penny stocks are a scam, if you want to lose your money go ahead and try them out. Most companies that trade on the pink sheets and bulletin board do not have anytype of business operation. Insiders sell stock to people like you and get rich. They pay to have their stocks promoted on various website, these payments are ofen in stock. These companies trade at pennies for a reason.
If you have some decent coin, go talk with a financial adviosr and they will get you on a plan so that you can retire one day when you get older. Open a roth IRA with any money you want to play with. Buy yourself some shares of Google or something like that and in 20 years you will have a nice nest egg.
I am a stock trader for a large brokerage firm and have seen the fraud mentioned above many times.
Here is a great link from the SEC regarding micro cap stocks
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/microcapstock.htm