Stock Market: Love it or Hate it?

[DragonNOA1]

If you are old enough to own stocks (18) you are old enough to file taxes on them. If you are younger, your parents must set up the account and pay the taxes.

[mbossman2]

Originally posted by HpiSavage21 After doing some research on Warren Buffet and the Wilshire 500 funds I have decided I want to buy a few of each, teh Vanguard 500 and the Wilshire. The Wilshire has a .0.94% expense ratio and the Vanguard has a .18% ratio.. My question is were do I buy them? Should I buy the Vanguard funds on vanguard.com and teh wilshire on another site or both on TD waterhouse..? Also since I am under age how do I do the tax filing thing everyyear?will it be done under my dads name?

you can buy funds from just about any brokerage house...look for ones that don't charge commissions on mutual funds transactions.

As to taxes: it really depends on how your account is set up:

1) if it is an IRA (roth or regular) and you make no withdrawls then all taxes on earnings are deferred until much later in life (or in the case of a roth...no taxes at all).

2) if you are setting it up as a "regular" account (non-retirement) then you may have some tax liability at the end of each year (the oh so wonderful capital gains distribution) depending upon the activity of the account (did you sell/cash out any $$$...did the fund cash out and incur any capital gains).

If you are a minor, you will want to get your parents involved and a tax expert to make sure that the account is set up properly to ensure that you incur the minimal amount of taxes and impact you and your parents the least.