Have you ever wanted to buy shares in a company but didn't because of the risks or costs involved or just felt that it was too complicated? I know I did. That was until I began talking to a colleague in the office one day and the conversation turned to investment clubs.

I had heard of them but didn't know much about them and certainly didn't know how to go about setting one up. What I did know was that they were an easy way of investing in the stock market with other people to share the risk, the costs and to help with research. After just a brief Internet search I discovered an extremely useful little book called 'The Motley Fool's Guide to Investment Clubs'. I bought the book as soon as I saw it and read it while on a short holiday. I found it full of interesting suggestions and essential advice. On my return to work, fired with enthusiasm (and the desire for wealth beyond my wildest dreams) I asked a few colleagues if they would be interested in forming a club. Word of mouth soon spread the news and we very quickly had a queue of interested people who were keen to part with their hard-earned cash.

Starting up the Club was a lot easier than originally thought. An 'expression of interest' meeting was arranged to see how many would turn up and how serious they were about forming a club. When it was established that there were sufficient people genuinely interested we soon had a committee voted in and rules and constitution agreed. Then Susan, one of our committee members, came up with the Club's very apt title - 'Belfast Regeneration Investment Club' (or 'BRIC' for short) as most of the members were drawn from the Belfast Regeneration Office. After some further research we opened a bank account with the Ulster Bank and a broker account with Charles Schwab - now Barclays Stockbrokers.

The next step was the all-important one - selecting and buying shares.

It was generally agreed that we should run a competition or shadow portfolio for a while before investing real money in shares. This would give us time to save some money and get us used to picking shares and watching them rise and fall in price. That was the idea anyway!

Members put forward quite a few suggestions - 24 companies in all. When the votes were counted we found that the top 3 companies selected were Diageo, Tesco and Baltimore Technologies. Some members were keen to start investing and the Club therefore agreed that we would select these 3 companies to make our first share purchase. Within a week we had splashed out on our very first purchases at some good prices in a slightly depressed market. Further purchases were made after due consideration and the portfolio continues to grow slowly.

The Club membership is made up of the adventurers and swashbucklers like Lawrence and Charlotte who want to dash in and buy shares for quick profit. Then there are those of a calmer, more sedate disposition such as Paul and Sean who don't mind waiting for the returns on their investment, or at least that's what they say! Gerry Mc (a.k.a. 'The Devil') and Ciaran are our real punters though, always ready to put a few bob on anything!! The Club has therefore agreed to accommodate everyone by structuring the portfolio to cater for speculative, growth and blue chip shares. These will be spread across all market sectors so that we aren't putting all our eggs into one basket. After some 3 years the portfolio is filling out nicely. Some of our original investments continue to grow but others, such as Baltimore has proved to be an expensive first lesson in how not to invest. It's a lesson that we probably needed to learn as early as possible, it did sting a little, but it is still an interesting process to be involved in. Especially as the pain of losing can be shared with others!

For a modest monthly subscription we hope to continue to accumulate a nice little nest egg for each member while learning something in the process. Members can remain in the club for as long as they like - past retirement or if they transfer to a new office, for example. Just as long as they pay their subs and attend a minimum of 3 meetings a year.

So, to all other investment clubs out there we would be pleased to hear from you - it might be interesting to have some inter-club competitions, learn from our mutual experiences or even enlarge our social circles!