Did you know that listening to the news and media is a terrible idea? I don't watch the news, I don't listen to the media, and I keep myself off social media as much as I can because I hate how easily someone can manipulate your thinking and change your opinion on something.
For years I thought owning stock was risky because that's what I was led to believe. As I learned more about business and the stock market, I realized investing in the stock market isn't much different than any other investment. Some say it's risky because they don't take time learning its value and how to manage risk. It's no different than me learning the cleaning industry or the SaaS business model.
Owning stock is a great way to build wealth over time, even if you're letting someone else manage your money. The S&P 500 Index originally began in 1926 as the "composite index" comprised of only 90 stocks. According to historical records, the average annual return since its inception in 1926 through 2018 is approximate 10%–11%.
What does that mean?
It means that if you add $1,000 per month into the S&P for 20 years, at an average return of 10%, you'll have roughly $687,000. If you start at 20, by 40, you can have $687,000... Most people don't have that much money, nor will they ever see that kind of money, yet it's not hard to save $1,000 per month for a lot of people. It is hard to be patient and become rich in 20 years. Everyone wants to be rich today, and that's why they fall for all the get-rich-quick schemes. It's all about patience and securing yourself.
To give you an idea, I add $5,000 every single month to the stock market. At an average return of 10%, that can potentially turn into $3,436,000 in 20 years. Since I select companies on my own, the ones I believe will be significant players in the future, I may achieve better than 10% (or I might not). I aim for 20% growth year to year average, which would put my $5,000 monthly investment at $11,200,000 after 20 years.
I also invest our company money as well from a business account. We are building our way up to adding $20,000 of profit per month towards the stock market ($240,000 per year). Again, at 10%, that would be almost $14,000,000 after 20 years. If I manage to hit 20% returns year to year for us, that would be nearly $45,000,000. This is why you shouldn't be discouraged if you're not becoming a millionaire in year 1 of your journey.
Compounding your wealth takes time
Wealth takes time, and it all starts to compound eventually. If you have a job, you can still manage to save $1,000 a month and add it to the stock market for 20 years. Look at it as: 'I need the first $1,000 to invest' and anything after you use to take your girlfriend/boyfriend out to a nice dinner or take your family on vacation. If you can't save $1,000, start a side business alongside your job and build your way up to $1,000.
Here are some small business ideas you can start today.
I do $5,000 a month because I built my business. After taking a salary of $10,000 per month, I can still take distributions/profits from the business and add them to the stock market. This all took time! Before I started to add to the stock market, I used that profit to build BookingKoala. Today I have a cleaning business that makes me an excellent salary, a 2nd business I am growing aggressively, and money being invested into the stock market from my personal portfolio. Not to mention the actual businesses I've built that I can sell in the future.
I'm 28 as I'm writing this, and it took me 9 years to build all of this out. All this was also started with a $3,000 investment at the age of 19 and a lot of hard work. That's the power of building a business and starting early. If you're waiting around trying to build wealth, you're already making a mistake. After focusing on one business for a little while, you can start adding more money to the stock market as I did. Just remember, this will only work if you fully commit to something.