How to invent your extra money after working for a while?
Let’s see the history of S&P 500 (Standard & Poor’s 500，S&P 500). The market continues to increase since 1950, but decreases in the financial crisis of 2008. But if you see in the long term, the value is still keep going up.
REF: Google Finance
*What’s S&P 500 (Standard & Poor’s 500，S&P 500)?
“An American stock market index based on the market capitalizations of 500 large companies having common stock listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ。
1. Are you a person to read this article?
- I’m a small Amount investors: There are some buffers for you to invest.
- I have SSN( Social Security Number) to pay the taxes.
- I am not Non professional investors: please skip this article if you are working in the investment banks, brokers, and financial associations.
2. The Attitude of Investing
You shall expect you will sometimes win or loses. Therefore please use your extra money to invest. If you know Mandarin, please check the YouTube link as below. If you are not, please skip this video but there’s further explanation for you.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6t7Ath4TzI&w=640&h=360]
“Buying stock is same as you buying the business. What it means: the business is yours, and you should always think about how to running your business well.
Firstly, you should understand your business (Stock) well.
Secondly, a business with good structure will have the greater future. Investing only with luck will sometimes lead to the bad result.
Thirdly, a business with good structure will have the promising future. You should smell by nose, and read by eyes, but never listen by ears.
Fourthly, the stock is like the relationship. And the way to invest the stock is same as marriage. However, once you find something wrong, please don’t be fool and disregard all as soon as possible.”
3. Investment Book list & Courses
As above 1st one, “You should understand your business (Stock) well”. Learning to read financial report, simple investing tools are important. Here are the recommend booklists and courses from my own experience.
3.1 Book list
Don’t select too difficult books in the beginning. I just list some books I read. But you will be free to check more info from goodreads.
◆Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Paperback)
◆A Random Walk Down Wall Street
◆ Other books from reader
John Bogle
Charlie Thomas Munger
David Bach
Thomas Stanley & William Danko
Ben Carlson
William Bernstein
3.2 Coursera
Feel sleepy when you are reading? I’ll recommend you can learn the info via Coursera. If you are non-native English speaker, the courses will enhance not only investing info, but also English listening skills. And you will get the specialization once you finish the courses.
Currently Coursera provide 2000+ free courses in 7 days trial. It includes many courses with different languages. If you are trying to improve your listening, I suggest you can put subtitles. When you can get 80% of info, and then remove the subtitles.
◆ Investment Management Specialization
This is offered by University of Genev, the Top 150 in the world and second largest university in Switzerland. There are five modules and one action project. Every studying schedule will plan by your own. And you will get the specialization once you finish the courses. If you are in the tight budget, you can apply the Financial Aid as below. It’ll take about 15 days to approve from Coursera .
◆ Financial Management
This is offered by Illinois University iMBA, the Top 50 in the United States. There are seven modules and one action project. Same as above, every studying schedule will plan by your own. And you will get the specialization once you finish the courses. If you are in the tight budget, you can apply the Financial Aid as well. It’ll take about 15 days to approve from Coursera .
Other business courses such as Business Writing、Business English: Making Presentations、Build Communication Skills in Business English are also in Coursera.
4. The traditional way to invest Stock
Here are the top 5 biggest broker in the Unites states: Charles Schwab、Fidelity、Scottrade、Etrade、TD Ameritrade. Most of brokers are founded long time ago, for examples, Scottrade founded in 1980.
Most of Brokers will ask for the deposit and single transaction fees $6.95.
5. The New ways to invest stock by Mobile – Robinhood
Robinhood has joined the unicorn club**. Founded in Year 2013 and currently HQ is located in Palo Alto. The company offers the Smartphone mobile app, which allows individuals to invest in publicly traded companies and exchange-traded funds listed on U.S. stock exchanges without paying a commission. It impacts the traditional brokers.
**What’s Unicorn Companies?
“In finance, a unicorn is a privately held startup company with a current valuation of US$1 billion or more.”
5.1 How to Register
Click here to Register. Use my link to Register, we’ll both get a share of stock like Apple, Ford, or Spring for free when you join. The value of the share may be anywhere between $2.5 and $200, and fluctuates based on market movement. Robinhood chooses from the most popular companies on Robinhood.
- Social Security number (SSN) is required
In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as . – Wiki
- Registration fees: $0
- Transaction: $0
5.2 Account Protection & Security/ View/ Trad-Off the Stocks
◆Account Protection & Security
You can securely access your account using Touch ID or a custom pin code
◆ View the Stocks
You will easy to review your profit/ Loss Ratio. Currently you can see the value price is increasing. 
As below, you will see each invested (or followed) Stock price and value movement. If you are long term investor, basically you will follow the stock every week or every month. But if you are short-term traders, it’s also easy for you to see each day tendency.
◆ Buy/ or Sell the Stocks
It’s easy to process the stock you are going to buy or sell. Put the number of the stocks and you will be all set.
5.3 Robinhood Gold Intro
- Fees：$10/Months
- Extra service
- Gold Buying Power: It’s money that Robinhood lends to you to buy stocks in the stock market. You can invest more, and keep the profits。
[Note] Because Gold is a margin account, there are additional risks and responsibilities you should be aware of. Buying stocks using margin amplifies the gains and losses in your portfolio. We’ve built Robinhood Gold to help protect you from these additional risks by including checks and notifications to help keep you informed.
- Extended Hours Trading: Traditionally, the markets are open from 9:30AM EST – 4:00PM EST during normal business days. With extended hours trading, you’ll be able to trade:
- Pre-Market opens 30 minutes earlier starting at 9:00AM EST
- After-Hours continues for 120 minutes (2 hours) until 6:00PM EST
- Instant settlement and Deposits: With Robinhood Gold you get instant deposits, so you can use the cash from bank transfers to Robinhood instantly (instead of the standard 3 day hold). So if you see an opportunity in the market, you capture it by increasing your buying power right away.
5.4 Robinhood Account Protection & Security
Robinhood Financial is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash).
6. Studying and Learning
Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching.
When I am investing the stock, it leads me to study more info such as Technology、Investment、 Global Business. If you are working in the US and have some extra money to invest, it will be nice to try Robinhood .
According to Bay Area Library card application, please click here.
