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Help someone with zero financial education start from nothing
You should only invest in things you understand!
When you buy a stock you don't just give said company your money. You actually own a piece of that company. When said company has more money than it needs it could pay out dividends to its shareholders. And then you get your percentage of that total dividend.
How often these payments happen depends on the company and if there is a crisis they will stop completely.
ETFs are basically groupings of things. EG there are ETFs that follow the MSCI World, but theoretically there could be an ETF for "Italian companies that sell green Keyboards" or any other rule/grouping you could think of.
If you buy ETF you buy a share of said ETF. So not any stocks of random companies. The ETF then uses your invested money to invest according to what it specified in its description. When those Investments gain money your share gains value, when they fail your share loses money.
There are 2 types of ETFs: accumulating & distributing. They distinguish what happens with dividends. (& have other implications e.g. with taxes)
I think if you buy less then 1 share you dont actually own a part of the company. Someone owns the share of which you bought the part of and that someone then has to give you your part of the dividend they received from the company.