Current Events > Is it worth investing if you don't have tons of money to do so?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Im doing well enough for myself financially, so investing was never something I looked into too seriously, but I kind of feel like I should. I didnt have a 401k at my previous job, so that was never an option. I do put money weekly into a Roth IRA (between $60 and $100) so theres that at least.

The popular statement I often see seems to be instead of spending $20 eating out, you should invest that! but like, is that actually worth it? Ive only ever really associated worthwhile investments with, like, really big sums of money (like, dropping thousands of dollars in an investment at once).

Im not comfortable dropping thousands at once, but I could certainly handle putting a bit of money here and there each week (once Ive actually learned how to properly invest).

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Yes, make your money work for you

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Yes, I've put around a grand into stash over the last year and half.



I have other financial goals so most of money is going to other places but i still put some each week into the market for longer term things.

Once my student loans are done I'll put a lot more into the market

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That definitely gives me something to think about!

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No fomo, you already missed out.
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Absolutely.

Average american eats out 4.2 times per week according to the first google source i pulled.

Say average is $15 since. If you eat out half as often and invest it instead, say your meal cost will be $3 instead so $12 savings.

At 2.1x per week that's $25.20 savings. That's $1,310.40 per year.

Do that for 40 years at 8% interest, you've got yourself and extra $340k in savings.

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investing sucks imo
I've put in like $600 in the last 11 days and I've already lost $15
might as well just keep it hidden around my house ffs

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I invested 12 bucks into penny stocks and now I have 11 bucks

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Only if you know what youre doing or you have access to a reputable person who can help you make the right investments.

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Yeah, eventually you'll hit man territory

I put $5000 in 10 yeara ago, its $12,000 now

In 30 years I'll die

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Kind of. Everyone's first priority should be having a decent fund of money saved up. That's the most important thing to do when someone doesn't make a lot of money. You might be surprised at the stats showing how many Americans couldn't survive missing one or two paychecks. Therefore everyone should have some saved in case an unexpected expense or disaster happens.

But after having that base "emergency fund" saved in a safe place, it's great to invest excess money. Keep in mind, most people would consider a 10% annual growth on an investment quite respectable. The last few years have been mostly better than 10% (which might also have fooled some people into thinking they're investing genuises), but historically a 10% annual return would be about average or maybe even a little above average depending on how far back you're looking. If you only had say $100 to invest and then got a 10% return then at the end of the year you would have $110. That same return would obviously look a lot more significant if you were able to start with $100,000. For that reason, a lot of personal finance people would say that the best investment for someone making a lower salary would be to take that money and see if you can use it to make a career change into something that'll give you more money to work with. But then that's easier said than done obviously and depends a lot on people's circumstances.

Also, it cannot be overstated how important compound growth is, which is the type of growth an investor sees in their investment. Google a compound growth calculator and try plugging in some numbers. You'd quickly see how significant investing as early on as you can makes a dramatic difference.

Final note - there are people who will show off their GME and bitcoin investing and whatever and talk about how they turned $100 into $50,000 or whatever. That's not the norm, and if you're fooled into thinking it is the norm and try to get into the next big thing then it's more likely you'll lose your investment. Those things exist, but they are by definition volatile. Some crypto people would be mad at me for saying it, because a crypto-holder has a very strong interest in getting other people to invest in the thing that they've already invested in (because that pushes the price, and the value of their investment, up even more). But I'll leave that at that.

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Webmaster4531 posted...

No fomo, you already missed out.

Jokes on you, I dont experience fomo.

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rexcrk posted...

Jokes on you, I dont experience fomo.

Yeah, hard to fear missing out when that ship sailed never to return.
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Yep

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Buying individual stocks is not a good idea unless you have at least thousands of dollars up front so you can diversify your portfolio.

But investing in an index fund or a good mutual fund is great even with a small amount per month.

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