USA Today's John Waggoner has a very good article on purchasing large company dividend stocks for young people. I would also recommend dividend stock investing for someone looking to purchase individual stocks. Big, dividend-paying stocks may be best for young people

Age-old advice says you should do all your speculative investing when you're young, in part because you'll have plenty of time to make up for your mistakes. But this, too, may be a canard. In the long run, mutual funds that invest in big, dividend-paying stocks may be the best investments for young people.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which measures the performance of large blue-chip stocks, soared 320%. So why have boring dividend-paying stocks fared so well? In a word: dividends.

Small-company stocks rarely pay much in the way of dividends. But reinvested dividends are a powerful force, particularly over the long term.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has gained 374% in the past 20 years. Add in reinvested dividends, and it's up 646%. The dividend difference over 40 years is staggering: The blue-chip index has returned 1,479% without dividends, but it's soared 5,622% with reinvested dividends.

If you want to invest in individual stocks, consider starting with one or two Dividend Achievers: Stocks that have raised their dividend payout every year for the past 10 years or more. You can find a list of dividend achievers at www.dividendachievers.com.

Should you shun risky stocks entirely? Nope. Taking the odd flyer on a promising stock or fund is one of the joys of investing. But keep those joy rides as a small part of your portfolio. You might earn money and bragging rights, too. You just don't want your mistakes to send your entire portfolio to the hospital.