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It is commonly understood that investing in instruments like stocks can help offset the effects of inflation on a sum of money. If you were to take $1,000 and deposit it into a savings account, the small amount of interest from the bank would, most likely, not pay enough to keep the purchasing value of that $1,000 constant after a few years of normal inflation. A very common way to keep the value of savings or earnings from eroding is investing in things like stocks.

Contact the Company

A very popular way in the past to purchase stocks was to contact the company. A call to the investor relations office of a public company can lead to purchasing shares of that company’s stock with low transaction fees. This may not be the fastest way to buy shares but it could be one of the cheapest.

Visit a Broker

Some investors use brokers to buy and sell shares of companies.  Brokers are usually set up to offer advice and can execute trades automatically under conditions that you set up. These institutions can provide these services but they generally collect a fair amount of fees in the form of commissions or even monthly and annual fees if the value of an account is less than a certain amount.

Use the Internet

The internet has revolutionized trading of company shares. Many investors, with a little knowledge, can go online and buy and sell their shares instantly with low fees. The fees for these transactions tend to be lower because an online brokerage may not have to maintain an actual office or have brokers on hand to give advice.

These are some of the ways that an individual can purchase stocks. The starting point for anyone would be to decide which method is right for them. The next step would be to do some research and pick the most efficient method.