Is online investing a tricky business? Think again!

Once upon a time, only the wealthy could invest in the stock market, because only those who had a lot of money to employ stock brokers could afford to play the investing game. Besides, brokers wouldn’t even get involved with an investor if they didn’t have at least $50,000 to start with. Traditionally, investing was only a game for the rich—not the poor or middleclass. Unless, of course, one were to get in on their company’s 401K plan…then, with a team of investors, an individual with less money could play the investing game. Other than that, no one could get in and play the game.

Then sometime around the mid-90’s, a unique method of communicating, better known as the World Wide Web, or Internet, became popular. At first, no one really knew what to do with this new world—let alone how to use it to invest in the stock market. Eventually though, some enterprising individuals found ways to manage investments online. Of course, this was still only for those who were able to invest through traditional means. Then one bright day, a few web sites appeared on the horizon that allowed the average person with just a little bit of cash to invest directly with companies, using their sites as a go-between. And the best part? No fees! How cool was that??
But then this method became polluted with other brokerages becoming threatened by this new way of investing, and came up with their own business models. These business models started becoming easier to invest for the average person, but they still charged a certain amount of money per trade. And they claimed they were on the “cutting edge” of technology. In short, they made online investing about as tricky as offline investing! Hence, the investing game became difficult once again.

This story may be a bit frivolous and childish, but it demonstrates what has happened in the investing world and how, a few years ago, it was much easier to find places online for the average person to invest what they had without needing to pay extra fees. When I first began investing online, it was so much easier to find no-fee investing sites, as well as places to go to buy stocks directly from the companies through the management system. They also include a prospectus for each company, so that you can research them right there on the site. You can start with just a minimum of $250 and continue with ongoing investments of $25-50 at a time. And you can manage all your investments on site.

Computershare.com is the best place for investing directly from the company. They manage many companies who have agreed to sell directly to their investors. Investing online does not need to be as hard as otherbrokerages want you to believe. In fact, if you do a little research, you can find many other resources to assist you in your investing education. All without the expensive and biased assistance from brokerages. So what is your excuse for not investing??