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These days, you can find commission free ETFs and no load mutual funds which track the S&P 500, so that's a way to keep expenses down. Vanguard is a popular option for index investing and TD Ameritrade has about 100 commission free ETFs available as well.
The S&P 500 has been increasing pretty steadily over the past several years and its valuation is near the upper end of what some consider to be a good value i.e., many people think that a market correction is overdue or will be occurring soon. Of course, no one knows for sure and trying to time an entry point could prove futile, or could result in a good bargain. It's ultimately a personal decision based on what you anticipate.
I'm no expert and would encourage you to do some research before making a decision.
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yeah, vanguard has a very low cost fund that is basically the same as the S&P, probably called the vanguard 500 or whatever.
Do you have a Roth IRA? If not, invest your money in that manner as much as legally allowed for the various tax benefits, unless you want to cash out before retirement age.
in the opinion of may the markets are in a big bubble. Buying now might be like buying a house in 2007. Looking at a simple chart of the markets since '08 looks alot like the first half of this:
The argument is that the fed's quantatative easing goes to the big banks who borrow the funny money at basically 0% and buy stocks w/ it & profit & that they will do this till the all agree not to and they exit leaving the aveage man & pension funds etc holding the bag when it crashes back down. Another argument for the bubble are the new records in price to earning ratios. When this figure gets too high in history, the markets have collapseed shortly thereafter.
What those who see a bubble dont' agree on is what happens from here? An inflatioary or deflationary environment? In deflations, bonds & cash are best usually. In inflation stocks are usually better than bonds. remember that in deflation, cash buys more today than it did yesterday. Bonds, gov, are in a manner of speaking cash equivalents, plust they have a rate of return so in a deflationary collapse where the government does not collapse or default, bonds are the ultimate. It is possible that the fex & other central banks can just keep goosing the economy w/ QE and it will drive the market higher. If this occurs as now you can gain in wealth by being in teh market. If this causes super inflation, the markets may go up x10 in nominal terms but your actual wealth, purhcashing power, would be about the same.