How to Buy Stocks (For Beginners)

Summary

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Earn Your Leisure Podcast

Episode: How to Buy Stocks (For Beginners)
Hosts: Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings
Release Date: April 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, and team break down the essential steps for beginners looking to buy stocks and start investing. They cover the practical steps of opening and funding a brokerage account, demystify what stocks are and why investing is vital for building wealth, and share actionable hacks to get started. The hosts emphasize financial empowerment and long-term thinking, blending straightforward financial advice with relatable, energetic commentary.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Getting Started: Opening a Brokerage Account

[02:07]

• The BASICS:

  • To buy stocks, you first need a brokerage account.
  • Traditional brokers: Vanguard and Fidelity — highly recommended for long-term, buy-and-hold investors.
  • Newer, user-friendly platforms: Robinhood, Webull, Interactive Brokers, tastytrade.
  • Emphasis: Have your own brokerage account, separate from employer-related investments.

• Quote:

  "Before you can invest you have to have a brokerage account to even deploy your money to. This is lateral from your job. This is about you, this is about you guys."
  – Financial Advisor 1 [02:55]

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2. What Is a Stock and Why Invest?

[04:02]

• Definition:

  • Stocks represent ownership in a public company (like Tesla, Microsoft).
  • Public companies: Anyone can buy shares; Private companies: Ownership is restricted.

• Purpose and Benefit:

  • Investing in stocks allows your money to grow with the value of companies.
  • Investing is essential to beat inflation and grow wealth.

• Quote:

  "The only way to beat inflation is to actually invest, right? Because that's how your money's actually working for you over the course of time."
  – Financial Advisor 2 [04:36]

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3. Setting Up and Funding Your Account

[05:11]

• Process:

  • Download your brokerage app (e.g., Charles Schwab, Fidelity).
  • Complete the "Know Your Customer" (KYC) process (personal info, social security, etc.).
  • Link your bank account for funding and withdrawals (funds flow both ways).

• Addressing Hesitations:

  "I ain't putting my social in there."
  – Financial Advisor 3 [05:11]
  "You gotta provide this information."
  – Financial Advisor 2 [05:13]

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4. Funding Hacks: Expedite Your Transfers

[05:50]

• ACH Transfers vs. Wire Transfers:

  • ACH: 3–7 days for new accounts.
  • Wire: Funds can arrive in as little as 30 minutes.
  • This speed can be crucial when markets are moving fast.

• Quote:

  "Let's say I'm sending $5,000 to my E*TRADE account. That's going to get there within 30 minutes rather than waiting five to seven days."
  – Financial Advisor 3 [06:10]

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5. Common Pitfalls: Money sitting idle

[06:51]

• Misconception: Many assume that money deposited in a brokerage or 401(k) is immediately invested.

  • Reality: It usually sits in a “money market” (essentially a brokerage savings account) until you choose what to invest in.

• Action Step:

  • Actively select what you want to invest in—don’t just transfer money and assume it’s growing.

• Quote:

  "When your money goes into a brokerage account, it goes into what's called the money market...You have to direct where the money's going."
  – Financial Advisor 2 [07:03]

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6. Choosing a Brokerage: Preferences and Use Cases

[08:17]

• Long-term Investing:

  • Vanguard and Fidelity are recommended for “buy and hold” investors, especially if holding for 10+ years.

• Active Trading & Analysis:

  • E*TRADE, Robinhood, and M1 Finance provide more tools, news, and streamlined interfaces.

• Quote:

  "For strictly long term...Vanguard and Fidelity are phenomenal ... there's no order. But except for the long term piece, Fidelity and Vanguard are the ones."
  – Financial Advisor 1 [08:39]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Empowerment:

  "You're doing your own investing, you're taking your own finances and affairs in your hand."
  – Financial Advisor 1 [03:20]

• On Expedience and Anxiety:

  "For us, having money that we sent and we don't know where it's going, and it's taking five to seven days, it's a new account opening—you could feel a little angst."
  – Financial Advisor 3 [05:53]

• On Action vs. Inaction:

  "Just because you open it, you put it in. Now from there you have to actually put into invest."
  – Financial Advisor 2 [08:15]

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Timeline of Important Segments

• [02:07] – Introduction to brokerage accounts and basics of getting started
• [04:02] – What is a stock? Why investing matters
• [05:11] – Step-by-step of account creation and funding
• [05:50] – Wire vs. ACH transfer hack for faster investing
• [06:51] – Misconceptions about automatic investing in 401(k) and brokerages
• [08:17] – Comparing major brokerages for different investing styles
• [08:39] – Long-term investing recommendations

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Tone, Style, and Takeaways

The conversation is energetic, approachable, and focused on making financial literacy accessible. The hosts inject humor and personal stories ("I ain't putting my social in there") to ease anxiety for absolute beginners. The vibe is supportive and empowering, emphasizing that taking charge of your investments is both necessary and achievable.

Actionable Takeaways:

• Open your own brokerage account separate from your job.
• Understand exactly how to fund your account and what happens to the money.
• Choose your investments deliberately—don't just park money in the account.
• Use wire transfers to fund your account faster if needed.

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This episode is a hands-on, jargon-free introduction for anyone ready to take their first step into buying stocks—not just theory, but a real guide to getting started.

Transcript

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[Financial Advisor 1]

start investing in stocks and the three of us get this question all the time. So we wanted to lead with that and we want to break it down as simply as we can. So first you need a brokerage account. What is a brokerage account? Okay, a brokerage account, simply guys allows you to buy stocks, sell stocks, invest. Okay. And so some of the more notable names you might know of or me be familiar with or you may not be Vanguard, Fidelity. Those are two ones that has just been around for for the test of time now. And if you are thinking long term, these two, these two entities are ones you want to consider. Fidelity Vanguard you want to think about. Once I do take this step to invest. Let me open up a Fidelity account. Let me open up a Vanguard account. You want to start there with the premise in mind that you are thinking long term. Then you have everything from more, more newer apps, more user friendly ones like Robin Hood, Webull Interactive Brokers, tastytrace to name a few. So listen guys, it starts with before you can invest you have to have a brokerage account to even deploy your money to. Okay. And this is lateral from your job. This is separate from whatever you are getting at your place of employment. So this is, this is on you. The book came out. We want to make sure this book become a number one bestseller. You deserve. This is about you, this is about you guys. Okay? And so you need to make sure you have your own brokerage account. You're doing your, your own investing, you're taking your, you taking your own finances and affairs in your hand. Okay, next up and I'll take it,

[Financial Advisor 2]

I'll take it even step further too because I want to kind of expand on that a little bit. Because for some people like to even why investing is important or what a stock is, right? Like we talk about stocks as far as that's ownership and there's private companies and then there's public companies, right? So the public companies, anybody can own it like Tesla, like Microsoft. A private company is like earn your leisure where only we own it, right? So it's important to invest in these public companies because as their value goes up your investment going to go up over the course of time as well, right? So the only way we talk about inflation, the only way to beat inflation is to actually and invest, right? Because that's how your money's actually working for you over the course of time. But another question that I get about the brokerage is like even like how to set it up. And it's, it's really not too complicated guys. Like you go to the app store and you download Charles Schwab is another one or you download Fidelity and all of these, these, these apps and platforms have similar type of things where you just got to fill in your information. So they have to, it's called like know your customer, right. So they'll ask you your like your social. They actually your, your number, your email. You have to provide this information guys. You can't try to.

[Financial Advisor 3]

I ain't putting my social in there.

[Financial Advisor 2]

You gotta provide. You gotta provide this information.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 2]

And then from there, you link your bank account to it. This is important for people to fully understand as well, because they're like, well, how do I get money into the account? Right? You gotta fund it. You link your bank account to it, and then you fund it. And then that, that funding goes both ways. So you put money in from your bank account, $2,000 from my bank account into Fidelity, and then when it's time to move from money from Fidelity to your bank account. Vice versa. Yeah, vice versa. But where it's held that this is important, but I know we're talking about retirement.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Can I give them a hack from

[Physical Therapist/Health Expert]

what you just said, this is important

[Financial Advisor 3]

too, because that transaction time, it can. If you're a new customer, that might take five to seven days. And so for us, having money that we sent and we don't know where it's going, and it's taking five to seven days, it's a new account opening, you could feel a little angst, especially

[Financial Advisor 2]

Robin Hood,

[Financial Advisor 3]

but what you can do, right? And this is, and this is a good tip. I use E Trade. And so when E Trade, I found out the wire instructions, right? So when I get the wire instructions that come from E Trade. Now when I send the money, right, let's say I'm sending $5,000 to my e Trade account. That's going to get there within 30 minutes rather than waiting five to seven days. And so, yes, you can do the ACH transfers, which take three to five, or maybe five to seven if it's your new account or you can't get your brokerage's wire information and have that money expedited. Because five to seven days in the market can change a lot, right? Like we, we saw over the past week, right? On Monday, it's up by Friday. You could have lost a lot or you could have gained a lot. So you want to make sure that your money gets there in expedited fashion. Wiring transfers is another way that you can, you can hack that.

[Financial Advisor 2]

And the last thing I'll say before we move on is that I, I used to get this a lot. When people Talking about their 401ks, they'll have a 401k, the money's coming out of it, that they're checking, their money's coming out of their paycheck, and they automatically assume that it's being invested. And I asked like, what are you investing in? They're like, I don't know. Did not see their statements. And they're not actually invested in anything. When your money goes into a brokerage account, it goes into what's called the money market. That's like a savings account pretty much for a brokerage account. Like it's sitting on the sideline. You have to direct where the money's going. So the next thing we'll talk about like actual investments. But don't think that, okay, I opened up Fidelity. I'll link it to my Chase bank account. I put $2,000 from Chase into Fidelity and now I'm invested into the stock market. You. That's not, you're not investing. But like I said, that's not quite how it works. That actually happened. Like I said, I've seen that. I see that. I saw that with retirement when I was a financial advisor. I used to see that with retirements, people have money. They used to have like 20, $50,000 into their retirement account because they didn't. They didn't. They were never fully educated that you had to pick something and they just. The default for their retirement plans was a money market account until they decided what they wanted to do with the money. They never decided what they wanted to do with the money. And the money was not growing. It's not a money market is not invested right. That's like a point zero. It's sitting on. It's sitting on a sideline. So that's just important. Just because you open it, you put it in. Now from there you have to actually put into invest.

[Financial Advisor 3]

That's a fact. Chris, I'm gonna go back up to this, this slide where we're looking at the, the brokerages.

[Financial Advisor 1]

Yeah.

[Financial Advisor 3]

Is there one that you prefer or the other or this case by case? Like I know E trade is not on there. Everybody eylu knows I love E Trade

[Financial Advisor 1]

but I'm using, I'm using that because

[Financial Advisor 3]

for informational purposes it, it's easier for me. I love the way that we can get information. Is there, is there one that is

[Financial Advisor 1]

preferred or the other Vanguard for long term? I prefer for strictly long term and. Or Fidelity. You can't go wrong if that's the mindset. I'm buying and holding this for at least 10 years. Vanguard and Fidelity are phenomenal. E Trade, Robin Hood, M1 Finance, some of those other ones are good too because they provide even more information and news and other things that is helpful to, to the user. So there's no order. But except for the long term piece, Fidelity and Vanguard are the ones you're not trying to trade in those you. Well, Vanguard at least you're not using that to be a trader. You trying to. You're purposely, intently trying to invest.

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