Just remember that there is no right or wrong there is only right for the individual concerned. As part of assessing your own comfort level you will want to feel comfortable that you can afford to risk losing the money that you are planning to invest. Obviously you don't want to lose it but if you absolutely can't afford to then you should look for something which carries a significantly lower level of risk. Something that is very important to learn is how you feel about risk levels. This can be sometimes overlooked in the excitement of making your first investment but it can have a serious impact on your performance. If you are what is called "risk averse" you will probably be a nervous wreck if you put all your money into high risk shares. If you had blindly followed them because you didn't know what you were doing but thought it was safe to do so because others were following them you could have finished up bankrupt. A second important point to keep in mind is to match the risk to the reward regardless of the type of investment. If you are considering a high risk bond for example you need to ensure that the rewards you are being offered are equally high. To some the idea of safe is simply to put their money on deposit. However from a stock market point of view let's look at what safe means to new investors. While investing in stocks and shares will always carry a certain amount of risk especially over the short term it is possible to minimize that risk. The second way to approach the market is with a view that you are young enough to gamble a little on the hares of investing. If these go wrong you will still have the time to recover and rebuild your portfolio. Of course the third way may be best of all. You could apply a certain percentage on the riskier hares while placing the majority of your cash with the safe and steady tortoises. The Bull market which had lasted throughout the 1920s had even led one eminent economist, Irving Fisher, to state that "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." It seemed at the time that everyone in the nation was obsessed with the stock market and share dealing became the "in thing" to do.