 Hi guys, welcome back to the independent investor channel. My name is Ryan. I often think if I could go back and I could do it all over again, would I do anything different in my investing application? And I think while a lot of YouTube channel creators and social media are sensing maybe a little bit of a correction might be on the horizon, or worse, the stock market is going to crash, or it's going to go to zero, maybe you should sell everything now. I might take a little different twist and try to reach some of those investors that maybe are looking at the prospects of entering into a wealth building strategy for themselves, and they don't know where to start. For those of you who don't know, I've been doing the YouTube channel for about four years now, really just to share my experiences, the ups and the downs in the stock market, and there have been a plenty of all of the above. But I think as we evolve as a stock market investor, there are key points of emphasis that we reflect upon and makes us better investors. And I think there's no real substitute for experience in the stock market. And that's something that a beginning investor just doesn't have. And that's what makes the social media experience so special is that folks can come on and they can get a 10 minute offering from somebody like myself that's capturing 25 plus years of experience in the market. But I often think if I had to do over again, what would I do? What would be the one thing that I would do above all else and nothing else? That doesn't mean that you can't evolve with your program. But I think if I were going to go back and talk to the 20 year old Ryan, I've said this many times, I'd probably slap him upside the head and get his attention first and warn him that there will be all kinds of different temptations, different people who will come into your life and out of your life telling you that you're not doing it right, that what you're doing makes no sense. There's going to be temptations to go after accelerated wealth. All that put aside, I really think the prospects of investing in the S&P 500 cannot be understated. And here's why. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has had 63 positive years out of 93 total years. That means that two thirds of the time, the S&P has been up positive year over year. While a lot of people are looking at the stock market as a place where they need to find that needle in a haystack, you're already a winner two thirds out of the time investing in the S&P 500. Now, that's an interesting stat if you really think about it. Now that's over 93 years most of us have when we start a potential for a 40 year investing time horizon, right? So if you're 20 years old and you're looking to invest over the course of a 40 year time horizon and put you into 60, a lot of people are talking about investing in trend investing when you're young. Why not take a shot to retire overnight? Why not just put your entire nest egg, $1,000 into that moonshot stock? And if it goes up, wonderful, you're wealthy. And if it doesn't, you're going to lose the $1,000 and you're going to have to start over. I'm not in that camp. I'm not. I think while there will be few that will enter into a story fund or a story stock that will end up doing very, very well, that's only applicable to just a few people. And it's not applicable to the masses. So I digress the two thirds win in the S&P 500. For those of you who don't know, the S&P 500 represents the large and medium cap companies in the domestic US stock market. Okay, so right there, getting started and getting access to really one of the best investing markets in the world. And one of those that is actually heavily regulated, which means a lot to me in the first place. So you're going to get access to all of your top companies, your Google, your Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and the like. It's very, very interesting to go in and look at the S&P. I think there's just a little over 20% in the top 10 in the S&P 500. If you were just to buy the ETX or a comparable index fund in the in the ETF. Well, why would I tell my younger self to invest in this? A perspective that I think escapes a lot of new investors is the fact that nobody wants to acknowledge the importance of diversification. And it becomes no less important during times of market volatility than now, where people who are passive investors just kind of shrug their shoulders and they say, hey, I'm good, I'm diversified. I have access to the S&P 500. If it retracts on me, I have options. Okay, that of which we'll talk about. But the diversification across the broader market is extremely important when you're talking about building long term wealth. And if you acknowledge at 20 years old that you don't need to look any further than the S&P 500. Now remember, this solves a huge mystery for a lot of people when they come to me and they ask me, you know, what would you what would you recommend? Where would you recommend looking, Ryan? You know, I'm looking at this investing landscape and this opportunity, and it just doesn't seem to make any sense. I've got YouTubers over here saying one thing, and I've got the Facebook community over here saying one thing and I've got, you know, future money trends saying one thing and stock gurus over here and Reddit threads saying this, I don't know what to do. I'm completely confused. I just gave you the answer so you can let all that stuff kind of go. And here's why. We talked about the diversified nature, having access to just over 500 of the best US domestic companies available out there born on hands down. Acknowledging that you've got the maximum amount of time in the stock market and you've always heard the onus that time in the market is more important than timing the market. Here's why the S&P 500 today may not be the same as the S&P 500 in five years. You don't believe me? Go back 10 years and take a look at the holdings in the S&P 500. You'll be amazed at how drastically different it actually is. Go back 20 years and you'll be amazed. Now you say, well, Ryan, since it changes, is it still a good idea to have exposure over time? That's exactly what you want to do because the S&P ETF, which is passive in nature, is going to always guarantee that you have access to the best companies that represent the S&P. So when you invest in that come tomorrow or next week, when you start on your investing journey, what you're going to do is you're going to enter into that and you're going to guarantee yourself basically to have access to the best companies that come and go over the next 40 years. Very, very important because a lot of people look at it as boring. They look at it as not appealing because they can't go in and try to pick their own stocks. Guys, most people fail at that. And that's the fact. And so while most retail investors are scratching their head wondering why they can't beat the market, look at some of the holdings on some of the most professional money managers out there. They are the apples, Microsoft, Home Depot, Bristol Meyers, Squibs of the world and the like. They're not trying to beat the market with fly by the night stocks. They're not. Okay. So as a retail investor, if you could go back and you could do it again, and you could enter into one particular asset that's going to give you the best bang for your buck, it's going to give you that best opportunity to win two thirds out of the time based on historical performance, right? Not to use as a benchmark for future performance, but hey, this is how it's shaken out over the last 93 years. I didn't make this stuff up. This is actually true. All right. Now you might come to me and you might say, well, Ryan, what do you do for the other one third of the time? I don't want to go through a whole year and be down. Here's the thing. Don't try to make investing out to be more than what it is. Okay. Investing is just that. It is not an in some game and that it just goes up every single year, every decade, and there's never ever any systemic shock to the market or injects that get the stock market cranky and have it digress on us. It happens. What do you do about that? The cool thing about investing in a diversified asset that is going to pay you a dividend that is always going to give you that exposure over the years and over the decades to the best companies that exist out there in the stock market is that you can always buy on the dip. And this goes contrary to the freak out. Every time we get a little bit of a shake in the stock market and people come to me and they say, Ryan, you know, you're one of the most level headed guys on social media, which I am. I am. I've been doing this a long, long time. I will buy the market and I will be in the minority of buyers in the market when everybody else is panicking running for the hills. Okay. It allows you to do that. It allows you to actually buy the market on the dip and it actually allows you to just monitor the market when two thirds of the time and for that remaining one third of the time when the market goes down, all you have to do is just buy the market. That's all you have to do. Very, very simple. Guys, I really hope you appreciated this. If you could go back and do it again, what's the one fund that can help you win over the long term in the stock market? I just gave you that answer. It's the absolute best way of going back and investing and making sure that you're given yourself the best chance of succeeding in the market over the long term. Guys, if you appreciate the message coming through and I'll make sure and subscribe to the channel. I want to make sure and leave your comments at the bottom of the video and share the video with anybody out there looking to answer that golden question. What is it that I invest in and how do I get my start? Guys, thank you so much for tuning in to the message and good luck in your investment future.