Carol Chapman member for 24 weeks 10 hours Send a message

One of the biggest barriers to investing for women is, well, money. Lots of women (and men, too) assume that you need a big pile of cash in order to start investing. The notion is that the stock market is a private club for rich people and pinstriped traders. But my mission for the last few years has been to show how the market can also be a way for the rest of us to get a goodly share of the wealth our system generates. And you can get started with just $100.

Okay, so you have a spare $100. You could buy 25 Starbucks lattes, ten bottles of a decent Argentine wine, five pairs of Patagonia briefs, one nice candlelit dinner for one at your local French bistro. Or you could actually get started in the stock market. Oh, and you’ll need to be able to put aside another $50 a month. If you can do that, you can start building a portfolio that will amaze you in a few years. It won’t happen overnight. The secret to successful investing is time.

You’re not going to be ready to buy individual stocks if you’re just getting started with a small stash of cash. But you can put yourself into some of the best mutual funds available.

So here’s what you can do. Check out a mutual fund family like T. Rowe Price (http://www.troweprice.com), which allows you get started in a fund with just $100, as long as you agree to an automatic investment plan in which you’ll continue to invest a minimum of $50 a month in the fund. The monthly amount is drawn from your bank account or an account you set up with T. Rowe Price. The company refers to these as “automatic asset builder” accounts. (You’ll need a minimum of $2,500 for a regular account, $1,000 for an IRA.)

There are some 90 funds to choose from, so you might want to look at a fund like their Capital Appreciation Fund (stock ticker symbol PRWCX), which is regularly ranked among the top funds. If you're starting a retirement account, you can choose a targeted retirement fund, geared to the approximate year you expect to retire. If you set up an automatic investment plan, you’ll also be taking advantage of one of the best tricks of the trade in investing: it’s called dollar-cost averaging. By spreading your investments over a period of time, you take advantage of any dips, and you’re not investing a big chunk of funds when the price is high.

So why not shake out your piggy bank and see if you have $100? Or look under your mattress. Better sow some seeds for the future and let your financial garden start growing, the sooner the better.

Check out our other Investment Gym workouts on my Web site (http://www.womanwithportfolio.com) to see how you can keep developing your skills and building your portfolio.