@squiggly , blue chips stock only here too. If I don't already know the company and what they do.. I never put my money on them. I earn $10,000 every year on my stock choices. Thanks to Pepsi/Coke/John Deere/etc. Catch them on a down dip, hold them and sell for a small profit.
If anyone is curious on stock strategy, PM me and I can share my list of companies I follow.
That's great dude. The only thing that you gotta watch for is not to look down your nose at larger funds like mutuals and Roth IRAs.
Consistent contribution to a Roth IRA starting in your 20's can easily become retiring a millionaire if you know what you're doing--and it can all be withdrawn penalty free.
I mean the reality is that the best policy in ANY case is diversification.
If you're going to do offshore accounts, you DO NOT NOT NOT want to put all of your money in one.
You might not like the US, but what do you really *know* about the country you're going to put your money in? Their financial laws? Their economic situation? What I'm saying is that there are probably more than a few Americans who had money in Cyprus who are now kicking themselves fervently.
This is true domestically as well. If you're a guy who keeps everything in banks, consider putting money in more than one bank (or credit union).
Obviously with stocks you have a choice. You can go big, or you can be risk averse and enjoy slow but significant growth on your investment. A nice thing about that 10K you make is that it's all taxed as capital gains rather than within your bracket.
Again diversification is key. You should have a series of long positions (typically with more solid companies: Disney, Pepsi, etc), and a series of shorter positions.
If you become familiar with the markets, or have a lot of knowledge about a particular field (say you know the agricultural machinery trade like the back of your hand), then you can apply that knowledge and make HUGE money on things like options.
For instance, if you see that John Deere took a big dive--but you feel like the market has overreacted a bit--you can buy a call option at the low price (the strike price) and if the price raises at any time before the expiration date on the call option--you can either buy that stock at the lower price OR sell your call option to someone else for a profit. Similarly, if you know John Deere is ABOUT to take a dive (but they haven't yet)--you can buy a put option at the higher price (the strike price) and if the price bottoms out at any time before the expiration date you can purchase stock at the lower price and sell it at the strike price for a profit (or you may sell the put option).
The more you know about an industry, the more you can make money using stuff like this. If you're in the know you can make money whether the market is rising or falling.