Should I invest in stock or real estate?

I am just brainstorming here whether to invest money in stock, real estate, or both? Should I buy some property for cash and be safe? Wait until mortgage crisis ends and real estate prices go up? Should I get a foreclosed property? Or should I invest in stock online? I could put my money towards some IPO (initial public offering)? Or buy some stock that is already stable and gives a good stable return on investment?

I could buy stock and watch the market price grow right? But how liquid is it? Has anyone invested their money before? I was thinking of using online stock trading like E-Trade, or Scottrade.com or something like that. Stocks online should be just as good of a tool as actually going in person to stock brokers office and talk with him face-to-face. Price of a stock is what concerns me though. I am not sure how can I determine whether the price of stock is at market price, or is it overpriced or under priced?

I haven't gotten a degree in finance at a university, but I do have some understanding about stock market. The following is what I have learned when I was taking financing classes at a local community college.

1. Common Stock is ownership of business, the shares that a distributed among the owners of a corporation or a company.
2. Preferred Stocks are not like common stock, they are special types of stock that most of the time pay out high dividends that investors later use to buy more stock :-) I wonder if you could trade online this preferred stock?
   
3. Bonds – I have never fully understood what this is but I remember there are varius kinds of bonds: corporate bonds, municipal bonds, savings bonds, U.S. government treasuries, etc.I think there a lot of various kinds of these securities for sale out there.
   
4. Money Markets are markets where they trade money? :-) I know that these are highly liquid funds that were created to protect your purchasing power ($PPP). In economic terms, purchasing power is simply - how many hamburgers can you buy for your dollar? For example, in 1960 you could buy far more hamburgers than you can now. Money markets are highly liquid, thus a lot of investors consider them to be cash equivalent, but still, its not like you have cash in your hands.
   
5. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are pecial type of company designation that allows no taxation at the company level provided more than 90% of earnings are paid out to the shareholders. The assets are often invested in a variety of real estate projects and properties.I copied this one from somewhere, really have no idea what these real estate investment trusts are, but you can look at pretty real estate here. :-)
   
6. Mutual funds are a bunch of stock put together in a portfolio. Investors consider them very low interest on return investments and so they are popular among investors that have no experience or investors that are really scared of investing.

How to Invest in Stock - and actually do the research

There five documents that you as investor should worry about

when you search for investment opportunities. You need to

know the quality of a stock that you are going to trade on online

stock trading website or at a brokers office.

1. The 10K – this is the annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is probably the single most important research document available to investors about a company.I wish they could just give away 10K worth of stocks and futures. Futures are cool things too, you can earn money on them somehow too!
   
2. 10Q's are the same forms as 10K's except they are filed at the end of each quarter of a business cycle.
3. Proxy statement will help you learn more about Board of Directors, managers, CEO's and other officials who probably own more stock of the company than the rest of the guys, and make huge salaries!
4. When you pick a company that you want to invest in, or buy stocks of - make sure you read their annual report first. Not only make sure to read it, but makes sure you understand how to read it. Look what CEO's and CFO's say about company's future and economic performance. It will be very smart of you to look at what Warren Buffett has to say about it :-)
5. Morningstar, Value Line, S&P, and Moody’s and others provide statistical reports in chronological order . Read those.
   

How to Invest in Stock - The Three Financial Statements that you need to understand and read

There are three financial statements you will want to understand :

1. The income statement
2. Th balance sheet
3. The cash flow statement

Other than what was stated above - I don't know what to do. Please comment, let me know what's going on in the world of finance.

Or you can always complete a finance international internship in Sydney, Australia!