Does Owning Stocks Qualify You To Be An Investor?
I was scrolling through the internet and I saw that as of the end of 2023 which was last year, bear in mind that the year is almost coming to an end, the total market capitalization of publicly traded stocks around the world was $111 trillion, and that is a lot of money. This stocks are traded by the poor, the average person, the rich, and organization. I didn't mention the poorest of the poor because they first need to fight for survival before fighting for growth.
We have noticed an increase in the number of people who buy stocks thanks to retail trading platforms like Robinhood, and Chaka which I use to look at the current price market. I guess you want to ask if I am investing in stocks or not because I did not use the word "invest" when referring to the two platforms. Well, we will find out together at the end of the post.
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Investing is the best tool to build up wealth and prepare for a wonderful retirement and since investors are enjoying the market, it means the average Joe with a tab and an App buying stocks is also enjoying the strong market but this isn't completely true because you are not an Investor but for the world to go round, you must be sold the believe that you are an investor.
The rate of people owning stocks are increasing, in fact the government of my country just increased the amount of money that banks should have in the Central bank and so banks had to sell shares and almost everyone I have come across bought this shares. When it comes to owning stocks, the majority of people who own these stocks have them in their 401k account which is usually taken from their salaries to help them invest for retirement (the old-fashioned employment method). Majority of the pension schemes have disappeared with the company going bankrupt so the employees are left with their fates.
You see, investing should be part of a good financial plan, in fact you would see it in so many books and you would hear numerous financial speaker say it but one truth there is that it will not make anyone rich by itself alone. Actually, the chances of getting returns higher than the capital invested is very low and it will be better if the funds were invested into paying down their high interest debt, or putting them into learning a skill.
The truth about the majority of people who tend to be investing now is that they are majorly gambling and not expecting to generate consistent investment returns. The same way we have seen an increase in investments in stocks is the same way we have seen an increase in Users in gambling sites.
Do you know that the top 10% of the world own over 90% of the world's stocks but the question to answer is that did they all get their stock percentage by outright buying. The answer is spread as they got their stocks from either investing with other people's money and got paid in stock commissions, create successful companies where they own shares and when they went public, the owners owned a large amount of shares, others got high paying roles in companies and were paid in shares along side cash.
You might be putting money into stocks but do you get the same benefits as the investors themselves or the companies? When there is a downtime in the economy, these companies and investors get bail outs just so the stock market doesn't crash but this doesn't except the small traders and buyers of these stocks who are so fixated on their little investments even when they keep losing because they either are scared of holding or cannot leave the buy for a long time. You should know my answer now if I am an investor or not, because it is clear that I made a statement.