# What can I do with $2000?



## mogley (12 November 2007)

Ok my first post guys. 

I'm 22 and been pretty irresponsible with my finances so far. I drive a car that costs me way too much insurance and petrol, I spent $10 000 on my credit card buying things, travelling to Europe, pissing away money on piss and girls. I'm your average Gen-Y'er and I am going to piss away my money on such frivolous things as long as I practically can cause you only young once right?  Anyway, that aside...

Basically, i'm in a lot of debt but I work enough to keep me afloat. As a result of my indiscriminate ways I can only manage to save up about $2000 in capital and am really keen on getting started. I think I could whinge my way into a $3k loan from my parents to help me sign up a CFD account with Comsec and then cash out the $3k and return it to them. 

Unfortunately, $2000 isn't a whole lot of capital and even with Comsec's $19.95 brokerage, the brokerage is quite hefty. 

I have no experience trading although I studied Finance and have a pretty good grasp of all the concepts I wanted some more practical advice.

Is it even worth my while? I am thinking of having a portfolio comprised mostly of blue-chips and am focused on capital gains rather than income.
I'm willing to lose all the $2000, since I'm in this for more of a learning experience and getting my feet wet VS trying to turn $2000 into $20 000.

Given the proportionate cost of brokerage, a buy and hold strategy seems to be the most profitable yet given the performance of the market lately, I'm not sure if there is anymore room to give. Plus, i'm not in it for the returns as much as I am in it for the learning experience. Making money wouldn't hurt of course , but i'd rather take risks and learn rather than buy, hold and forget for the sake of return.


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## Pommiegranite (12 November 2007)

Do as your namesake out of the Jungle Book....and go without creature comforts. 

Pay off your credit card - expensive debt.

Only then, look at trading/investing.


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## disarray (12 November 2007)

^^ best advice. clear your debt and learn to manage your finances instead of gambling money on the hopes a stock will take off and do all the hard work for you. i'm constantly attempting to beat money management and debt aversion into my gen-y younger brother and he is only just starting to get the hint now he has a baby on the horizon.

if you are dead set on playing the market then try paper trading and research (first good move is coming here) fundamental and technical analysis or you will just be pissing more of your money against the wall.


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## prawn_86 (12 November 2007)

Alternatively you could give it to me 

Seriously, pay off you debts first as others have mentioned


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## sam76 (12 November 2007)

put a turbo on your car.


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## mogley (12 November 2007)

Wow such quick responses.
I'm glad i stumbled on this site somehow.

Nevertheless, I realise my debt situation could be improved but long story short I have got it under control.

I don't want to sit around for a year doing nothing because I've got debt to pay off. In this case, i'm willing to make a little loss if it means I get to play the market sooner and learn sooner.

I'm eager to learn and am not worried about my 'overall' financial position.
To me, losnig a year of potential trading experience is not worth paying my debt off a month sooner. 

$2000 isn't going to make a dent in my debt really, but will go a long way in encouraging me to get my feet wet and start paying attention to the market.

I've looked into paper trading but hasn't the ASX game already started?


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## alankew (12 November 2007)

Whatever you decide,I dont think learning via CFDs is the way to learn.All that will teach you is whilst things are doing great everythings rosy,but get it wrong and the debt is called in pretty quickly.Too easy too make a few $ but when the trading halt etc comes,watchout


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## disarray (12 November 2007)

this is personal opinion for a do-it-yourself toe into the marketplace so take the following advice with a grain of salt.

if you want to trade a good idea is to first pick a sector you are comfortable with - resources for example. then register with the ASX and create a watchlist of a few large, mid and speccy cap stocks within that sector (eg. BHP, RIO, Oxiana, AED, Zinifex, Westside, AAR etc.) and monitor it daily so you get a feel for the ebb and flow of money.

then decide your level of risk / reward and choose a stock based on that - generally the larger the company the less risky the investment.

next is to scan various internet sites like this and read others opinions about the stock - you get an idea of how people are valuing it, you get their insights into what the market says about it and you learn other methods of managing your portfolio.

finally learn some technical analysis. stan weinsteins "secrets for profiting in bull and bear markets" is a great noob book that is easy to understand and introduces you to the basic principles of technical analysis (moving averages, entry points, stops, stages and so on).

armed with some fundamental research on a stock and a basic understanding of how to read a chart then take the plunge and enjoy your foray into the market.

alternatively you can pay for an advice site like fat prophets (pretty crappy imo) or the chartist or hartleys and invest in the sectors you like based on their buy recommendations. i went with fp when i started and bought stocks in sectors i liked the feel of - gold, wine, oil, telecomms and so on.

but seriously, taking a year clearing your debt will not be "wasted time". debt is the root of all financial evil so a good idea would be to consolidate your debt and clear it with a bank loan at the lowest interest rate you can find. then in a year from now when you are debt free, more knowledgable about the market and more familiar with its chaotic behaviour, you can put real money up and be in a much stronger financial position.


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## new_trader1984 (12 November 2007)

hi mogley,

I was in a similar situation to you a couple years back, i used to go out spend a lot of money every weekend. I decided after doing that for a while to give trading/investing a go. I started with a 1000 and then added another 1000 not long after i started, its not much but since we are young we can afford to lose the money in stocks, i would have gone through that amount of money in 2-3 weeks at clubs and thought to invest it into a stock. I looked at high risk stocks under a dollar, a 20 cent stock that moves 2 cents is a 10% gain so a 100-200 profit if can manage to pick one that could go up. The experience of using only a small amount of money can still teach you how to make good choices then just putting your money on one stock and hoping to go up you do need to look at a lot of stocks and try and find a good one with good chances of success. It does take a lot of time, not sure how much time you have to spend on looking at different shares but at night i used to go through a lot of different shares looking at ones under a dollar but closer to 20-50 cents. 

A couple of things i looked for when i first started was aiming for a profit of a 140 that gave a 100 dollars profit after the 2 brokerages, thats about a 7% increase in a stock before selling, so on a 20 cent stock you could sell at 21.5 cents to make a profit depending on your brokerage costs. 

I never used charting at the start but that can also help pick shares once you looked into companies projects, im still learning about them but if you got a basic understanding of the main charting indicators that might also help when selecting a stock before buying. 

One thing i have learnt recently is if you do find a stock and it does have a good run dont get greedy and keep holding, its good to take profits and if you can make a 100% gain and stock still going up take some profits incase it falls back again. Runs like that i dont think happen too often but it did for gdn and i was holding for test results and looking at the share there was a lot of profit that could be made but now a paper loss currently. 

Investing into stocks that are explorers under a dollar is high risk but sometimes can be profitable.

Just thought to share, since i started with a small amount of money too.


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## stoxclimber (12 November 2007)

Paying your debt off would be your best investment from a dollar return point of view.


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## Trader Paul (12 November 2007)

mogley said:


> Ok my first post guys.
> 
> I'm 22 and been pretty irresponsible with my finances so far. I drive a car that costs me way too much insurance and petrol, I spent $10 000 on my credit card buying things, travelling to Europe, pissing away money on piss and girls. I'm your average Gen-Y'er and I am going to piss away my money on such frivolous things as long as I practically can cause you only young once right?  Anyway, that aside...
> 
> ...






Hi mogley,

..... here's some free stuff to consider, BEFORE you even
THINK about making your first trade ... 

http://www.authorsden.com/SampleWorksPDF/10134.pdf

have a great day

   paul


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## Mouse (12 November 2007)

Hi,

You're too late for the ASX game, but Etrade has a trading game that starts soon here 
http://128.121.254.21/cnbc/www/cnbc/md/home/home.page.php 

Cheers
Mouse


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## theasxgorilla (13 November 2007)

stoxclimber said:


> Paying your debt off would be your best investment from a dollar return point of view.




Totally agree.

And in the process of doing so you'll prove to yourself that you're worth trusting with $5,000 and a CFD account...if you get my meaning.


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## ROE (13 November 2007)

Apart from paying down your debt like many here suggest and I agree with them 100%... 

First thing about investing is learning the foundation. Same rule apply to everything in life, you cant do complicated maths if you dont know the foundation like addition, subtraction and algebra etc.

So I would suggest you don't jump into CFDs.. it's a quick way for someone like you to lose all your money..

you got to filter the fabs from the facts .. all CFDs ads look easy and it look like a tools that can make you a lot of money what they don't tell you is what happen when you get it wrong... or CFDs that go against your short/long position.

Get some books on finance and stock market. Spend a few months reading it and understand it ....then paper trade....then you maybe ready to play with your real capital. There is NO WAY to get rich quick on the stock market. The quickest way on the stock market is to lose money 

I can recommend a few books out of hundred that I have read, spend a few hundred out of your $2000 in a book store and educate yourself, probably the best investment your may make yet.

The Wealthy Barber (teach you how to save and manage your finance and then briefly tell u what u do with the saving)
The intelligent investor (tell you how to evaluate stocks and buy it with a margin of safety)
Common stock, uncommon profit. (show you what quality you look for before you invest in a company)


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## DionM (13 November 2007)

You will be doing well to consistently pick stocks that give a higher return than the interest rate on your c/card 

If you want experience, play a share trading game, as others have suggested.

I'm only new at this game and my "play money" is about $10,000 (the rest is invested in bluechips etc).  And with that play money, I had one stock go up $3000 ... and a couple of others go down by the same amount in total.

Hit n miss ...


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## nizar (13 November 2007)

mogley said:


> Ok my first post guys.
> 
> I'm 22 and been pretty irresponsible with my finances so far. I drive a car that costs me way too much insurance and petrol, I spent $10 000 on my credit card buying things, travelling to Europe, pissing away money on piss and girls. I'm your average Gen-Y'er and I am going to piss away my money on such frivolous things as long as I practically can cause you only young once right?  Anyway, that aside...
> 
> ...




Buy, hold and forget is the most riskiest strategy that I know of (seriously).

If you don't learn to chop your dogs and let your champions run, then you're going to find it very difficult.

I agree with the others to pay the debt.

NOT paying off the debt is only worthwhile if what you are going to otherwise do with the money will give a greater rate of return than what you are getting charged for your debts.

I agree with ROE on educating yourself. Van Tharp's Trade your way to Financial freedom I think would be a great book to get you started. He explains money management and expectancy quite succintly.

$2k is not really enough to start with in my opinion.
Just keep saving and learning until you have maybe $5-10k. I started with $7k.


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## Aussiejeff (13 November 2007)

*Donate the lot to your favorite political party!!*

You will reap a huge "social dividend". Now that's got to be your Best Value For Money bet ever.....



Cheers,


AJ


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## Awesomandy (13 November 2007)

I would repay the debts, and start paper trading until you have enough capital again. You benefit in the dollar point of view, and also learn about trading.


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## mogley (13 November 2007)

theasxgorilla said:


> Totally agree.
> 
> And in the process of doing so you'll prove to yourself that you're worth trusting with $5,000 and a CFD account...if you get my meaning.




Thanks for all the replies guys.
Very helpful.
Sorry I made a mistake, CDIA not CFD.
CDIA accounts from Comsec, just cheaper brokerage with minimum $5k opening balance.
I'm not game with CFD's yet. Still grappling with basic stocks. 

I also picked up a book called Intelligent Investor by Graham which is more about value investing, not really speculating and trading but I do want to comprise my portfolio with some good value investments and leave a little for trading and charting.


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## mogley (13 November 2007)

Awesomandy said:


> I would repay the debts, and start paper trading until you have enough capital again. You benefit in the dollar point of view, and also learn about trading.




Sounds like a good idea.
I was up sh*t creek because I thought the ASX game was over but the E-Trade game looks promising.

This site is great!


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## Tysonboss1 (13 November 2007)

Before you can get out of your hole you have to stop digging,... A small leak gone un checked will sink even the mightest ship.

You are missing the One golden rule that is garanteed to lead you to financel freedom,

All you have to do to get rich and have freedom is,....

"spend less than you earn,.... and invest the differance in a mix of income producing and growth assets."

Clear any non tax deductable debt you have ( even if it means selling your car and eating baked beans for a few months)and then start again by taking out an investment loan that is tax deductable.

you are right you are only young once,.... so don't miss the opportunity to set yourself up for life. now is the best time in your life to get some net worth behind you,.... It will be alot harder when you are 30 with kids and a  10year old car that used to be fully sick.


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## lbradman (13 November 2007)

If you really just want to learn to 'TRADE'(ie not invest) and are willing to lose your $2000 in doing so then the first I would recommend is to learn about stop losses and the 2% money management. With $2000 you have the potential to have a portfolio worth $10000 if you just buy stocks with 5-10% margin giving you a buffer of $1000 for any drastic meltdowns in your porfolio and meet margin calls. Then when you make any trades you must strictly size your positions so that they will not lose you more than $200 (2% of $10000). Off course this means you can have atmost 5 open positions when you start but atleast this gives you the power of diversification( I recommend learning about shorting stocks so that you have say 3 LONG positions and 2 SHORT positions to counter balance each other). Then the worse that can possibly happen is you lose all 5 trades resulting in your balance dropping to $1000. But if you make enough to 'keep you afloat' then it shouldnt be a problem to restore yourself back up again.

My advice is to stay out of the market until January as it appears we are experiencing another secondary correction to the one we had in August so its not safe to be trading now even for the pros.


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## Flying Fish (13 November 2007)

Tysonboss1 said:


> Before you can get out of your hole you have to stop digging,... A small leak gone un checked will sink even the mightest ship.
> 
> You are missing the One golden rule that is garanteed to lead you to financel freedom,
> 
> ...




Can you please tell us more about tax deductable loans? thanks


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## Junior (13 November 2007)

On the issue of your debt, you may already know this, but there are a number of CR cards which offer 0% interest for 6 months on balance transfers.  It may be worth moving your debt around WHILE you pay it off, this way you may be able to avoid paying any interest on the amount owing.

Tax deductible loans - If you borrow money which is then used for investment purposes, the interest will generally be tax deductible (i.e. used to reduce your taxable income)


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## Flying Fish (13 November 2007)

BillNorman said:


> On the issue of your debt, you may already know this, but there are a number of CR cards which offer 0% interest for 6 months on balance transfers.  It may be worth moving your debt around WHILE you pay it off, this way you may be able to avoid paying any interest on the amount owing.
> 
> Tax deductible loans - If you borrow money which is then used for investment purposes, the interest will generally be tax deductible (i.e. used to reduce your taxable income)




Is this like negative gearing? Do you have tpo be in the top tax bracket?


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## adobee (13 November 2007)

Interest rate on your credit card if overdue has to be around 17% ..
pay it off this is the best investment.. If I could guarantee 17% on any investment I would take every day of the week..

Else its close to the end of the year.. so head to Qld for schoolies and blow that money!


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## shechidna (13 November 2007)

Here's a suggestion Mogley.

There's a method for paying off debt called snowballing that increases incentive and gets you into good habits.  It's on "about dot com" with a calculator to aid you, but I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link.

Basically you commit to an amount to pay off each pay-day, then put each debt in a column in a spreadsheet.  Each pay you make the minimum payment on each column except the last one which gets the balance of the payment so it's paid off first.  When that's paid off you put the extra money including what you would have paid on the finalised debt into the new last column which is paid off at a faster rate.  You will have less incentive to take out further debts with this method.  As each debt is paid off the feelings of accomplishment grow, especially if the spreadsheet is printed out and pinned up somewhere.

You will be better off financially to put the ones with the greatest interest in the last column, but you may find paying off any debts to friends or family members more emotionally pressing, and also some prefer to pay off the smaller debt first to get the feeling of crossing off the paid up columns.

Meanwhile there's a lot of good advice above.  Use the library for trading books, including interlibrary loans as they can be really expensive to buy, and you will know which ones are worth buying for reference or further study by reading them first. 

Entering simulated trading competitions is really a great way to try out your talents or lack thereof.  Bear in mind that the winners appear to be taking huge risks they'd never dare to take with real money as they can't go broke in a competition.  

It can take a while to get educated and into the swing so the debt paying time can be well utilised and then you will be so motivated there will be no stopping you.


Sheila


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## Serpie (13 November 2007)

Another point of view:

Forget paper trading. It doesn't teach you anything. Split your $2k into 4 x $500 parcels, then start researching. When you've found 4 companies that you like, take the plunge. Sure, the brokerage in and out will mean you've got to clear 10% before you make a profit, but if you pick your stocks well then that's not a problem.

The lessons that you will learn over the next few years will serve you well when you start getting some capital behind you (from a "proper" job) later on.

I started with $1k parcels. When you track a stock all day, and get excited about making a $50 profit, it makes you think twice about going out that night and blowing your hard earned $50 on entertainment.

It will also educate you (first hand) on the power that 17% profit has on your money, and gives you a new appreciation of the 17%+ interest that you're paying on your credit cards.

The $2k investment on your financial literacy will be the best $2k you ever spend. If you put it on your credit card then you'll learn nothing, and will only gain another $2k of credit.


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## bailz (14 November 2007)

If you want to trade CFDs make sure you have a stop loss set, you could lose $2000 in seconds..


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## bailz (14 November 2007)

OK..last reply was maybe a little brief to be any value to you..

I trade CFDs with about 5K in capital, and whilst they are great for better exposure and more gains, they are also magnify your losses.

I lost about $900 on the Hang Seng when I started...taught me a lot about setting a stop loss and if you do trade with one..don't keep moving it while you are in the trade because you have a fear of being stopped out. I moved the stop about 4 times, thinking the trade "must have to start going in my favour soon". Get out of bad trades where you intially planned to.

So my initial loss would have been around $200...in the end my loss was $900. The market is a cruel teacher.

I trade CFDs and are subscribed to a stock market report, I dont have the time to do my own analysis and prefer to rely on what they say and run the reccomendation through my own charting software for verification.

At the moment I am about even where I started about 4 months ago, still learning and still got a long way to go, I am just grateful I have been able to preserve my capital during my learning period. Captial preservation is the most important thing to me, no capital equals no more trading..

Good luck


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## Tysonboss1 (14 November 2007)

Flying Fish said:


> Can you please tell us more about tax deductable loans? thanks





A Tax decuctable loan is any loan where the money has been used for investment purposes,

For instance if you borrow money to buy some shares, property or a business. then any interest you pay is tax deductable,.... so it is much better to hold debt against an investment than it is a personal item,

For this reason most investors will have there investment loans on interest only payments (meaning they are only paying the interest not actually paying off the loan) while they use as much of there cashflow to clear their personal debt like there home and car loan which is not tax deductable.


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## wipz (14 November 2007)

Tysonboss1 said:


> A Tax decuctable loan is any loan where the money has been used for investment purposes,
> 
> For instance if you borrow money to buy some shares, property or a business. then any interest you pay is tax deductable,.... so it is much better to hold debt against an investment than it is a personal item,
> 
> For this reason most investors will have there investment loans on interest only payments (meaning they are only paying the interest not actually paying off the loan) while they use as much of there cashflow to clear their personal debt like there home and car loan which is not tax deductable.




Your not 100% correct, the interest expense will be tax deductible when then loan is used to help produce ASSESSABLE INCOME.  ie. Generate revenue.  It is a little bit tedious when talking about shares as you will only be granted a deduction when the share generate dividend income.  If you purchase spekky shares with a loan your interest expenses may not be allowed as there is no real link to the derivation of assessable income.

Cheers


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## Tysonboss1 (14 November 2007)

wipz said:


> Your not 100% correct, the interest expense will be tax deductible when then loan is used to help produce ASSESSABLE INCOME.  ie. Generate revenue.  It is a little bit tedious when talking about shares as you will only be granted a deduction when the share generate dividend income.  If you purchase spekky shares with a loan your interest expenses may not be allowed as there is no real link to the derivation of assessable income.
> 
> Cheers




You can still claim the interest because it is an investment loss,... just like you would claim any capital you lost if you "spekky" share crashed and burned.

Any way the bulk of your portfoilio should not be held in "spekky" shares,... so your portfolio as a whole should atleast be producing some income.


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## Francis Begbie (15 November 2007)

Hey guys, sought of off topic but it's my first post and and didn't really want to make a new thread.

I have a portfolio of BHP, a couple of discovery companies, and Fosters.

I have had Fosters for almost 6 years now and haven't experienced a lot of growth and wondered what your thoughts on he stock are and good price to sell at???

I also want to start trading a bit more as i have another $2,500 i want to put in to the stock market and sell Fosters (thus buying another stock) and was wondering whether to go with etrade or commsec as i find it complicated to differentiate between them.

I want to buy into stocks with growth in them, and at 19 with such small capital, I am willing to take a loss and the risks. Looked into buying stocks such as cvi, cds, and the bluechip babcock and brown, but I keep waiting just too long and missing some steep price hikes.

Either way, I understand your not financial advisors, but where to from here??

Either way, any advice on my FGL predicament and whether to go with etrade or commsec is much appreciated!!!!


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## Tysonboss1 (15 November 2007)

I myself would probally sell all the shares and use it for a deposit on a house in north brisbane, wait a year then once the house price has come up use the equity for a margin loan on a decent size share portfolio,...

Thats just me though,... I tend not to nickel and dime anymore with small amounts of stock,... I like to keep my portfolio leveraged at 80%.

If your not leveraged your really holding yourself back,

If your $10,000 investment goes up by 10% you have made $1,000.

If you use the $10,000 for a deposit on a $100,000 investment and it goes up by 10%, you have made $10,000 that means you have doubled your money, yes you pay a bit of interest but your dividends or rent will cover the bulk of that.

leverage is one thing that property investors have over the bulk of share traders.


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## cmh888 (16 November 2007)

mogley said:


> Ok my first post guys.
> 
> Unfortunately, $2000 isn't a whole lot of capital ...




It is if you pool your money. Why don't you get some family and/or friends together and start a trading group? You can spread your risk more comfortably that way and if you had enough members you could start with maybe $1000 each. Put the other $1000 onto one of your debts. Groups allow you to share risk, knowledge, strategies, research, etc. Because there are more than your eyes on your stocks, you won't be able to make foolish or rash decisions as you are playing with pooled funds. I think that is the way to go for you. Good Luck!


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## Homer1 (17 November 2007)

With $2K?

Honestly - you should not thinking of trading stock. However, you can invest in stocks (buy and hold), but not trade (frequent buy sell with risk management).

I would suggest read Van Tharps book on Financial Freedom. 

Remember - for trading you need to have sufficient capital to start. Now sufficient will be dependent upon factors like 
1. allowable trade size (on ASX it's $500 minmum), but you have to make it worthwhile as well taking into cosideration buy/sell fees.
2. timeframe 
3. your trading style

Well all this may sounds a bit mouthful but you need to understand the concept of expentancy and money managment along with trading timeframes to determine when you should start trading with how much.

Hope this helps

Homer1


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## Hyperion (17 November 2007)

Tysonboss1 said:


> You can still claim the interest because it is an investment loss,... just like you would claim any capital you lost if you "spekky" share crashed and burned.
> 
> Any way the bulk of your portfoilio should not be held in "spekky" shares,... so your portfolio as a whole should atleast be producing some income.




I tend to agree with wipz.  You may only claim a deduction for expenses incurred in producing assessable income.  If a company has never paid dividends, and is unlikely to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, you probably can't claim interest deductions on a loan to buy stock in such a company.  If you loan is for part speccy stocks, part dividend paying blue chips, you may need to apportion the interest - which could get ugly.


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## Tysonboss1 (17 November 2007)

Hyperion said:


> I tend to agree with wipz.  You may only claim a deduction for expenses incurred in producing assessable income.  If a company has never paid dividends, and is unlikely to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, you probably can't claim interest deductions on a loan to buy stock in such a company.  If you loan is for part speccy stocks, part dividend paying blue chips, you may need to apportion the interest - which could get ugly.





I would look into that,. I am pretty sure you can claim the interest just as you would claim the loss itself if the investment went bad,....

and if it didn't go bad then yes offcoarse you can claim it because if it hasn't gone bad then it should be making money.

There are thousands of privately owned companies out there that are techniquely running at a loss because there owners pull 100% of profits out as wages that would still be claim interest on loans.


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## Hyperion (17 November 2007)

Tyson,

"If you borrowed money to buy shares, you will be able to claim a deduction for the interest incurred on the loan, provided it is reasonable to expect that assessable dividends will be derived from your investment in the shares"

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/00098082.htm&page=12&H12



It is somewhat easier for businesses to claim deductions:

You can deduct from your assessable income any loss or outgoing to the extent that: 
(a) it is incurred in gaining or producing your assessable income; or 
(b) it is necessarily incurred in carrying on a *business for the purpose of gaining or producing your assessable income. 

Hope that helps

Hyperion


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## pickles (18 November 2007)

If you are new to all of this, the last thing you should do is CFD's they are much more dangerous than taking a long position. Check out all the cheaper shares, there are some very good companies that are quite cheap, buy them on a big low and sit on them!!
Good luck.


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## burglar (3 December 2010)

Tysonboss1 said:


> you are right you are only young once,.... so don't miss the opportunity to set yourself up for life. now is the best time in your life to get some net worth behind you,.... It will be alot harder when you are 30 with kids and a  10year old car that used to be fully sick.




burglar so laughed when he read this and thanks Tysonboss1 for making his day/night! *appropriate emoticon*

cheers.


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## nulla nulla (3 December 2010)

Your credit card would have an interest rate between 16% - 22%. Any spare cash you have, pay off your credit card. 
Reign in your credit card spending, month to month, until you are able to pay each months credit card bill in full on the due date and avoid the interest trap. 
Then open your CDIA account (even if you do it the way of borrowing $3k from your parents to open the a/c then give them their money back). Then look at ploughing the money you are saving into your investment choice.


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## pierrebfg (11 December 2010)

> Your credit card would have an interest rate between 16% - 22%. Any spare cash you have, pay off your credit card.
> Reign in your credit card spending, month to month, until you are able to pay each months credit card bill in full on the due date and avoid the interest trap.



 I agree with you need to reign in your credit card spending but to help get it under control keep your eye open you can get a credit card with a transfer balance to save on the interst. I got one from Suncorp with 3.9% for the life of the balance. Yes you have to pay $200 annual fee but on 10k you save a lot of dollars but the key is to put the credit card in the draw and not use it at all as any purchases are on a high interest and you have to pay the balance back first before any new purchases. But if you are able to put the card in the draw it is a way to help pay your debt of sooner. Keep your eye open I got my one about 4 or 5 months ago and it has already saved me a lot of dollars. I did this with a personal loan which was at 14% and kept going up.
DYOR the internet is a powerful tool if used correctly.


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## Assasin (11 December 2010)

Not sure life without credit card debt is possible for the young and up and coming. By the time you pay out the card, get some savings, invest the savings while learning then you will need a credit card to live again and purchase those little needs and wants.
Credit cards are now an accepted part of growing up rather than shunned upon in my early years. (i'm 46).
My opinion- get into trading asap, learn as much as you can, accept mistakes and revel in your wins as your going to have a credit card anyway.


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## Adrian. (23 December 2010)

As a Gen Yer I can say that is definitely possible to have your needs and wants without a credit card. You can have your needs and wants and savings, all you need is a budget. Also with the invention of debit cards I see no reason at all for credit cards (Internet purchases and concert tickets used to be an excuse).


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## Garpal Gumnut (23 December 2010)

Mate, I would buy 40 cartons of Dry Ice Platinum.

They retail at about $56 a carton but you should be able to get a bulk discount.

Sell them to friends at a discount or drink them all and work out a way to start with more than 2 grand. 

Its bugger all money to make your fortune these days.

gg


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## IB12 (23 December 2010)

mogley said:


> Ok my first post guys.
> 
> I'm 22 and been pretty irresponsible with my finances so far. I drive a car that costs me way too much insurance and petrol, I spent $10 000 on my credit card buying things, travelling to Europe, pissing away money on piss and girls. I'm your average Gen-Y'er and I am going to piss away my money on such frivolous things as long as I practically can cause you only young once right?  Anyway, that aside...
> 
> ...




Put it in the bank and get a job.
Otherwise, there was a chap on here who started a thread called "Investing my first 2k". I have a difference of opinion though.


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## joea (24 December 2010)

mogley said:


> Ok my first post guys.
> 
> I'm 22 and been pretty irresponsible with my finances so far. I drive a car that costs me way too much insurance and petrol, I spent $10 000 on my credit card buying things, travelling to Europe, pissing away money on piss and girls. I'm your average Gen-Y'er and I am going to piss away my money on such frivolous things as long as I practically can cause you only young once right?  Anyway, that aside...
> 
> ...




Go and buy a TV and watch the market go up and down.
When you realise it does, learn about it.
If you are only in for the learning experience, then the more you lose the more you learn.

Cheers.


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