Stocks, mutual funds, C.D.’s, loans, gold, etc. can all be invested in with as little as $50. Starting with small $50 investments helps you to learn about investing while making some decent money along the way. As your financial knowledge and money increases you can then access more types of investments later.
The following list has many different types of investments for $50 and can help you create a low cost diversified investment portfolio:
1. Mutual Funds – Most mutual funds (a group of stocks managed by a fund manager) have high minimum initial investments of $2,500 or more. When your trying to invest small amounts of money this minimum makes it almost impossible to start investing in mutual funds however there is another option. Its called an automatic investment plan and it allows you to start a high minimum mutual fund for only $50 a month and no initial investment. It is a simple process to set up by filling out the mutual fund application and sending in a voided check from your checking account. The following mutual funds offer this service : Troweprice.com, Franklintempleton.com and InvescoAim.com. There are several other companies that offer this automatic investment plan as well and with a little more research you will have quite a selection of mutual funds to choose from. For more in depth information on mutual funds go to www.conservativeinvestments.info .
2. Stocks - There are two ways to play the $50 angle, through DRIPS (Dividend Reinvestment Plans) which allows the investor to by directly from the company and its administrator, or through a discount stockbroker like Tradeking.com or sogotrade. The following companies offer direct investments (drips) for $50 investments: Dominoes Pizza, Kelloggs, Pinnacle West, and NJ Resources. Buying directly through a discount stockbroker is as simple as opening an account with $50 and then putting in a buy order for a stock that trades for under $50 a share. Researching your potential stocks before investing can be done for free at your disount brokers website.
3. Certificate of Deposits – C.D.’s as they are commonly referred to, are basically loans to a bank for a fixed period of time, usually 6 month, 1,2,3,4, or 5 years. The only bank I know of that has no minimum on C.D.’s is Allybank.com and you can open an account and invest right online.
4. Loans – Personal to Person Loans (P2P) are loans to individuals from individuals where you can be an investor for $25 and up. Lending Club<a href=”http://join.lendingclub.com/?src=72192″>investmoney</a> and Prosper.com both are websites that allow you to make $50 loans to individuals through their web site. You get to select the person you loan your money to by researching their reasons for needing the loan and credit history, etc. I like these sites because they handle all the work if a loan goes into default, they handle the legal stuff and attempt to collect your money for you at no cost.
5. Money Market/Savings Accounts – Many different banks offer a no minimum money market or savings account including The Orange Savings Account. Earn high interest. Great rates, no fees, no minimums. Start saving in under 5 minutes.“>Ing Direct, Ally Bank, and E-Trade. All of these banks pay higher than average returns on your investment.
6. Deliquent Credit Card Loans – Few investors know of deliquent credit card loans as a good investment but when you can buy a loan for pennies on the dollar, even deliquent loans are good deals. To make a long story short, you buy deliquent credit card loans from the creditor for pennies on the dollar and contact the debtor for 30-50% of the full face value of the loan. This can make you a lot of money with little risk, for more information go here.
7. Real Estate – Most investors do not realize that you can own real estate for $50. Real Estate Investment Trusts also know as REITS allow you to buy partnership shares similar to a stock that must pay out at least 90% of its earning through dividends. These make good investments for individuals looking for income without the hassle of managing real estate. If your looking for cheap vacant land for no money down, take a look at this site.
8. Gold/Silver/Platinum – Another overlooked and misunderstood option for $50 is precious metals. You can buy 1/10 ounce or grams of precious metals for under $50 at GovMint.com-2010 Coins Now Available! . A good web-site to get more information is www.goldinvesting4u.info .
These are just a few of the many investments that allow you to invest for $50. Doing some additional research online will get you many more results for each category but at least you have something to start with to invest your $50.
