I am a newbie with regards to bitcoins. I read an article about them the other day and I think that they can be a great investment.
There are a few risks to be concerned with.
Firstly, any investment has the risk of a drop in value. Bitcoin is a very volatile asset with price swings in 2012 from as low as $3.87 to as high as $15.40. Do not invest more than you are willing to lose.
When acquiring the coins from the market -- there may be strategies that will help you obtain coins at the best price.
Some exchanges will require that you submit identity to purchase coins for that amount -- at least if you try to do it all at once. That may introduce delays, so keep that into account when planning.
Then you have risks once you have acquired the coins. Are you planning on hosting them with another party? There are counterparty risks in doing that. Or do you wish to store them securely yourself? For a larger purchase you may wish to consider an offline, cold storage method -- possibly using Armory.
If these concepts aren't already familiar to you, there's a bit of reading ahead of you before you make your full investment. Since there might not be a significant benefit from doing it all at once, you might wish to go through the motions with a smaller amount of funds and then commit once you know the process based on experience.
