Ramit Sethi
When people first try to take control of their personal finances, their first question is usually “Should I Invest in Stocks?”. Everyone has heard horror stories of someone losing their life savings in the stock market, so it can seem risky and scary. But mostly this is just noise. There is only one right answer to the question of whether or not you should invest in stocks.
And that answer is YES.
You absolutely should be investing in stocks.
The 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Investing in Stocks Right Now:
- It’s easy
- If you do it right, you’ll make a ton of money
- You can do it all online
- It’s the best way to save for retirement
- You can get huge tax advantages
Let’s dive in.
Reason #1: It’s easy
I used to think investing was intimidating and scary. It actually turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. You don’t need huge sums of cash or inside information about what stocks to pick.
You don’t need to time the market, pick the right stocks, and get a hot IPO.
All you need to do is set up an automated system and stick to your plan for the long term. You’ll have an incredible retirement and set up a passive income stream along the way.
The best way to get started investing is to set up automatic monthly contributions to your investment accounts. Do this for 2-3 decades and you’ll wake up with a ton of money in your account.
Every account allows you to set up an automatic monthly transfer. I like to set these up for 1-2 days after I get paid. That way, it never feels like I had the money in the first place. If you want to learn more about how easy it is to start investing, check out this post on How to Invest Money.
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Reason #2: If you do it right, you’ll make a ton of money
On average, stocks have given an annualized return of around 10%. At that rate, your money doubles every 7.2 years.
Let’s say you start with $10,000. After a 40 year career, that turns into at least $320K from doubling 5 times. That’s from a single $10,000 investment.
I’m going to level with you. You can’t get rich off just your salary. Savings and bonds won’t do it either, the return isn’t high enough to make an impact during your lifetime.
Stocks are the key.
No matter your income, you will get rich off stocks as long as you start investing early, keep investing, and never sell.
Trying to time the market can be DEVASTATING. Ignore the news and invest every month like clockwork. That’s how you make the most money. If you want to learn more about how investing in stocks can be a huge money maker, check out my post on how to make money in stocks.
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Reason #3: You can do it all online
We’re in the golden age of online investing. Gone are the days when you had to call and set up accounts over the phone, or even worse, actually go there in person. Online investing makes it easy to start investing, and you have quite a few options. What’s even better is that the best services often have the lowest fees, making it easy AND cheap. To learn more about how to get started, check out my post on online investing.
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Reason #4: It’s the best way to save for retirement
The average American needs to save 1.5 million in order to retire. If you were trying to save that using a regular savings account (with an interest rate of about 1.25%), you’d need to save almost $50,000 a year over the course of a 30 year career. For most people, that’s impossible. But with the power of investing, you can invest as little as 10% of your salary and be ready to retire in 30 years.
Wondering how long it will take you to retire if you start investing now? You can play with the numbers using this investment growth calculator.
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Reason #5: Tax advantages
Depending on what type of account you’re investing in, the contributions you make may not even be taxed.
You should invest as much as possible into tax-deferred accounts like a 401k or Roth IRA.
Your 401k won’t be taxed until you withdraw it many years down the line, and your IRA earnings won’t be taxed at all.
You also won’t have to worry about the minutiae, including picking tax-efficient funds and utilizing methods like tax-loss harvesting. By taking the step of investing in tax-advantaged retirement accounts, you’ll sidestep the vast majority of tax concerns.
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Start Building Wealth Today
Overall, you have every reason to start investing in the stock market today. You can get your accounts set up in just a few hours, and be well on your way to building wealth for a lifetime. If you can get the hang of the basics of investing, you’ve just removed a huge barrier to earning more money. Remember, there’s no limit to how much you can earn.
If you’re looking for other ways to start making more money, take my earning potential quiz below. I’ll give you a custom report based on your unique strengths, and you can discover how to start making extra money — in as little as an hour.
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