny stock available to buy on that site. I'm paying the $12 a month for 6 free investments, but what I didn't read close enough is that's only 6 buys, on scheduled Tuesdays. I'm thinking about pulling my money from there and moving to Scottrade or something like that. Do you have any good reccomendations for sites to trade penny stocks?[/QUOTE] I appreciate your excitement in anticipation of high returns. That said, "without really knowing much about penny stocks" are you prepared to assume the high risks associated with trading those stocks? Although their price may deceive you into thinking they are undervalued and will therefore go up in value, this is rarely the case. Caveat emptor. My knowledge about various brokerage sites is limited, hopefully someone will really answer your question. :o"

crankitdb711 said: "PS. are you aware of the info in or have you read this thread? [url]http://www.superiorinvestor.net/thread3089.html[/url]"

ff81 said: "No, not yet, I was reading through the 20pg thread by Guapo, I'll read that one as soon as I'm finished with Guapo's thread. Thanks for all your help!"

Mackie said: "I may or may not be the right person to offer advice, because I have done my gambles and lost in the past. You know the stuff, turnarounds that don't dont turn etc. It has made me quite conservative as an investor. I tend to diversify quite a bit - I think that is pretty good advice for anyone, put your eggs into several baskets. Here is my tip though. I reckon it took me a decade to really truly understand the risks I was taking with my money. That is quite a lot of time, research, effort and money. From what I can tell, most investors don't really consider the risk at all. Optimism points them to the upside and all they see is a graph that goes vertical!! So the tip is to not rush, but to try and really assess investments very closely. Learn to understand the risks, beta, correlation and then diversify to keep your portfolio strong in any weather. Good luck to you!"

Darren said: "I would't put the whole $20k a year into stocks. Make sure you have some sort of cash reserves. Really, though, put the money in the true powerhouse companies that rule the world. If you want to make sure your money is still there in 5 years, invest in companies that have real and sustainable competitive advantages in hot industries."

Mostafa said: "Hi ff81, I think the most important thing in stock market is Experience! I recommend trading and studying together. So, before investing completely, trade with a bit of money at least for one year. Hope that helps :)"

Harry said: "[QUOTE=ff81]Well, I opened an account at sharebuilder.com without really knowing much about penny stocks. I haven't found a single penny stock available to buy on that site. I'm paying the $12 a month for 6 free investments, but what I didn't read close enough is that's only 6 buys, on scheduled Tuesdays. I'm thinking about pulling my money from there and moving to Scottrade or something like that. Do you have any good reccomendations for sites to trade penny stocks?[/QUOTE] PENNY STOCKS???????? In the first post you said..."I'm one who always does alot of research before jumping into things". How cn you do research and have ANYTHING positive to say about penny stocks? Where did you read that penny stocks were safe or a good investment??? Penny stocks are the worst investment. If you want to play penny stocks, I recommend using 4% from a diversitived account at most. I assume you want to make money and not flush it down the toilet."

AlfredSokol said: "There are no good penny stocks. Take a hammer and smash your thumb with it. It will be less painful and more educational than buying that crap."