by Wayne Whicher

Created on: May 01, 2009   Last Updated: May 02, 2009

Want to invest but don't know how to get started? There are easy ways to go about building up your investments without too much hassle. Just like your paycheck goes in by direct deposit and you don't have to worry about it.

Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPS) are plans that allow the average investor to invest directly with companies and purchase stock right from the company without going through a broker. The benefits of not going through a broker are quite large when adding up all the fees that would be saved over the years. Also, many DRIPS allow for small, regular investments of anywhere from $50. up to $1000. when you choose. Investments of $100.00 through a broker would be greatly reduced by the fee taken out each time.

DRIPS are started up by requesting an enrollment form from the company that you what to invest in. You may get the various phone numbers to call either from a book on DRIPS or from various web sites that list the companies that offer DRIP plans with the companies phone numbers. A couple of these web sites would be www.dripinvestor.com and www.netstockdirect.com.

After finding the phone numbers to call for an enrollment package or requesting one online, the next step is just as easy as filling out the enrollment form and sending a check right to the company. Different plans have different initial enrollment minimums. Some plans are as low as $50.00 while others are $1000.

After your DRIP is started you should continue sending in money to buy more stock and increase your investments. DRIPS make this so easy as most of the time, whenever you invest anything or a dividend is announced they send you a statement of your account. At the bottom of the statement is a tear sheet that you can fill out and send with another check to keep investing in the company. Do this whenever you like, either weekly, monthly or whenever you have extra money. These payments are called OCP's or Optional Cash Payments. There are generally minimums that you may send in, so please read your individual stock plans requirements.

The one downfall with investing through dividend reinvestment plans is that you cannot accurately time when your investment will be credited. You have a couple days of mail lag time after you send in your payment, and you have a small lag time until the company's next scheduled investment date. Sometimes it can be a day or two or sometimes as much as a few days to a week. The reason this is not really too large of a concern is because of the principle

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