Hi all!

I've been lurking around the boards here for a while before finally deciding to sign up.

I'm a new investor looking to get his feet wet. Probably going to go with lowtrades.com with $500 to start. That and the fact that's about all I can afford at the moment. I've read about all I can on Investopedia and Fool.com, not to mention all the information I've gathered just reading through the forums here, especially the $500 experiment. I figured I've reached the point where I can't learn much more until I actually start doing it, so here I am.

Little more about me... I'm 32, live in the Orlando area, I work as a teacher at a private university and I'm recently engaged. My initial goal by investing is 1) To gain a little more information on how the market works and 2) To hopefully make a little extra money to help pay my student loans. If I have some success, well then I'll adjust my goals to include my motorcycle, house in the FL keys and my boat. One step at a time though.

Thanks for reading through this rather lengthy introduction and good luck to everyone!