There is a HUGE difference between Trading Vs. Investment. Kinda like soccer and football, sure it's played on a 100 yard filed with 11 players on each side but the rules / process is totally different from one another. Not saying there aren't any similarities between the two but for a novice watching, it's 2 totally different sprots. Trading which stx109ditto & eminitrader have talked in depth about but I'm sure what jhyalincha is trying to do is to raise awareness about financial independence for our people by being a smart investors. Not trying to stx109ditto & eminitrader's tips and tricks on trading isn't helpful but what you brothas need to realize is first we need to each our people how to walk and then you guys can train them on running (speed). At least that's how I see it, investment is walking (even if you don't run, slowly but surely you will reach your destination), where as trading is running (sure you will get to where you need to get much faster but at the same time there are risks involved in running compare to walking). So anyways, to keep up with the theme of this thread "simple investment ideas", what I say is educate yourself (internet is the greatest tool for it), always read business section of the newspaper, when you feel like you are ready to invest wait 6 more months (this one I wish someone would have told me because it took me over a year to recover what i lost in my 1st 6 months), and last but not the least and the most important in my opinion is don't get started without a trusted investment advisor (either your family, friends, or paid reliable financial advisor). Few months ago we used to have really good discussions on simple investment ideas. If anyone is interested, here's the link: http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/openforum.cfm?forum=273 Everyone have a nice day!