i’ve read a part of david denby’s american sucker and i resolve not to be overly optimistic about making money off stocks (plus, who is dumb enough to think the market is gonna make instant riches after the busted bubble of two years ago?) – but nonetheless, with some income forthcoming for the summer, i have finally opened up an account to do some investing… i’ve ready a good part of benjamin graham’s the intelligent investor and while i hope i do better than the 5%-7% annual returns that he recommends for a long-term investor, i will definitely not be putting all my chips in one basket nor will i engage in casino-style real-time trading.

sharebuilder.com, which first caught my attention last fall with its convenient placement in nytimes.com, seems to suit my student needs as it has no minimum requirement to start, and encourage long-term investing with periodic purchases. i have set mine at $50 a month and my first choices were some large market indexes, a 1-3 year bond, and american express (i have two cards from it, so i thought why not). hopefully i’ll be able to learn more about the market as i keep up to date on how my indexes are doing and also see if i can find some decent ones to make new purchases with each money (i get six investments as part of my Standard package at $12 a month). so for $62 a month, i will finally be a part of what many americans have already been partaking in with both great success and failure. if you still consider my efforts nothing greater than gambling, then i’d have to say that it sure beats driving out to mohican sun at 1am only to see $120 gone in less than 20 minutes at a roulette table.

-pk