I've been hooked on the fool site. I'm going to look into drips very soon, but don't know the details of doing it in canada - don't know if I can hold accounts at the online discount trading firms, taxes, etc.

I wish I had invested this quarters stock money in a CD

Trogers was very correct in suggesting investing in stocks. Stocks have the highest return of any asset class in the long run. This high return combined with the power of compounding over a long period results in huge growth of money.

For example, $10K invested in a CD returning 6% would grow to about 57K after 30 years. That same $10K invested in stocks returning 11% per years would grow to about 229K after 30 years. These figures are simplistic because they don't include taxes and expenses but you can clearly see the impact of the better performing asset class over the long run.

Like poker, the returns from stocks are not consistent. While a CD would provide you with a guaranteed return over a certain period, stocks could loose a large amount of money over the same period. The key with stocks, and with poker, though is that you will make money over the long run.

This idea of investing for the long term is critical for achieving the best performance. For most investors, it is best to buy and hold an investment. Many investors allow emotion to cloud their judgment. This causes them to buy when the market is doing very well and sell when the market is doing poorly, the opposite of buying low and selling high, causing poor long term returns

To invest, I utilize index funds. I think fool.com has a good section on index funds if you want to find out more. Diehards.org also is a great forum that discusses index funds. Index funds are great because they have very low expenses.

Young investors also should consider making Roth IRA contributions. A Roth IRA is great because the money invested in it grows tax-free and money can be taken out tax-free at retirement age. Unlike a normal IRA, you invest after tax dollars in a Roth IRA. You can also with draw the contributions to a Roth IRA with out penalty since them money was taxed when first invested. The max contribution to a Roth IRA this year is 4K.

If you were making your first Roth IRA contribution, I would invest in a Target Retirement Fund. These are mutual funds that are composed of other mutual funds. This allows the investor to have complete diversification. Instead of just investing in an S&P 500 index, which is composed of Large US company stock, the target retirement funds expose investors to all US stocks, foreign stocks, and some bonds. This reduces volatility. My favorite target retirement funds are from Vanguard.

Yea I have an ING account. It's basically just like a regular savings account with FDIC insurance and what not, but it has no overhead so they pay lot's of interest. It's not really compareable to neteller because it's only linked to your checking account so money goes in that way and that is how it comes out.

ING takes like 2-3 days to get money places. My brother out the hard way that they do NOT do certified checks of any kind. So don't park it there and expect to have access to it immediately. But the interest rate is great....