I want to have a lay of the land and to avoid unnecessary fees.
Anyone who has experience and is patient and friendly to guide me, leave me a post :)

thanks for reading!

this wont be swarmed by spam bots at all. O___o

I was amazed when I opened the thread and OP wasn't one of them.

How should we know? We're all from different countries with different regulations regarding the stock exchanges.

Go to your local money horde/bank/credit union and inquire with them about a broker. But if you want some good general advice: Be boring. Pick something with a steady growth pattern like the S&P 500, invest in a 401k, and pick companies that have been around long enough that their sudden disappearance/failure would indicate a super disaster or other economy ending circumstance.