Invest in Stocks. Stocks are usually purchased through brokers; you buy pieces (shares) of a public company, which entitles you to decision-making power (usually by voting to elect a board of directors). You may also receive a fraction of the profits, which are paid out as dividends. Dividend reinvestment plans (DRPs) and direct stock purchase plans (DSPs) also exist, whereby buyers bypass brokers (and their commissions) by buying directly from companies or their agents. This type of plan is offered by more than 1,000 major corporations.^[9] Stock market dabblers can even invest as little as $20-30 per month and can buy fractional shares of stocks.

• Are stocks really considered "safe" investments? It depends! If you follow the investment advice above and invest in good stocks with great management over a long period of time, they are very safe — and very profitable. If you gamble with stocks by buying in the morning and selling at night, they become much, much riskier investments.
• Try out mutual funds for especially safe collections of stocks. Mutual funds are collections of stocks bundled together by a fund manager. Fund managers- not insured by any government agency, built-in diversification, some funds have low initial purchase amounts, and you'll have to pay annual management fees.