In the middle of my “stock crisis” yesterday, as I freaked out over what to do with my small, small sum of money, George came into my office and tried to drag me back into his office to show me what to do. I wouldn’t let him. Apparently, after that, he went back to his desk and told Rich: “Sarah’s kind of strong!”
Hoo ha.
Anyway. I do appreciate all the comments about investment strategies. A couple things, in response…
Cari, I’ll help you with website work in return for no investment advice. Nothing personal, but I think I’ve decided what I want to do for the time being, and I don’t want to second guess myself again. 
Jen, it’d be nice if I could access something through my parents, but as far as I know, they don’t have significant investments thanks to raising four kids on two middle class salaries; this is one of the reasons I want to start saving now, while I can.
Brian, yeah, I’ve been using fool.com; I like how they explain things in a basic way. I can dig that. I’ve considered going to a financial advisor, but haven’t yet. I hesitate to pay someone, because like I said, I feel like I should be smart enough to figure it out. But maybe it’s not a bad idea.
Suzy, hi! Thanks for reading my blog! Index funds are mainly what I’m looking at. They seem to be the best for long-term investing, which is all I want to do. I’m obviously not cut out to be anything like a day trader.
Rachel, thanks for the pep talk. 
Karen, I know I could pay someone to do this stuff for me but that’s the thing — with the relatively small amounts of money I’m talking about, I feel like I should be able to figure it out myself. I don’t own a home, so I don’t itemize my taxes; I still fill out the form every year by myself, takes about 10 minutes and I’m done. Yup, my work retirement (TSP) account is invested in either government bonds or any of four other funds that follow various indicies (including one that tracks the S&P500, and the thing I like about that plan is I tell it how to divide itself among the funds, the money automatically goes in each paycheck, and that’s all I have to think about. I’m basically looking to set up something similar. I know I could just bump up my contribution to my TSP account, but I’d rather put the extra money in a different location.
Becca, agreed. I don’t want to pay someone to manage my teeny amount of money. For the amount I’m going to be investing for the time being, I just don’t think it’s worth it.
Anyway, point being, I think I’ve decided what I want to do, and so I’m gonna do it.
Wow, that certainly generated a lot of comments. I wasn’t trying to tell you what to do or anything. I’ve just been dealing with this myself for a while and thought maybe you’d be interested in what I’ve learned; I, too, am planning long term and don’t actually use a broker. Since it sounds like you’ve found some stuff out yourself, I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say.
A few other comments:
1.) Your investments is not something to be frugal on – be frugal on the car you buy, not financial advice or the broker you choose.
2.) Be careful of Motley Fool. They generally, as far as I know, recommend more risky small cap stocks.
3.) Index funds are a type of mutual fund. They are an attempt to track the S&P 500 by buying a representative sample. They are good because it is very difficult, almost impossible, to “beat the market.” Therefore, the next best thing is to track it.
I prefer the craps table! Field and Big 6 an Big 8. New shoota’