How much do people usually invest?

Sherrill Botting: You invest what you can afford.Every investment has different risks, different minimums and different expected returns.Talk to a local financial planner to discuss what is best in your situation.

Edmund Rappley: Everyone has different starting points. Some parents teach their children how to save change from their allowance. Then teach them how to buy 1 share of stock in a company the child understands like McDonalds.So what I'm saying is there are no rules on what people "usually" start with.The more important thing to learn is fundamental and technical analysis so you can learn what to invest in. Check out http://www.investools.com/ and get an education in investing....Show more

Russ Kiernan: Ideally you would want to maximize your tax shelters. Your 401k annual limit is $16,500 and your IRA contribution limit is $5,000 per year. Check to see if your income level is to high to have both. That amounts to $1,791.66 per month but chan! ces are you won't be able to afford that. I would say you would want to start with your employer's match on the 401k and max out the IRA which would be $466.66 per month; then keep trying to rework your budget to put more into your 401k. There's really no point in working on a non tax sheltered or deferred account other than an emergency fund until you've maxed out your tax shelters. Should you be fortunate enough to also contribute to non-sheltered investments, keep your portfolio rebalance point in your tax shelters and invest in investments without taxable revenue outside of the shelters as you need a balanced portfolio anyways....Show more

Ulrike Hert: invest what u can afford and be comfortable with the more u invest the more you will yield in interest the best way to invest is an IRA they start as low $25 dollars and up

Dannie Briseno: When I first started with my financial planner, I could only afford to set aside $50 per paycheck (bi-weekly) to be ! invested in long-term, low risk investments for long term savi! ngs and/or retirement and emergency fund. As I progressed in my career and got raises I gave her a bit of each raise each time.

Joellen Zorrilla: You could buy as low as $50 on a topnotch mutual funds and buy shares of stocks even less than that. If you are 25 yrs old right now, and you invested $50 per month and earned 10%, you will have $316000 at the moment you will retire. But before going engaging, make sure you have to pass at three areas.1. Have you settled your high-interest debt?2. Are you involve in your employer's 401(k) plan?3. Do you have an emergency cash fund?Make sure you have an investment adviser before buying stocks. I highly recommend alpha.forcastix.com in analyzing company's finances and other stock predictions....Show more