LESSON 6: The smart place to start investing.
Take the first step!
ShareBuilder makes investing easy and affordable for anyone.
It takes just a few minutes.
Take the first step!
ShareBuilder makes investing easy and affordable for anyone.
It takes just a few minutes.
Here we are... the final lesson. Are you feeling better informed about the stock market yet still a little confused about some of its inner workings? That’s natural.
There’s lots more you can learn, of course. But, at this point, you’re probably better off putting down the books and starting to build your investment portfolio. If you’re like most Americans, you’ve already delayed your need to invest long enough. You need to build up your nest egg, and the sooner you start investing, the more time your stocks will have to increase in value.
Throughout this tutorial, you’ve been introduced to the key concepts of stock market investing. Now we’d like to introduce you to ShareBuilder, a company that makes investing in the stock market easy and affordable for everyone.
ShareBuilder offers a variety of investment options, but there’s one in particular really well suited for the long-term, fundamentalist investor (remember that term?). We discussed this option in lesson #1. ShareBuilder calls it Automatic Investing.
Automatic Investing
At ShareBuilder, you can buy and sell stocks in real-time, just like at any brokerage. But it’s ShareBuilder’s Automatic Investment program that makes it really easy to build up your stock portfolio.
What makes this such a good option? It’s automatic — and really affordable.
Sign up for this program, and you’ll be able to automatically invest a fixed amount each week (or month) in the purchase of your chosen stocks. The convenience alone makes this service attractive to busy people. But it’s also a really savvy way to start building a stock portfolio.
With ShareBuilder’s Automatic Investment plan, you can invest any dollar amount (there’s no minimum). You can select from a list of over 6,000 stocks and exchange traded funds. And you can invest in actual dollar amounts (which is a real advantage over a typical brokerage, which usually will only allow you to buy in whole shares). For a refresher on the advantages of this investment option, see lesson #1.
Funding Your Account
Once you’ve opened an account at ShareBuilder, you’ll need to deposit funds into it before you can purchase any stocks. Makes sense, right?
Most ShareBuilder customers fund their accounts through regular automatic transfers from their checking or savings account. You can also fund your ShareBuilder Account through payroll deductions, mailing a check or wiring money.
Using Portfolio Builder
After opening and funding your account, you'll be ready to select your investments. ShareBuilder offers PortfolioBuilder to help you create a diversified portfolio of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on your goals and investing style. You can customize your plan and change it at any time.
Research
It is important to do your research when planning your investment strategy. ShareBuilder offers a wide variety of online tools that you can use to educate yourself on stocks, mutual funds and ETFs and choose the investments that make the most sense for you. You can also get the latest stock news and quotes.
Next Steps
Start investing in your future. Open a ShareBuilder account today.