Little Stock Steps

If you're looking to play fairy godparent,but can't give your relations the redcarpet treatment just yet, there is a way tomake small, steady stock investmentswithout paying disproportionately highfees. Physician-investors can invest smallamounts in fractional shares of stocksthrough ShareBuilder (866-747-2537;www.sharebuilder.com). There are nominimum balance requirements for abasic account, and you can invest once,weekly, or monthly. The account costs $4per investment for automatically recurringinvestments. Real-time trades are$15.95 per trade. ShareBuilder also hasaccounts with a monthly charge inexchange for a limited number of freeautomatic investments and lower fees forreal-time trades.