Expert: Dr. Joseph de Beauchamp - 2/11/2007

Question
My husband and I have been playing with the idea to buy some stocks that our family likes, such as Disney, Cheesecake Factory, Apple Computer, etc.  How do we get started?  This is aside from our retirement accounts (401, 403, IRA).  We are more interested in getting started with stuff that we like and go from there.  I am not certain how much is enough to get started and who to contact for something like this...

Answer
Any broker dealer would be happy to take your business and buy you these stocks. They make commissions to do this. I would recommend that you go to the public library and pull out the large books called Valueline and Morningstar. Read over the information on the companies in Valueline, and look for mutual funds that are recommended that are containing these stocks.

I have never recommended to any investor in 32 years to buy stocks, unless they have at least 10 different companies and each company with 100 shares or more. I think that I would not recommend you take this action, either.

Dr. Joseph deBeauchamp