Hi from Mel!

[Mel47]

Hi All!

I have joined up as I am at that time in my life where the mortgage is almost (6 months to go) paid off and the twins will be off to university which will give me time to think about saving for retirement.

To date my only investments have been term deposits at the bank and shares in AMP, AXA, Contact and Vector which I was fortunate enough to receive for free many years ago. Actually, my hubby may have bought Contact in my name?. No, I can't be sure on that one.

I would consider myself to be a 'nervous' investor as I have never had large sums of money to play with.

For now I will spend a few months gleaning some information from the boards which will hopefully answer the questions that I have about investing.

So that's who I am and why I'm here.

Mel

[shasta]

Hi All!

I have joined up as I am at that time in my life where the mortgage is almost (6 months to go) paid off and the twins will be off to university which will give me time to think about saving for retirement.

To date my only investments have been term deposits at the bank and shares in AMP, AXA, Contact and Vector which I was fortunate enough to receive for free many years ago. Actually, my hubby may have bought Contact in my name?. No, I can't be sure on that one.

I would consider myself to be a 'nervous' investor as I have never had large sums of money to play with.

For now I will spend a few months gleaning some information from the boards which will hopefully answer the questions that I have about investing.

So that's who I am and why I'm here.

Mel

Welcome onboard Sharetrader Mel

There is a wealth of info on this site, so i'd spend an hour or so navigating around the newbie thread for questions others have already answered.

Then feel free to ask questions, plenty of posters will help you & direct you to relevant links etc

[Huang Chung]

I hope the experience is rewarding Mel.

We try to have a bit of fun along the way too .

[Lizard]

Hi Mel,

Welcome to ST. If you are a "nervous" investor, then please bear in mind that there are many types of investor/trader on ST and they have many different investment styles. Some seem to make eye-wateringly good trades on quite volatile, stocks - often stocks which can be much more risky than the stocks you have held. I would suggest you don't be in too much of a hurry to emulate them.

In my personal view, it is safer to start with medium-long term investments based on fundamental reasoning and looking for stocks with solid balance sheet and cashflow (i.e. those that aren't at risk of going broke in the next 12 months!). If more thrills are required, initially limit the high risk stocks to under 5% of funds. The "high risk" stocks need good strategies for limiting risk and aren't suited to "buy and hope".

Over time, you will find an investment/trading style that is suited to your personality, interests and circumstances. Bear in mind that those who would have a difficult time replacing their funds from other sources if they were lost should be quite careful with them. Those who rely on income from their funds should be more careful still. Even if you find a rare poster with a similar style to yourself, don't be too influenced by their decision-making.

Hope you enjoy yourself - it can get addictive.

[airedale]

Hi Mel, welcome to ST. I used to think that I could turn $10,000 into $20,000 every year...lol...not quite but you get the picture. Sometimes when the market is raging ahead that may be possible. But most times NOT. There are many good books to read, authors who have influenced me are Alex Elder,[ American], and Chris Tate,[Australian].
Mental attitude and money management are just as important as picking the right stocks. And the overall trend of the market is important. Hardly anyone would have made money in 2008. But those who cashed up at the end of 2007 and stood back for 15 months before getting back in would be laughing all the way to the bank.
Just a few random thoughts

[Steve]

Hi Melanie

Good to see that you are following your New Years resolution and giving some thought to your financial future. Hopefully you will manage to pull Simon's head out of the sand.

We might be able to test the waters to see how many members in Dunedin would be interested in a Sharetrader 'meeting' like they have in the big cities?

Absorb and learn and remember not to believe everything that you read on here...

[fungus pudding]

Hey Mel, I was in Dunedin for Xmas holidays---what the hell was up with the weather down there:mad:....good points..did the Speights Brewery tour, I reckon its 100% OK, even brought Speights number plates surrounds for my van which is floating around the Great City of HAMILTON

Easy to answer. There has been so much drivel spouted about global warming, or climate change that often the debate became heated. So we took the only sensible course of action and completely cancelled the weather. This has the backing of the City Council, who incidentally back anything that is completely stupid. The weather will not be resumed in the foreseeable future. This may take the gloss of the summer for some, but the benefits will show during the winter.

[RazorX]

Easy to answer. There has been so much drivel spouted about global warming, or climate change that often the debate became heated. So we took the only sensible course of action and completely cancelled the weather. This has the backing of the City Council, who incidentally back anything that is completely stupid. The weather will not be resumed in the foreseeable future. This may take the gloss of the summer for some, but the benefits will show during the winter.

ROTFLMAO

Well said fungus. That made my day.

Hi Mel and welcome to Sharetrader. I am relatively new as well. There is lots to learn here and the members are extremely helpful.

Good luck with trading

Razor

[drillfix]

Hi All!
So that's who I am and why I'm here.

Mel

Mel,

You ask a few important life questions and you then have all these wonderful ST members replying to you, then you vanish to never visit again.

I understand you must be busy and stuff, but have you forgotten which site you have visited and posted on or something???

Good luck to you girl.