learn the basics...

From people preeminently more qualified than me.

Morningstar.com is one of the best sites for financial info. They're not really biased and they don't really make money telling you to buy, buy, buy. That being said, they've put together a series of "lessons" that you can take for free to learn about investing. It's called Investing Classroom.

I've gone through some of them and they're pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Check it out when you have time.