4. Set a budget for your stock investment
The amount of money you need to buy an individual stock depends on how expensive the shares are. (Share prices can range from just a few dollars to a few thousand dollars.) If you want mutual funds and have a small budget, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) may be your best bet.
Mutual funds often have minimums of $1,000 or more, but ETFs trade like a stock, which means you purchase them for a share price.