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Originally Posted by dead_battery

indeed! im starting to try and learn about all this stuff.

low end dividend is supposedly the place to start investing.

an index fund is different, it simply tracks the stock market or a particular index (eg the dow). the thing is to find one with low fees (e.g, in america, vanguard) because the buying and selling have a cost and for people who trade frequently it's what kills earnings.

a better explanation can be found here:
http://www.fool.com/60second/indexfund.htm

but dividends are another path to go. there is a guy called jakob fiskar who managed to "retire" from his mad scientist job (he was a physicist) in 7 years... he wrote a little crazy tract on "early retirement extreme" where he explains how to live with little and be financially independent quickly--- he did it with dividend stocks.

now this isn't for the faint of heart and it fits more the ascetic approach to life but he had a forum here:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/

and his book can be found here:

https://www.createspace.com/3457832

very smart guy, very DIY, has since gone back to work in the financial sector as a mathematician, but if you figure out his method you could be free from serfdom/potential serfdom very quickly. i'm not interested in "retirement" per se (i do what i like and i have no master), but having the flexibility to have no financial hurdles would be awesome.

anyway, enjoy.