This article is intended for beginners only. It is my hope only to take some of the fear out of the market for people with no experience. I am not an expert. I learn new things every day about the market and different investing strategies by simply reading and playing with a meager sum in the stock market. I would ideally like to create a forum for friends just getting their feet wet to offer support for one another.

Having said that, a lot of people I meet are afraid to begin investing for two reasons. Either they are afraid they don't have enough money to be taken seriously, or they are afraid to start in this rocky economy.

The first problem, not having enough money, really doesn't apply to as many people as you might think. Almost everyone can start, and if you invest it right away, you never miss it. A friend of mine introduced me to my financial advisor when I was twenty. I thought the same thing, I don't have enough money to matter. Yet I opened my first account, a Roth IRA, with a mere hundred dollar deposit and a minimum of $25 being transferred out of my bank account monthly. It doesn't get much cheaper than that. That monthly committment scare you? There was also the option to open an account with $250 and no monthly transfer, I just opted for the first.

I always wanted to learn about trading stocks and open an online account, but I was afraid for the same reason. I had looked in the past and most online brokers I had visited either required a deposit to open an account that was more than I could afford, or had fees associated with an inactive account. That is to say, if you don't make enough trades in a year, they charge you to hold onto your money for you.

I like Scottrade. You can open an account with $500 and there are no inactivity fees. Trades are a straight up 7$. Nice and easy for my simple mind. The only thing to watch for is trades on stocks under a dollar. They add a fee of half a percent of the principal, which is fair to me. I like them, but you shouldn't take my word for it. There are many options out there, some may be better for you.

Now let's address the other problem. People are afraid of the economy. Yes, the economy sucks, but this is may be the BEST oppurtunity for low-budget investors who need room for mistakes. Currently we can buy big name stocks with relatively small investments. Companies that were too stable for the small-time guy to make any money are way down with a realistic chance for significant gains. GE, for example, one of the largest companies in the world is trading around $14 today, an area it hasn't seen in 13 years, until recently of course. The point being that a person can invest in companies with a relatively low risk of bankruptcy and still see potentially significant gains.

I'm not telling you to buy GE stock, or any stock for that matter. I'm not telling you to use Scottrade. I'm simply saying do SOMEthing. Do a little research and get invested in your future. Don't count on the government to take care of you in retirement, especially if you're a younger person like me.

If you'd like some simple explanations of a few different options visit http://hubpages.com/fedres/hub/Stocks-Bonds-and-Mutual-Funds-Whats-the-Difference