Most people will end up losing money in the stock market. If you want extra proof, look no further. My mind has already been numbed to seeing my money disappear into literal thin air. Based on what I just told you, it probably seems like you need to be super smart to invest in stocks.
Wrong.
It’s all about confidence and holding your bets in the long run.
In light of this, I would like to persuade you all to put a little bit of money in the stock market today because you can generate your income, protect your capital, and get a return over time to build sustainable wealth.
I will encapsulate all of these with one easy strategy that requires only beginner level finance knowledge, only the confidence to hold for the long term. Anybody the second they turn 18 can do this, and so I’ll explain this in the simplest way possible to show you why you should invest.
So let’s begin:
Some stocks give periodic payments called “dividends.” These dividends are excess profits that a company gives back to its shareholders as a reward or sorts. This dividend will typically be denoted as a percentage of the stock price. By buying a stock that pays regular dividends, you can get regular cash payments debited to your accounts with little to no risk. Once you buy the stock, you literally need to do NOTHING.
These dividends won’t be big at first, but over time and consistency, they WILL grow. Especially if you all begin now. But you’ll also want to protect your money.
The USD is surprisingly unreliable. 40% of the supply of USD has been printed within the last year. Basic economics dictates that with a high supply, something becomes devalued. Our money is essentially becoming chuck e cheese tokens. By owning stock, you are able to purchase ownership in a functioning company that will protect your money from the grips of inflation. By buying gold stocks, you can even protect your money against inflation. By letting your money just sit in a bank, it is actively losing value because of inflation.
Now for the last aspect being return on investment. The basic concept is: buy low, sell high. Often I engage in the opposite, buy high sell low, but that’s another issue.
Over the past 50 years, the market has grown an average of 6.8% annually (adjusted for inflation). Keep in mind that this is EACH year. If I had 100 dollars invested, it becomes 106.8 dollars the next year. Then, 6.8% of 106.8 is greater, meaning that it will exponentially increase over time. 100 Dollars turn into 719 after 30 years of doing nothing assuming this. If in the future you ever get $10,000 to invest, this would turn into $71,900. By just putting your money in the market and not touching it, you can get a 7 times return if you are just patient.
If you’re not convinced yet, I’ll outline a super easy strategy you all can use now. Download a free brokerage app, like RobinHood. Go to a fund called “SPY” which on a broad level tracks the performance. You can create a recurring order which buys x dollars of the stock during a set increment of time, every month lets say. Your stock portfolio will track the exact performance of the market over time, with 0 work required from you after this initial step.
Cash out after some years and see the money flow in.
We can take this a step further and put your money into a retirement account called a “Roth IRA” which is tax free when you sell your stocks.
I do not want to use the term “free money” to describe this, but by using this absurdly simple strategy, you can beat 90% of people in the market.
What I have described to you is a method called passive investing. Even Warren Buffet, one of the financial investors of all time, says that if you are not willing to dedicate a large portion of your time to investing, passive investing will yield you average market returns (which is ironically better than most people you will meet).