Coffee Can Cash

In Part 1, I talked about my current (June) online ventures that are making me money. But now I’m going to discuss how I recently opened up a ShareBuilder account through ING Direct, and have invested a very small sum into the account.

Why am I writing about this, this way? Because I’m the first to admit that I have VERY little knowledge in investing. I mean, like, next to nothing. I know how stocks work, “buy low, sell high”, and I know about Roth IRAs versus Traditional IRAs, I know a little about 401k’s and employer (which I don’t have) matching, but when it comes to managing my own investments, I’m pretty clueless.

Yep, this is when most people go out and hire a financial planner.
Instead, I took $90 and tossed it into a ShareBuilder account.

What I’m hoping for here is that my measly little sum will do something (positive or negative) that will help teach me more about money markets and such. I’ve currently invested portions into AGG and SPY, which apparently gives me a moderately conservative investment portfolio.

My goal is to play with this little money, as opposed to slapping it into my ING account. In fact, I pulled it out of there to get the ShareBuilder account started. I’m not ever going to put the money in unless I know I’m going to have it to “lose”… much like if you go to a casino (or at least whenever I used to go), you only bring what you can afford to lose. (FWIW, I haven’t been to a casino in years now, but whenever I would go, I’d bring no more than $60 with me. Once that was gone (if it was gone), I was done. If I made some, I’d take my winnings and head for the door. I couldn’t stand to watch my friend who would rack up $800 on a $20 deposit on a slot machine, and then she’d blow it all, hoping for the bigger payout! So I’d take my piddly profit of $50 and book it right to the bank.)

Anyway, I’m getting off topic here.

While I know that making uneducated investments is probably pretty stupid, I love how ShareBuilder ran a little quiz with me to help me find out what would be the best investments for me right now. These two funds were what was recommended to me by ShareBuilder (See? I’m not THAT gutsy!) so I figured it’d be a fairly safe bet to start with.

Anyone investing in any funds, or have experience with ShareBuilder that they want to share?

Oh, and if you’re interested in signing up with ShareBuilder, let me know and I’ll send you a referral by email. If you sign up under me, I’ll get 5 free trades, and you’ll get a FREE $55!