Stock Investment Advice Required for a Newbie

[TREMAiNE]

Hi All,

I am looking for some advice. I tend to have a minimum of £10k of "disposable" income. It'll typically increase throughout the year significantly, and I'll only draw on it for 2x annual expensive holidays - the figure still increases and only really drops back to the £10k mark if I've just bought a car.

This £10k tends to sit in a bank account, gathering no interest and whilst I've not needed it for emergencies, it's nice to have it there for something unexpected.

On reflection, I do think I've been very silly over the last few years just having it sit in a standard bank account with interest rates being so low and inflation so high and I've started to think about investing it for medium to long term.

I'd like to start small - investing around £1,500 to £2,000 initially to see how it works out for me - though I don't expect to make money overnight.
I've chosen that modest figure because I can afford to lose that without being overly annoyed over it. Over time I could invest more.

Whilst I do not have much knowledge of stocks or trading, I am also not stupid.
I am aware that because I have no real knowledge of the market, for someone like me this is effectively gambling.

But my question to you is, is putting my money into an already well-established company a relatively safe bet compared to buying lower-end stocks that I think will boom in value?

Surely if I put the money into Apple (as a complete example) I'd generally be safe - I might not make much money from it, but likewise, I'd be unlikely to lose it all?

Would this be a good way to start? Or is it just as risky to put money into such large companies like this?

I've (possibly wrongly) always thought that buying stocks of already massive companies would net me small returns with low risk, whereas buying stocks of small companies has the potential to net me massive returns albeit at a much bigger risk of losing my investment. Is this a correct assumption?

Also, say I did have a couple of grand invested and something personal came up, am I able to easily "cash out" and retrieve that money within a few days or weeks etc? Or is this something I'd be locked into for years before I can access my money (whether I'm up or down)?

Additionally, are there any platforms you would recommend using to buy stock? Or any you would specifically avoid?

Lastly, would I be a complete idiot to do this with such a lack of knowledge or is it a case of "everyone has to start somewhere"? I've always assumed the stock market as very unpredictable and nobody really knows what's really going to happen... But then again if that was the case then surely people wouldn't make so much out of it so consistently.

Thanks for your time.