With the new economy, many people have found themselves looking for more information to learn to invest money. Be it because they have lost money that was badly invested and decided to take the matters into their own hands, or because they want to fully understand what others are doing to their money.

Some have also become more interested because they see the moment as an opportunity to make some money on stocks that are down now but which can grow in value rapidly if the economy continues to recover. But how can you learn to invest money if you have no intention of going to school now and have no real information on how to go about it?

Well, the magnitude of the World Wide Web has once again come to the rescue. There are some sites that can help you learn the ins and outs of the stock market and some that can be a fun place to practice your newly acquired skills to find out if you have what it takes to start investing with real money.

Investopedia

With a nice collection of free tutorials that can take you from the most basic skills to advanced information, this site can be considered one of the best beginners resource online to learn to invest money. There are even real exercises and mock tests to help you if you are taking CFA professional exams.

To help even more, it also has a stock market emulator, so you can deal in real stocks without having to cash some money to test the waters. The one aggravating thing is that because you are dealing with real stock names, when you do really well, there is that sense of loss that feels like: I should have played those winning lottery numbers last week

The Motley Fool

One of the biggest and oldest investment sites around, The Motley Fool is a great source of information that has been giving out stock recommendations to millions since 1994. It is especially useful after youve learned the basics. It is also a great resource of expert opinions and a very large community to exchange ideas with, but because it is used by a lot of professionals, there is a slight intolerance to very newbie questions, so brush up on some basics from tutorials before you start engaging in conversations in the forums.

Investing For Dummies

Another great resource of tutorials, investment terms and articles to answer most of your questions. Written in the typical style of the For Dummies books, the material is simple and instructive. Not as comprehensive as some of the other sites, but a solid source of information divided into very clear topics and written in a very approachable manner and  friendly manner, so its certainly worth checking it out.

HSX.com (Hollywood Stock Exchange)

So you think you understand the entertainment business? How about testing those skills while practicing your investment instincts at the same time? HSX is a pretend stock market where the stocks sold are the artists and their movies. You can buy stock on most celebrities and invest on movies. Grow your portfolio and sell when the time seems propitious. Its a great way to see if all those hours spent in front of a movie screen could finally pay off and if you can trust your instincts. Even if the money is fake¦

Virtual Stock Exchange (VSE)

Created by Market Watch, VSE is a simulator, much like the ones above, to help you learn to invest money by measuring how well you would do in a real market. What differentiates it from the other simulators is that they are set up as games. You can join existing games, where you will compete against other players to see who makes the most money.  You can even create your own game, open to anyone or you can choose to  play only against your friends and family. Some of the most popular public games include: StockMarket4Dummies, Obamanomic, MakeEndsMeet or even FlounderingFools.

So if you think you have what it takes to start investing, or would at least like to understand what everyone else is talking about, check out some of the sites above and let me know what youve learned.

Do you have any other sites worth checking out?