Wow good for you.

In my opinion, anyone can always invest in something but they should make sure that they play by their interests and play by the rules. What are your plans in investing in?

Your still going 19 -- are you planning to go to college? If you are then better make sure its education before business.

OK, I know you are young... but...

You really need to educate yourself on this subject.

First off, people assume that if they have "extra" money that they should invest it. In fact, that is the LAST thing they should do.

You need to build a financial infrastructure for your personal economy, one that allows you to maximize insurance premiums, protects you from job loss or disability, provides emergency savings, etc. You do this FIRST, THEN you look at investing.

There are stories of college kids and others getting started young in the stock market and being very successful at it. That's great! But it is the exception, not the rule. The most successful are those that actually started their own businesses, with a great idea mind you, and then took their companies public to rake in the millions.

Lastly, there are disciplines to investing that someone young rarely has. You have to be patient, regardless of short-term market volatility, which is really hard. You also have to, many times, IGNORE your investments. If not, you'll be tempted to sell something and buy something else (the key to unsuccessful investing usually). If not careful, you'll become one of the statistics that shows individual investors earning less than the market provided (and it's not necessarily because of fees/charges, either).

There's a lot more to think about than investments. I'm as big of a proponent of any of gettting started early. You can take a lot more risk than those of us that are much older, which is advantageous. However, there's a lot more to personal finance (and life) than playing the stock market.

I will suggest you to educate yourself before investing.
Means first you should know the basic elements in Investment. Then it will be easier for you to take any decision.

Well I was more thinking of just investing with a bank, or in a small company, not in playing the stock market as i do not know anything about it and would probably not get much out of it.

I do think you should educate yourself and get to know the basics first. In the meantime you can put your funds into a MMA until you decide what step you want to take next.

The suggestion to ignore your investments is the same as the advice to drive your car to from Point A to Point B but close your eyes while you do that. It is just ridiculous in my opinion.

I agree that many individual investors will get less than what the market provided but at least you are in the same boat with mutual funds who constantly get less than what the markets provide. The question is what do the market provide? The potential is tremendous so you need to come up with what you want to accept as a good return on investment and build your startegy around that so that your goals will be met or exceeded. It all comes down to definition of what is a good and a bad strategy.

Take your time, make mistakes and learn from them.

In many blogs and articles, they have written before any type of investments you should have basic idea regarding that investments. Otherwise there is always a chance of loosing money.

That's why I think we should educate ourselves (means gather some basic knowledge) before doing any investments.

Look into MMA's, CD's and other easly available savings accounts that you can liquidate easily should you need to. then once you figure out what you want to do with it, take portions of it and diversify your investments.

I think its better to earn more than invest. One should be financially stable to start investing.
I think we should spend behind our basic needs and save the rest. Once you have substantial bank balance start investing.

Here's an option for you so your money doesn't sit around:
-Put $15,000 in a 6 month CD account. This money will be locked for 6 months at a fixed interest rate which is higher than a savings account interest rate. At the end of the 6 mo. period you can choose to renew or withdraw your money.
-Take $5000 and start buying some stock. Get very familiar with everything first, then maybe put down $1000 in something stable once you're more educated. You'll gain and lose here and there, so just buy something stable and if your stock loses value you can just leave your money in and it'll go back up.
-Once you're more familiar you can withdraw your money and put more into stock, invest in mutual funds whatever.

Look at the companies on the dow jones industrial average, such as pepsi and johnson and johnson, which are low volatility.
If you buy now, even if the market bottoms later in the summer, within a year you will almost certainly have made some money, unless something crazy happens. I just think it's important to put your money to work right away, so get something in a CD account or something. Not all mutual funds have been worthwhile lately.

Wow be careful, i know many people think they will make a fortune in the stock market but if you dont know what your doing then your are quite possibly going to loose it all. Be sure to educate yourself first and study as much as possibly of trading techniques and the stock you are planning to invest in

Uh, pay cash for college, if that is where you will be soon. Use scholarships and grants first to cover expenses. Then, if you have to come out of pocket, you have the money right there.

Also, take 10% of your money and go on an extended summer vacation to Europe. You don't get many chances to do that. Make sure that you buy a two-way ticket before you leave. You don't want to wind up in Barcelona without a looney to your name and no way to get home.

I think Otavio gave you the best advice so far. I am 22 years old, so pretty young like you as well. I would strongly recommend taking a class or two in finance before jumping into the stock market. You can do that at a community college or many state colleges during the summer without having to enroll. My advice would be to put it in a 6 month or 1 year CD, leaving as much as you need to be liquid in a money market account. I have been shopping around and have seen rates as high as 4.5% for 13 months. If you look at historic data thats below average so you really don't want to sign up for too long a CD in hopes that it rebounds. The most important thing to do is to keep your money making more than the inflation rate which right now is very tough to do. I also think buying some stock would be a good investment but I would recommend making a few fake portfolios online first to see how you do. Track what happens and see if its something your ready to do... In whatever you decide to do, good luck

I also think Otavio has the best advice up till now. My humble advice is that basically if you are that young, you can really risk more than later and you should do that because what you learn now might help you very much in the future.

Stock market is a good thing but it's not the only one.

With things being the way they are in the economy you need to look for low risk high yield investments with a fixed rate. I am young myself and i have just finished doing alot of research as to where i should put my retirement plan. the stock market sucks and cds and mutual funds don't give you alot on your return. I am invested in a hedge fund that doubles my money every 4.5 yrs and i rolled over my ira at no cost. I get quaterly statements so that i can constantly see my money grow.