Hi, I was thinking about investing in stocks. I have a few thousand dollars saved, and have always been interested in the stock market. However, I have a few questions.

First of all, why does everybody say to maintain a diversified portfolio? Each purchase costs around in commission rates and an additional to sell. So I was thinking about just purchasing around 100 shares of a company that is relatively inexpensive but at the same time is reliable and will not go bankrupt any time soon. Of course, I would do my research to choose a company first. Or just by purchasing one or two shares of a company that is very expensive such as Apple or Google. I then plan to just day trade the stocks and sell when they start making profit.

My second question is how long does it take to sell a stock if it is a reputable company such as Google, on eTrade? Instantaneously or would it take a few minutes?

Any other tips are much appreciated.

Thank you.

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My husband is 21, unfortunately he has made some horrible decisions in his life regarding money. He is now considered ‘high risk’ by EVERY loan company you can think of, including the NO CREDIT BAD CREDIT NO PROBLEM people, lol. Now his (not mine, my name is not on it, and please remember, I just recently became his wife!) car is up for repossession. He leaves for basic in January, and that will solve many of our money problems. However, we NEED this car, myself and my daughter, while he is in basic and up until that time. How long will it take them to come get it? And the real question I am asking is–with his credit being this horrible, and owing all this money that’s so terribly behind, should he just file bankruptcy?? I know it will freeze the repo and we can at least keep the car. He is only 21, I know that is young, but his credit report is four pages long–of crap he still owes. Would it be better to start over even with a bankruptcy? (my credit is good.)
That is–keep the car for an undetermined amount of time. His mother (imagine that, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree) filed bankruptcy earlier this year and drove her truck for free for over six months.

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