The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens

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I'm 19 and want to start investing. I have about $2000...not much, but it's all I have.

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read MF's page on Roth IRA. then re-read it. don't fool yourself that from day one you'll be able to beat a good index. everybody makes mistakes at first, everyone loses a lot more than $2000 by making them. put your first $2k into a good fund.

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I don't think putting it in an index fund and getting 10% return every year is anything great because $200/year isn't really what I'm looking for.

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umm... you may think 10%/yr isn't great, but this stuff compounds fast (you'll see it when you graduate college). stock portfolio returns are the highest EV of any investment vehicle, the only question is how much risk you can take. i am not much older than you (25) and most of what i invest goes into small/mid-cap growth funds. higher risk, but also higher returns.

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I Read "Fooled by Randomness" and half of "The intelligent investor" (it was mostly way over my head). I'm also going to read some of the morningstar.com and investopedia tutorials. Do you think this book is worth it?

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i think first book should be something like "Money for Life" that teaches you why and how to save. the second book should be something like "investing for dummies". after that i read everything i could find by peter lynch.