Hi Michael --

I'm a fairly new investor myself, so I'll give you some of my ideas / experiences...

1. Definitely get your e-fund built up. I didn't really start building up my efund until after I started investing, but I've almost got it up to 6-mo. now, and let me tell you -- having a nice pile of cash sitting there (at ING -- 12mo CDs are the best deal right now!) is a very powerful feeling - gives you a very strong sense of freedom that you're ready for just about anything! And I've been using ING Direct for years now -- there's no "catch" other than you don't have a local branch to go to. They have great savings rates (although other online banks are higher now), its easy to open multiple accounts if you want a separate savings vs efund vs vacation-fund, etc. And they just started an online checking account w/ 4% interest!

2. I started my Roth IRA last year & have already made my contribution for this year. I'm using Firstrade, which has low commissions (6.95/trade) and free dividend reinvesting. I've made 2 mistakes starting out:

(a) Not enough patience -- you get a lot of investing ideas reading TMF newsletters & following the boards. Its way too easy to pick up a couple a couple and convince yourself they are ready to take off. Do your due diligence, pick an entry price with a nice margin of safety, place a limit order, and walk away. I didn't do this -- I would sit there & watch the stocks move up & down throughout the days. And I would chase the stock up (this was in December / January, during the bull run). And of course, within a few months everything I bought was back down again to a better entry price. So learn patience :-)

(b) Starting with too many stocks -- in Jan '07, I had my '06 & '07 contributions to my Roth for $8000, and I had 7 open positions. I've since decided that's too many for such a small account, and I've now sold 2 (down to 5) and have my eye on 2 more that I'll close out if I come up with a "fat-pitch". Having only 4-5 positions means each position is more meaningful, which means I have to be more confident of each one, and that outperformance of each position means more to my portfolio. For now, I'm starting with primarily dividend-paying blue-chips in my Roth. Once I've been contributing for a few years, then I might consider taking on more tax inefficient investments (REITs, MLPs, etc).

3. The bulk of my retirement investments are in my 401k. I've always contributed 10-15% of my salary (well past the company match); this year I've bumped my contributions up so that I max out ($15,500) and I intend to keep maxing out in successive years. My 401k is through Fidelity, and again I started with too many positions and have been consolidating over the last year or two. My breakout here is (approx):
* 25% S&P500 index
* 20% international fund
* 15% real estate fund
* 10% emerging markets fund
* 10% natural resources fund
* 15% mid-cap fund
* 5% money market fund (just started)

This is a very aggressive allocation, but I feel fairly diversified with it and I've got a long time until retirement.

4. Once you've got those 3 accounts funded, then I'd start considering a taxable account. I've started 3 different types:
(a) DRIP directly into company stock plans: Many companies let you directly purchase stock & reinvest dividends with little/no commissions & fees. I started this with a couple of utilities to do monthly withdrawals. This is kind of a nice "setup and forget" investment plan, although many companies require you to have one share registered to you (not your broker). I haven't used them yet, but Moneypaper offers a service to get you a share in your name to get your started with a DRIP. Check them out at http://www.directinvesting.com/

(b) Sharebuilder: Another nice "setup and forget" alternative to DRIP'ing directly -- transfer your funds monthly and setup an automatic purchase, which they execute on a given day for a $4 commission. And they reinvest dividends for free. I started an account here before I discovered Firstrade.

(c) Firstrade (taxable account): I've also started a regular taxable account at Firstrade. I haven't started trading in this account yet, but I'm expecting this is where I'll do most of my investing. Like Sharebuilder, they reinvest dividends for free; but they have more ordering options (like limit, market, stop, etc) for only $6.95, which isn't that much more than Sharebuilder's "automatic purchase" $4. Firstrade also offers options trading, which (like you), I might start on a conservative basis once I have a sufficient portfolio built up (ie 5+ years time).

5. Other thoughts/ideas:
* Make sure you have a good record keeping system. I use Quicken to track all of my investments & accounts, and that makes it very easy to track performance, cost basis, etc. I also download all of my statements & trade confirmations, so I've got individual record of those, and of course remember to make backups of your data!

* I've read in numerous messages, blogs, and sites the importance of having a well-defined goal. I've been thinking about it, but I haven't laid it out in black and white yet. On my to-do list.

* Aside from tracking in Quicken, I also want to setup a spreadsheet so I can capture more data for what I'm investing in, why, my due diligence, etc. Other good advice I've read is to keep score for yourself -- record what you are doing & why, and continue to track stocks you've sold so you can learn from your experiences.

* I've found investing gets addictive, which can be both good & bad. Good in the sense that now that I've started, I'm looking for ways to save money so I can have more to invest to feed the addiction :-) Bad in the sense that its very easy to spend too much time watching your accounts, watching the market, doing research, and generating unnecessary activity in your account (guilty here!)

* My goal for later this year, once I've finished funding my e-fund and some other one-time expenses, is to start automating my saving again and splitting my take-home pay into a couple of categories:
(a) Living expenses
(b) Savings (for non-emergency expenses, charity, etc)
(c) Automotive (insurance / repair / new car fund)
(d) DRIP-investing (maybe 2-3 month)
(e) Regular investing

Yikes, this is a long post. Hopefully there was something of value in it for you, if you made it this far :-)