playin' the stocks game
axiom: To all the naysayers: remember that holding cash is holding a depreciating asset. That 2k is not going to be worth 2k in a year's time. So really by not investing you're taking a guaranteed loss of 3%-15% a year (depending on how pessimistic you are about future inflation) instead of some other possible loss that depends on how risky your make your portfolio.For what it's worth my suggestion is to put your money in gold (GLD or DGP) or oil (USO, DXO or their variants.)Edit: oh and of course go with an online discount broker instead of a major bank. You'd have to be insane to do otherwise. I'm in Canada so I use Questrade, and they are phenomenal.