Rule 1- start out right

You can't invest what you don't have- you need to put aside money to invest.

Therefore you need a budget! Even a simple one. Why? So that you can start putting aside a small amount each to invest, and help you plan to make that bigger. A key to being your own financial advisor is that you know where your own money is going!

If you are just starting out, your savings probably need to start out as bank deposits at fairly low interest rates. And then?

You should aim to get yourself a stockbroking account, however you need to consider how much you can start investing with. For example in South Africa, the lowest annual management fee for a static account (no transactions) is around R550 (+-$70) (know a lower one? let me know) per year. On only a R5000 investment (~$700) in shares this is around 10% of your money spent just on fees. Therefore unless you have at least R30 000 (> $4000) to invest, you are better off investing in a mutual fund or unit trust (1-6%), until such time as it grows large enough to be worth moving to a stockbroking account. Look for ones that don't charge initial fees, and offer the lowest annual admin fees. Some do have minimum investment amounts, so you may still need to save up through bank deposits first.

Another good choice for the smaller investor are exchange traded funds bought through an investment plan. In South Africa, Satrix offers its exchange traded funds through an investment plan that only charges an annual admin fee of around 1%.