One of our readers, Jesse, asked:

“Hey, I just wanted to know, say I wanted to just jump into stocks. Can I directly buy stocks or do I need to go to a site like Charles Schaubb in order to get started?”

Buying a share of stock, whether it be common or preferred, seems like a daunting task to those who have never owned stock before. But to put it quite simply, stock is nothing more than a piece of paper resembling a portion of ownership in a company. Most big-time firms will issue stock in order to raise cash, so if they have cut up 100 shares and you buy one… you essentially have 1% ownership in that company! Cool huh?

Rather than buying the paperwork directly, most investors nowadays turn to stock brokers. What is a stock broker? Think about a broker as somebody who orders the shares you want, does all the paperwork for you, and keeps track of your money, your earnings and your losses.

Picking a Broker: Discount Brokers
The most popular option for investing today is through a discount broker. These typically have a low minimum deposit and low trading commission fees. Here are my favorite three:

1. Scottrade - This is the broker I use to make my trades. They are known for having the best customer service in the business, and very favorable pricing for beginning/intermediate buyers. Trades are all just $7, including stock options. The minimum deposit is just $500, so anyone can put money in. Plus, they are the only major broker that hasn’t been hacked in the recent wave of phishing attempts. I trust them more than anyone else because they offer a sense of security. Customer service is very helpful and their trade execution time is apparently the best of all discount brokers. If you want to sign up, let me know so we can both get 3 free trades! Read the rest of this entry »

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Jonathan E. of Omaha, NE asks: “How do I know if I will actually be paid or not? How can I tell if a website that promises money is legitimate?”

Well Jon, this is perhaps the most popular question among new-comers to the GPT industry. If you have just heard about this prospect of completing short offers for money, with the potential to gain hundreds (and even thousands) of dollars, you are probably a non-believer. How can a website honestly be trusted with paying you to fill out your name and address on a few forms? Well truth be told, some cannot. However, most of these self-proclaimed GPT (get-paid-to) sites have great reputations and customer service to ensure you get your payments in full.

First things first, how can GPT websites actually give you money for seemingly unrelated offers? What is basically happening here is that the managers of these websites search around the web for different companies willing to pay for new members. Read the rest of this entry »

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