Hi all,

I have been dropping in from time to time and thought I'd join up. I couldn't see a intro section so I'll get that out of the way by putting my goals out there:

I want to invest for 3 main reasons:

1) I have hit an age where a number of friends are buying or have bought houses and I am still the one paying off debt from credit cards etc (yep I like to learn the hard way at times ) I need to sort my @#% out and get my finances sorted. NO EXCUSES!!
2) I want to be able to have a supplementary/passive income that I dont need to work for , thus providing me more time to the things I want to do
3) I want to retire before 'the retirement age' (I am close'ish to half way to 'the age')

So where do I stand? well with more debt than anything and no assets....but 2012 is a new year and I'm ready to rip into it.

Onto the whole share thing....

I've been on the sidelines long enough I feel and now want to get in amongst it all. I do not have a clouded mind and am fully aware of the risks at hand.

I have ready Martin Hawes 'Shares' book a number of times in the past few weeks and am also reading Buffetology.

I have opened a share trading account and also started reading up on analysis (seems quite intense but no doubt worth it)

So I guess I'm going to need to take more of an aggressive stance given my age and goals.

I'll limit my questions as I imagine I will have many in the near future.

so question #1....

If you could give a beginner one piece of advise what would it be ?