So here's the run-down....
I'm a recent college grad with a fulltime job, but not making enough money to write home about. It's decent for my current standing, but that's beside the point. Unfortunately I wasn't brought up being big into saving money, so I'm just recently getting into it on my own and want to put my money to its best potential... but I'm not sure exactly what to do or how to do it.
Currently I have an online savings account with Emigrant Direct (5.15% APY) with a little over $2,400 in it. I make a deposit into it every 2 weeks on payday. I have 2 other savings accounts that my parents setup for me (one is with Bank of America since I have a checking account there, and the other is at the State Employees Credit Union where I have just a savings account.) In total I have about $4,100 in those other 2 accounts, but they make about 1/5th and 1/3th respectively of interest compared to what I get at ED... so I'm highly thinking about cancelling them and dumping that money into ED.
While the 5.15% interest is great, I seem to get too anxious or impatient just letting my money sit there not doing anything to help compound itself faster... but I also don't want to go taking high risks and throwing it all away.
So I ask... what are some good options for me in terms of investing my money? I don't necessarily need it liquid, but I do like the warm feeling inside knowing I could get to it without penalty if I needed to. Plus, although I still currently live at home with my parents, I want to look into getting my own place in the not-too-distant future.
I've recently began looking into the stock market, but still feel pretty overwhelmed by it. Buying and trading stocks sounds simple enough in the most basic terms, but I don't know enough about the market to make wise decisions (and I don't know how it works in regards commission fees and the like). I have a virtual portfolio that I've been messing around with for the last couple days and it's doing alright (with about $3,200 of fake money invested over 7 stocks, the market closed today with me being $30.70 to the good... so yeah... not exactly a huge turn around and I'd be scared to try to sell any of that and rebuy something else.
Sorry that's a bit long-winded... but I seriously want some advice from people who know more about this than myself, as well as how to actually go about getting it started.
I'm a recent college grad with a fulltime job, but not making enough money to write home about. It's decent for my current standing, but that's beside the point. Unfortunately I wasn't brought up being big into saving money, so I'm just recently getting into it on my own and want to put my money to its best potential... but I'm not sure exactly what to do or how to do it.
Currently I have an online savings account with Emigrant Direct (5.15% APY) with a little over $2,400 in it. I make a deposit into it every 2 weeks on payday. I have 2 other savings accounts that my parents setup for me (one is with Bank of America since I have a checking account there, and the other is at the State Employees Credit Union where I have just a savings account.) In total I have about $4,100 in those other 2 accounts, but they make about 1/5th and 1/3th respectively of interest compared to what I get at ED... so I'm highly thinking about cancelling them and dumping that money into ED.
While the 5.15% interest is great, I seem to get too anxious or impatient just letting my money sit there not doing anything to help compound itself faster... but I also don't want to go taking high risks and throwing it all away.
So I ask... what are some good options for me in terms of investing my money? I don't necessarily need it liquid, but I do like the warm feeling inside knowing I could get to it without penalty if I needed to. Plus, although I still currently live at home with my parents, I want to look into getting my own place in the not-too-distant future.
I've recently began looking into the stock market, but still feel pretty overwhelmed by it. Buying and trading stocks sounds simple enough in the most basic terms, but I don't know enough about the market to make wise decisions (and I don't know how it works in regards commission fees and the like). I have a virtual portfolio that I've been messing around with for the last couple days and it's doing alright (with about $3,200 of fake money invested over 7 stocks, the market closed today with me being $30.70 to the good... so yeah... not exactly a huge turn around and I'd be scared to try to sell any of that and rebuy something else.
Sorry that's a bit long-winded... but I seriously want some advice from people who know more about this than myself, as well as how to actually go about getting it started.