Quote Originally Posted by mm2654
One more thing, while in general investing with borrowed money is not a bad thing, people do it everyday mostly through their broker for short term loans, you should never borrow money for the intent of investing if you can not pay it back. I think one years salary for career that you might not ever get into is way too much.
Please don't take this next statement as a diss, but the fact you came here to ask that question tells me that you are not ready to make a $45000 decision on whether or not you should enter the stock market. If you do decide to do this I would recommend that you use a small amount of money such as the before mentioned $5000, and if after 6 months or so it is working really well for you then you could consider adding a little more money(another $5000) into your portfolio.

I am not going to take out $45k and invest it, thats forsure. I will probably do no more then $10k. I've decided I am going to use the money I can get directly from the government instead of through Wachovia, that money I am getting at 6.75%. Who knows, I might not go through with any of this but right now seems the time to do something like this if I were to do it, you know? Cause we are about to hit rock bottom and go back up.