How much money should one have to start in shares

Ive heard as low as 300 is enough to begin in shares....
Im considering throwing some money into shares just to learn abit about it and see if its for me....
What would you guys suggest is a good amount to play with
Also should i just stick to australian shares in the begining?
Thanks

 

$500 is your minimum purchase for any single share.

 

Statistically, if you just want to start a buy-and-hold portfolio, then you need $3000. As stated above, the minimum buy is $500, and the optimal diversification (statistically) is 6 companies.

For a trading account it will be more, but varies depending on your risk management strategy.

 

Thanks guys Iwas thinking i would need about 4 or 5grand
3grand would be ok to begin with
Wondered about fee's
Never knew 500 was minimum
I guess now comes study of up and coming markets to figure out what would be perhaps a good bread winner

 

As someone who hasn't touched shares before, is that 6 companies across 6 different sectors?

 

Ideally, but not essential.

 

Vanguard will let you open a fund with $5K, and you can make $100 deposits afterwards without coping significant brokerage fees

https://www.vanguardinvestments.com.au/retail/ret/investments/managed-funds-retail.jsp#fundstab

When Robinhood is launched in Australia, you could do it with as little $25 to $80 at todays prices a buying an ASX ETF and be plenty diversified (mind the 40% plus weighting to the financials )

 

Robinhood is a game changer for the small investor.

Agree with Bullion Baron.

 

Ok so should i sign up for Robinhood now???

 

Sounds awesome

 

How much are you prepared to lose?

 

Are you asking me?

I would put say $1500 on the line to learn something new

 

No need to lose it all, that'll only happen if you put it into speculatives and they plummet.
Buy big companies and you'll be fine.
Woolworths gets cheaper by the day.
Origin energy looks solid.
For a speculative (and you should have one) try Silver Lake (on topic for this forum)

 

Woolworths has dropped from $38 to $27 in the last year. So even with big companies you still might lose! Need to take a long term view if you are investing in big companies (5 to 10 years) otherwise pointless.

 

If i do go ahead with shares i will gamble on new upcoming technology or business... Straight gamble because buying shares in something like woolworths is boring, plus i have worked for them and know they only care about fattening there pockets, the people high up in woolworths probably just offloaded their families shares only to buy them back up at a lower price.... That sort of thing wouldnt suprise me one bit when it comes to them...

 

And i wouldnt expect to lose it all was just replying to willrocks question which im not even sure what exactly he was getting at

 

Wouldn't this be one of the better reasons to invest in a company?

 

Almost as bad for your chances as betting on junior mining or exploration companies. If you're just starting off you have no idea how many small speculative listed companies are created just to make the directors management and brokers prosperous whether the companies themselves succeed or fail. Most of them will fail but the insiders move onto the next legal scam having made a small fortune from your share subscriptions. Its like selling pensioners a new roof or driveway when you're not a good tradesman. Except these guys are untouchable. All they're selling to you is a bright story.

If you want a bit of excitement, which I don't recommend on the ASX, try a tech company that's making a profit. I recommend signing up for a free subscription to motleyfool.com.au and then consider a paid subscription to one of their tipster newsletters. Plenty of ideas from them about prospective growth companies and many of them already make a profit and pay a dividend. The best tech companies have arguably proven to be those applying new tech to old businesses, e.g new telecom companies (TPM, MTU) or new classified companies (SEK, CAR, REA - advertising jobs, cars, real estate respectively)

 

Fair point but the fact that i dont trust them is why i wouldnt because like i said i wouldnt put it past them to be manipulating share price

 

Gambling into shares is not investing. If you want to gamble, why don't you go to the casino instead? Put it all on black or something.
Investing in shares is not meant to be exciting and IMO should be approached with a long term perspective. You could do plenty of research and gain an in-depth understanding of the market and companies you are looking at, bearing in mind this does not guarantee successful investment, or adopt a more passive index based approach and let your savings grow over time with the dividends being reinvested. VAS is a Vanguard ASX300 index fund with low fees, so if you want to invest rather than gamble, this is one of the easiest way to gain diversification and match market returns.
If you want to gamble, there are more exciting things than the stock market: casino, races etc.