What exactly is a nest egg bond, and should I buy some?
I'm 20 and I'm trying to think give or take a few investments now that I'm just about to graduate college.How do savings bonds work and is it a apposite idea to buy some?
Answers: The best plan I can regard as of to answer your question is to direct you to the affairs of state site that discusses them. It however is like most elected representatives things, not too clear and written in governmentesse. Oh in good health what else could one expect.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/indi...
Not for you. You're young and literary, and presumably have a living or other source of funds since you're thinking of investing. Savings bonds are very sheltered investments, and as a result have intensely low returns. They are for money you can't afford to lose, but don't want to access for a long time. As you can imagine, that's a pretty constrained niche.
Over the long term, the best investments are stocks of stable companies. Given your age and earn potential, you should be willing to buy some to a certain extent risky stocks in hopes of some big payoffs. Whether you buy big, established companies or small, speedily growing ones, you should look for companies with a strong assistance over their competitors, growth opportunities (big companies hold them too, through new industries or acquisitions), relatively low valuation and little or no debt. Perhaps most important, you should NOT buy and supply frequently - one of the top ways people lose money is through brokerage fees. You don't involve the cash, you can earn it other ways - maintain it in the stocks to lock surrounded by your gains for the long occupancy. People who tell you to do otherwise are dishonest or uninformed (the majority) or professional traders who do nothing else 14 hours a afternoon. Unless you want to be one of them and have thousands surrounded by cash on foot, buy and hold makes more sense. BTW, this is why mutual funds are usually a spend in dribs and drabs of money unless you're in a 401(k) beside matching that one and only lets you buy funds. Their fees are crazy!
Fool.com have a lot of resources base on this philosophy (called value investing), several of which are free. Anything written by Warren Buffett is also worth looking at. Right now is a great time to buy stocks because short-term apprehension has reduced prices. Remember, price volatility comes from fund manager who have to show a profit RIGHT NOW. You don't enjoy to be subject to that. Their panicked market is your chance to buy a long permanent status winner.
Rob W have got greatly of good points.
I will append a couple though...
Mutual funds do charge fees, and they are often too illustrious, BUT they are a good place to start. You want to understand how to spread out and buy in your investment side, stock picking right away will likely be a bit overwhelming. So don't necessarily right to be heard no to a mutual fund just because you enjoy to have slightly lower returns. Or I don`t know you can choose a GIGANTIC and stable company that's been around for at smallest 25 years to buy (like Microsoft, GE, Merck, etc). Your choice.
Also, at this time savings bonds suck for assorted reasons. One of the core investing question is "how much money is my money making?". Savings bonds make you smaller quantity than nothing; funds bonds are based on current interest rates, and current interest rates are freshly too low for bonds to make sense, unless you're close by retirement.
Being 20 years old, you should be 100% surrounded by stocks.
What are some good message boards on stocks/investing?
Answers: Well, it seems those two people have had some bad experiences with msg boards...but if you want one that has mostly pretty decent conversations about stocks and investing in general...go to:
http://www.investorvillage.com
They seem to cover most stocks individually, but also have boards that focus on different sectors. I have yet to come across the childish nonsense that shows up on some other boards... mostly serious comments made and strategies discussed.
You can log on and look at all the different boards and read messages...but to start posting, you must register... no problem there, the site seems to be administered by some competent professionals.
most of the big message boards are used to hype stocks. just about all the small ones are run by nuts. besides the people participating on the good boards are generally no better investors than you or I. In the investing world you pretty much have to go it alone, listening to others will only hurt your returns (unless of course you run across a brilliant investor who befriends you, brokers dont count).
Does indiabulls offer stock recommendation/screening and tips? is that free?
Answers: Yes India bulls offers such tips but it is not free. If you have opened a trading account with them then only you will be getting those tips.