As I ponder which classes will benefit me the most during my senior year at the UW-Madison, I have on the side, decided to start a brokerage account with a discount broker, as another side hobby in which to bide my time.

Firstrade.com is my optimal choice for a beginner account, with no-minimum balance and low trade costs (although my guess is ‘slow’ trades). Something to get started with, and possibly stay with if long term investing is the eventual goal (for now it will be some casual trades for learning’s sake).

So with my referral in hand, and with it, five free trades, I will tackle the field of personal investing, hopefully to gain a thorough and complete knowledge of investing that will last longer than those five trades… and maybe an interest rate that is better than the petty fraction-of-a-percent that my current savings account is giving me.