Buy a $100 worth of Iraqi dinar... or whatever it is... and by god you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams...... oh.. wait....... what!

i'm confused by your tone.  yes, i'm on a tight budget––as i said, i'm a full time student.  tuition, even at a public university, isn't cheap.  i guess you could say that this implies "serious money issues".



from that budget, i'm sacrificing entertainment in order to get a positive return from those dollars, and you say that this is an "even worse sign".



this makes sense how, exactly?

that's already started.  it was my only other consideration for this money, and i was considering going the precious metals route so i could overlap.

Money market savings account like emigrant direct.  As the others have said, transaction fees will kill any profits.

the best bet for someone like you just getting started would be buy high dividend paying stocks in large multinational companies

research companies that pay 3-5% or more and have a history of raising the dividend each year

reinvest all dividends and buy a little more stock each month - like 50 bucks a month if you can swing it which is likely the minimum you can buy - the key is consistency, buy every month and dont even look at it

buy direct as to avoid trading costs, there are dozens of companies that let you do that

do this for 30 years and then start collecting the checks, retire

I was going to say buy some 1 oz silver coins here and there and build up a decent stash as a way of storing money



 

$100 will buy you a lot of Colleen Thomas vids on Youtube.

The information you get could save your life!

While it is good to invest, and you have to start somewhere, asking how to invest 100 dollars is the functional equivalent of asking, "How do I invest 5 bucks?"  It is an inconsequential sum, best saved for emergencies or spent paying off debt.

If you were in the snow belt I'd advise you to buy a snow shovel with it and go door to door shoveling sidewalks.  Right now you should be focused on making more money to invest, and paying down debt.  Since you're a student, the best investment is to get a first class education in a marketable field.

Invest in yourself!  Don't know what you are studying in school, but I would invest in the trade group or society (IEEE for example), and make contacts in your field and even if you have do an internship in your field, get some experience and make some contacts.  The $100 might be dues, attending conferences, resume building, etc.  

This will have a far greater payoff then anything you can do at this point with $100 in an investment/account.

What is this all about?

the site is really interesting, but since i'm in TX, i can't do it.

Buy some books on investments...don't try to invest $100...trust me.

Go back in time 6 years and buy a yugo SKS

bring it back and sell it at a gunshow

never work again

Start off Paper Trading first. Learn the ropes, and save more money.

Actually, I really do like the open-account, get-a-bonus plan.  I opened a free checking with interest recently that cost me nothing, and got me a $100 bonus after about 45 days.  I tied it to my job payroll (partially), and now direct deposit enough for one specific bill plus a few extra bucks into it.  That bill auto pays, and the entire process cost me absolutely nothing yet got me $100 and an interest bearing account.

I haven't read all the posts, but if I wanted to make money with $100, I'd start with craigs list.  No question you get a higher rate of return through craigs list.  

Pick a product, research it, buy it low, sell it high....Profit.

Learn to build a website that sells ads.

Who the heck will melt them for you?

http://www.optionsxpress.com/



No minimum initial account size.

Illegal now to melt US coinage. Problem solved!  

Simple. Site matches willing borrowers with lenders and skims a portion off the top.

I went relatively riskier since I invested play money. I should get a 12% return. I haven't plugged their portfolio into SAS yet. I've got $250 in play. I'm a gangsta lol.

I don't know how else to more simply explain how to borrow and lend money than this gets.

So for just informational purposes, how do you separate the silver and copper when hypothetically melting them?

 

How do you get involved in micro loans?

You aren't going to get a positive return on those dollars. That is how. Despite the fact that this is a bad idea to begin with you are going into it with the thought that it is entertainment. In doing so you might as well expect to lose all of this money from the start. I am sorry if there is a tone on top of my brutal honesty but it is hard to prevent from coloring it a little bit when explaining why your approach is so...misguided. As it has been pointed out to you already the best you can hope for is a fee of $14 on your investment. That is $7 for the buy and $7 for the sale of a single stock. That means you have to have a 14% gain just to break even. And as I said before going into this without knowing what you are doing or without sound financial advice from a professional is just gambling with your money. The people telling you to go bet on black or red are actually providing you with a better alternative to what you are considering. At least on that bet your odds are almost 50/50. It would be generous to say what you are considering has a 5% chance of profit. Your current strategy of blindly throwing your money into the market is what makes other people money because an overwhelming majority of the people doing what you are considering lose money. Much like here in Vegas someone has to win eventually but everyone loses in the long run.  

Now the reason the first thing you should do is put this toward debt is because it is already costing you interest to carry that debt. Someone else is putting their money to work for them as you put it before and they are doing it off of you. So on top of the 14% you would have to make to break even with your "investment" you should really add the interest rate on your debt. Say you have an auto loan out for 5%. That means you have to see a 19% gain for this investment not to cost you anything if you kept it a year.

So you see the reason I say you have money problems is because people who are on a tight budget cannot afford invest wisely let alone gamble. If you didn't have any debt and you somehow already have enough money stashed away for ~6 months of expenses despite being so strapped for cash any extra funds should be put toward maxing out your IRA. If by some miracle that was already happening you should either put the remainder of your money into education so that you can make more money later on or mutual funds that have come recommended to you by a professional financial adviser. IF braving the mutual fund selection on your own you better spend many hours researching. Most mutual funds do require a minimum investment of $2500 or more which is why I said that anything less than $2500 belongs in a savings account earlier.

So if you just have to spend that $100 on something please go buy a book on money management. Learn why what you are thinking about doing now is such a bad idea. I bought Everyone's Money Book by Jordan E. Goodman back when he was a regular guest on a radio program I listened to and I was looking into learn about investing. To be honest I never actually read it cover to cover. I picked through specific topics I was interested in and found it to be helpful that way. It has been some time though so I may completely disagree with it now. It couldn't hurt for you to pick it up though. He has sold a lot of copies. Lately I have been listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio and I really like his Total Money Makeover program for getting people out of debt. Buying some of his books might be a good idea.

You could feed my three teenagers for a few days, the return stinks though.

spend 50 dollars on a currency trading for dummies book and a technical analysis book.



put the other 50 into a forex micro account.  I started with 100 over a year ago and have turned it into a few thousand.  Playing it a litle safer now that the account is getting much bigger but Im still pulling in around 5 percent a month profits on the account and on this path in a few years that 5 percent a month will be paying my mortgage.  



worst case scenario is you can't figure it out and you lose 100 bucks.

No money market accounts, no day trading, no penny stocks because, as somebody else pointed out, trading fees would be a substantial portion of the principal. Here's what you can do:

1. Research online brokerage accounts. You are looking for two things: a low minimum (most have a minimum of $500 or more; some are as low as $50 or even no minimum) and no transaction fees for dividend reinvestment.

2. Put the entire $100 on a blue-chip, dividend-paying stock. I recommend Walmart, ticker symbol WMT.

3. Everytime you have $100 or more saved, buy more. Or buy shares of another blue-chip stock. Otherwise, leave it alone and let the dividends compound. If you sell, you lose.



One last thing: mindset. If you have shares of WMT and the price drops, don't even think about selling to cut your losses. You don't have any losses until you sell. Instead, scrape up all the money you can to buy more while it is such a bargain. It will come back up; that's why it is called a "blue chip" stock. If you sell out, it will probably come back up the day after you sell. That's how most people who lose money in the stock market, do it. That, and buying what's hot and seeing it fall again. There's a reason why you hear the advice "buy low, sell high": even though it sounds like a duh statement, most people can't seem to keep themselves from doing the opposite.

Buy a Spyderco Knife. Don't open it. Put it away.
I bought a spyderco military in 1999. I don't think they make this same exact knife, steel etc. I paid 99 bucks (too much but I was a noob). Last check the military with G-10 is 140. Mine is all steel. So maybe a Spyderco enthusiast would give me a good price. For sure I could get 140 as it is NIB untouched. Don't know how good a ROI 41 bucks is over 12 years. It is safe and reasonable and you don't pay any taxes on what you make.

Buy a Colt Factory magazine. Likewise, put it away un opened. The price will go up.

ETA: My Italian (bending nose) cousins used to buy lotto tickets in PR, fly to NYC where large PR population, sell at mark up. Illegal I am sure. Great ROI.

I heard on Clark Howard's show that his favorite fund to start saving with is called "StarFund".
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0056&FundIntExt=INT

It requires one thousand to start though.

This would be the way to go. Try to search out little hole in the wall junk shops, you're probably not going to find them listed online. Flea markets and antique shops tend to be over priced and picked through in my area.

You're trying to start saving/investing and that's a great thing!   Too bad people here can't see that and offer encouragement.

IF you can open a brokerage account (Scottrade is who I would recommend, but they are $500 min), deposit the money.  Save up more, deposit more.  Once you have enough to buy a decent amount of shares, go for it.  You have to start somewhere.

You got me interested, but you can't invest on there unless you have an annual gross income of $70,000 or more.  





 

Do they want proof?



It is kinda interesting



 

No, but when you try to sign up for it, that part is in the agreement.  

 

Ohh, I didn't think they'd make you send in a tax return or LES. I sure as hell wouldn't send some place online my info but I figured they wouldnt turn down money



 

You are an honest man. Very rare commodity in the field  of managing other peoples money.

Sorry, dupe.

Aloha, Mark

Buy 100 shares of  "LVLT" when it gets under $1 again.

Aloha, Mark

you must be mistaken.  according to AndrewS, that's not possible.



i'll certainly look into it, though.

wdrp.pk

With only $100 and as a young person.

high risk has high rewards.  starting small you can risk more.  At first I was playing very high risk at each benchmark dollar amount such as 500-750-1000-1500-2000 I stepped down my risk level which slowed down my account growth drastically but Im pretty stable now around 5 percent a month.  been averaging that for the last six months straight despite the twists and turns of the market. If I played that high of isk the whole time I could have lost it all just as fast as I made it.  best thing with forex is there aren't really many surprises.  you know ahead of time what a country is doing and can protect yourself from the effect it will have on their currency.  Other than events such as interest rate decisions and whatnot currencies follow pretty damned predictable chart patterns such as ranges channels breakouts support and resistance levels and on larger time frames candlestick patterns .
 

As described to me by a Postmaster, the increases in postage are legally limited by inflation, the best you can do is break even in terms of actual buying power.



 

can you recommend any specific book titles for instruction?

Thank You

I'm interested in this as well.
TD

pretty much every forex trading book in a barnes and noble goes over the same stuff. risk management is the key factor.  I can be wrong more than I am right and still profit because I only enter trades with high probability of high gains and at entry points where I can have very tight stop loss orders so when I am wrong I lose very little.



other than that any basic market technical analysis book so you can understand some other indicators to back up your plans.