Warren Buffet has had a great run in the financial realms, amassing a net worth of over $85 billion. Reports reveal that he has $128 billion in cash to burn as Berkshire Hathaway’s cash balance grew to record highs. Even one investment tip from Mr. Buffet could make all the difference in one’s portfolio. Continue reading →
Calvin Ebun-Amu is passionate about finance and technology. While studying his bachelor’s degree, he found himself using his spare time to research and write about finance. Calvin is particularly fascinated by economics and risk management. When he’s not writing, he’s reading a book or article on risk and uncertainty by his favourite non-fiction author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Calvin has a bachelors degree in law and a post-graduate diploma in business.
When it comes to investing, the more options one has, the better. International markets open up new opportunities for investors with different risk appetites. Foreign stocks provide new ways to diversify portfolios and benefit from the economic growth of other geographic regions. It is often advised to ensure that 5% to 10% of a portfolio is constituted of foreign stocks. More aggressive investors may be increase their allocation to 25% which is considered as acceptable. Continue reading →
Calvin Ebun-Amu is passionate about finance and technology. While studying his bachelor’s degree, he found himself using his spare time to research and write about finance. Calvin is particularly fascinated by economics and risk management. When he’s not writing, he’s reading a book or article on risk and uncertainty by his favourite non-fiction author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Calvin has a bachelors degree in law and a post-graduate diploma in business.
The U.S. Stock Market is at an all-time high, and many are wondering how much longer this can be sustained. People are asking themselves if it is still worth investing in stocks at this high. The simple answer is: YES!
Below is a chart of the S&P 500, which covers the broad range of the stock market. The chart below illustrates performance from 1950 until the end of last year.
Should I Invest in Stocks?
As you can see based on the chart, there are rises and falls, some of which are quite big. If you look at the chart as a whole, you can ultimately say that U.S. stocks have increased in value over time. Here are three reasons why one should consider investing in stocks.
Should I Invest in Stocks? Reason 1:
U.S. stocks have outperformed almost every other investible asset over the past 100 years, especially government and corporate bonds. People often think of bonds as a safer alternative to investing in stocks, but what they really mean by “safer” is less volatile. Yes, stocks can fluctuate with higher highs and lower lows in a given period of time, but over the long-run they will outperform bonds.
Should I Invest in Stocks? Reason 2:
Stocks are the easiest and safest way to build wealth. What I mean by this is that continual investment in stocks will yield higher and higher returns over time if you let your returns compound. Compounding interest is a great thing when it comes to building wealth and all it takes is two simple steps:
Step 1: Continued investment and reinvestment
Step 2: Time
By continually putting money into your stock investment on a consistent basis and allowing your returns to reinvest, after a period of time you will be able to build a substantial amount of wealth. And again, since stocks outperform other investments over the long-term, you are compounding a greater percentage each year.
Should I Invest in Stocks? Reason 3:
Because Warren Buffett says so! At the time of this post, Buffett’s net worth is estimated to be in excess of $75 billion USD. It has been said that he is the greatest investor the world has ever seen. How did Warren and others like him make their great fortunes? Through investments in stocks. Warren has constantly invested in companies throughout his time via stock purchases in what he calls “value investments”, which is a simple way to say in companies he believes to be cheap in valuation. Buffett has gone so far as to say that even upon his passing he would like the remainder of his fortune to be placed in a low-cost index fund that mirrors the S&P 500. The greatest investor ever believed and still believes in the power of stocks.
Hopefully by now you have been convinced that investing in stocks is the right thing to do, but how do I get started? Simple, to begin investing in stocks I would recommend investing in a mutual fund that covers a wide range of the U.S. Stock Market as well as knowing more about forex trading online. Investment firms such as Vanguard and Fidelity offer these sorts of funds that will allow you to get exposure to the broad range of the U.S. Stock Market and begin reaping the rewards.
James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.
In case you missed it the DOW jumped 236 points yesterday. The S&P was also up over 1% yesterday. Before yesterday’s rebound, the market had pulled back approximately 2.5%.
While these numbers might seem minuscule in the big picture of things, there is an important message to take from this.
The market moves every day. Sometimes by a little, and sometimes by a lot. If you take the emotion out of your investing the daily, weekly or even monthly moves of the market shouldn’t be an issue to your portfolio.
The Key…
Constant investing!
Every Friday I put a $100 deposit into my brokerage account. Every month I put $500 into my Roth IRA. By investing in a constant schedule I can ensure myself DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging). By doing this, when the market goes up I am investing the same amount as I would when the market goes down. The only difference is that when the market is down for the week or month, I buy more shares of the mutual fund.
By sticking to my investment plan and constantly investing, I have little care for how the market swings each day, week or month. Timing the market is never a good idea. Very few have the ability to beat the market.
My advice: Keep it simple. Constantly invest the same amount each month into a mutual fund, stock, etc. Allow compound interest to accrue. Give it time.
