>>1
You sound extremely naive, you can pretty much invest in any stable company and have yourself a little nest egg for retirement.
If you want to make serious money it will take a lot of time and energy to make sure you make the right investments. There are many people like you who see other people making money and hea stories of people settting up succesful businesses and getting lucky, like for instance a privately ran fire service by an ex-fireman who sold his expertise who's company value increased 50 fold or something during the Iraq war as he was the only expert not tied down to a nationalised fire service. As a result if you come up with any good ideas or spot something or just read about it in a newspaper the chances are you are going to face stiff competition. I suggest learning how to invest in stable companies with a small amount of money to familiarise yourself with the process and so that you don't risk buying from a market which is about to be saturated, then spend a lot of time doing research into a field that you are superior to others in. For instance if you are a mechanic you might want to look at new vehicles that will make their way onto the market place in the future and you will have knowledge that other investors lack.
Making a living out of investment is very hard, all stock brokers are university graduates or people who have spent years in business, this doesn't mean it won't pay off. The reason 1929 happenned is because people didn't do their research, everyone expected companies to grow, if they had noticed that the market was being saturated they would have just kept their money in the bank until they found a company that was sure to grow and was not bubbling over.
Long story short, don't invest in oil companies, their profits has been all over the news. Loads of dumbasses are buying in. Don't invest in Japan, their markets are fucked. Buy a few shares in your local succesful supermarket chain and if you have some experise in a field and know there is growth in some obscure part of the economy, slip a few shares in there too. Once you've done your research you can safely donate a portion of your earnings at the end of the year to various companies and create a little portfolio. Don't expect to be any better off in 2 or 3 years after your investment and watch the companies carefully aswell as share prices. Once again if you have any expertise you can determine when to sell aswell as what to buy. Once you have gained a stock brokers trust and know a little more about the trade you can start shortselling and focussing your invetments so you can gain dividends and making savings.