I can’t help with most of it, but I can tell you that UK stocks are generally much cheaper—more like £1 or £2, as opposed to $100 in the US.
Share prices are essentially meaningless (with obvious exceptions at the ends of the spectrum: Berkshire Hathaway Class A and penny stocks). It’s the conversion ratio between actual money and notional units of a company, and the ratio can be changed without affecting anything in the real world (stock splits). Basically, the only issue is that high share prices (e.g. GOOG at $870) make purchases somewhat inconvenient since brokerages are stupid about fractional shares for individual stocks (as opposed to mutual funds, where you give them a certain amount of money, and they give you the right number of fractional shares down to thousandths).
Real changes in share prices are, of course, meaningful.
Share prices are essentially meaningless (with obvious exceptions at the ends of the spectrum: Berkshire Hathaway Class A and penny stocks). It’s the conversion ratio between actual money and notional units of a company, and the ratio can be changed without affecting anything in the real world (stock splits). Basically, the only issue is that high share prices (e.g. GOOG at $870) make purchases somewhat inconvenient since brokerages are stupid about fractional shares for individual stocks (as opposed to mutual funds, where you give them a certain amount of money, and they give you the right number of fractional shares down to thousandths).
Real changes in share prices are, of course, meaningful.