So many subject areas and disciplines are packed full of jargon. Some of this is the result of “progress” and advances, and some of it is caused by workers in the field not going out of their way to explain and define things.
In this chapter, I give you the lay of the land regarding the enormous numbers of investment choices and foreign-sounding terminology that await you in the world of investing. I also explain the types of companies that offer investments and their strengths and weaknesses. And should you want to hire some investing help, I detail the various professionals pitching their services to you and the common credentials they hawk to convince you of their expertise.
Growing Your Money in Ownership Investments
The most exciting thing about investing during your younger adult years is that you can be more aggressive with money that you’ve earmarked to help you accomplish long-term goals. To achieve typical longer-term financial goals, such as being financially independent (also known as retiring), the money that you save and invest generally needs to grow at a rate much faster than the rate of inflation. If you put your money in a bank account that pays little or no interest, for example, you’re more likely to fall short of your goals.
Ownership investments are investments like stocks, where you own a piece of a company, real estate, or a small business that has the capability to generate revenue and profits. Over the long term, consider ownership investments if you want your money to grow much faster than the rate of inflation and don’t mind more volatility in your investments’ values.
The downside to such investments is that they can fall more significantly in value than non-ownership investments (for example, bank accounts, bonds, and so on), especially in the short term. So don’t put money into ownership investments that you may need to tap in the short term for rent money or your next vacation. To reduce the risk of ownership investments, diversify — that is, hold different types of ownership investments that don’t move in tandem.
I highlight three major ownership investments in the following sections: stocks, real estate, and small business.
Sharing in corporate growth and profits: Stocks
If you want the potential to share in the growth and profits of companies, you can gain it through buying shares of their stock. Stocks are shares of ownership in a company. You can buy stock directly in individual companies through a brokerage account, or you can buy a collection of stocks via a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (see Chapter 10).
If you’ve followed the financial markets at all over some time or have friends or family who have spoken to you about this, you may have heard of companies/stocks like Amazon, Apple, Chipotle, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Netflix, Ross Stores, Tesla, Ulta Beauty, and so on. Those who bought and held stocks like these made big returns over the past decade. Remember, though, that we’re saying and seeing this now with the benefit of hindsight — looking in the rearview mirror. And, I’m sure you know that the future will be different than the past, so running out and buying these stocks now is far less likely to make you a mint going forward.
Now, what if I told you I've invested in and made good money in all of these stocks over the past decade? The fact is I have, but I never personally chose any of these particular stocks. I’ve owned these stocks and numerous other good companies and their stocks through mutual funds I’ve invested in. Of course, it’s impossible for any fund manager to only have a portfolio of the best winners or winners in general. Some of their stock picks will be mediocre and others worse.
Profiting from real estate
You don’t need to be a big shot to make money investing in real estate. Owning and managing real estate is like running a small business: You need to satisfy customers (tenants), manage your costs, keep an eye on the competition, and so on. Some methods of real estate investing require more time than others, but many are proven ways to build wealth. Historically, investment real estate has produced annual returns comparable to investing in stocks.
Among the key attributes of private real estate investment are the following:
You build wealth through your rental income exceeding your expenses and through property-value appreciation.
You can leverage your investment by borrowing money.
You must be comfortable dealing with property management, which includes finding and retaining tenants and keeping up (and possibly improving) your property.
This last point is super important. Buying and managing investment real estate is time intensive. Those whom I’ve seen succeed investing in real estate actually enjoy the challenge and work involved. And, over time, you can hire people to help you with managing properties if you don’t want to spend so much time personally at it.
See Chapter 12 for the details on investing in real estate.
Succeeding in small business
I know people who have hit investing home runs by owning or buying businesses. Most people work full-time at running their businesses, increasing their chances of doing something big financially with them. Investing in the stock market, by contrast, tends to be more part-time in nature.
In addition to the financial rewards, however, small-business owners can enjoy seeing the impact of their work and knowing that it makes a difference. I can speak from firsthand experience (as can other small-business owners) in saying that emotionally and financially, entrepreneurship is a roller coaster.
Besides starting your own company, you can share in the economic rewards of the entrepreneurial world through buying an existing business or investing in someone else’s budding enterprise. See Chapter 14 for more details.
Making “riskier” choices: Options, cryptocurrencies, and so on
I know from my many interactions with younger adults these days that there are some more exciting and enticing vehicles such as call options and cryptocurrencies. It’s easy to get drawn into such things when you hear a story or two about someone hitting it big.
I’m certainly open to you taking sensible risks, and the fact of the matter is that the highest returning investment vehicles I discuss in this book do indeed carry notable risks. But options and cryptocurrencies carry enormous risks and actually far less upside than what many people believe or realize.
Rest assured that at relevant places in this book, I cover these other types of vehicles (especially in Chapter