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Get ready to put your money to work.
Key points
- A recent survey reveals that one in five teenagers already invest their money.
- Choosing the right brokerage account could be your ticket to starting your investing career.
It’s a big myth that investing is something only the wealthy or established should dabble in. The reality is that the sooner you start investing money you aren’t using immediately, the more wealth you have the potential to grow.
In fact, if you’re still in your teens and holding down a job, you may want to consider investing some of your earnings. If you do, you’ll be in good company. That’s because 20% of teens have already begun investing, according to a recent Fidelity survey.
Now if you’re looking to invest, you’ll need to find the right brokerage account for your money. And the tough thing is that there are many to choose from. But here are some specific features you may want to look for when weighing your options.
1. No fee stock trading
You might pay a fee to buy shares of a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) in your brokerage account. But you shouldn’t have to pay a fee each time you buy or sell shares of individual stocks. Most big-name brokerages (and even lesser-known ones) have done away with that practice, which can eat away at your returns. So don’t sign up for needless fees that could make it harder to grow your money.
2. No account minimums
If you’re a teen, you may not have the same amount of money to invest as someone in their 20s or 30s with a full-time job. And the last thing you want is for that to be an issue. That’s why it’s important to find a brokerage account that doesn’t have a minimum balance requirement. If you can only allocate $100 for stock-buying purposes initially, so be it.
3. The option to buy fractional shares
Along the lines of having limited money to invest, you may find that certain stocks are out of reach financially — that is, if you’re looking to buy full shares. But many brokerage accounts don’t make you do that. Instead, a growing number of brokerages allow investors to purchase shares of stock on a fractional basis. That means that if a given company’s stock is trading at $1,000 per share and you only …….