 So what is the truth about investing in the stock market? Every single day, I'm hearing misconceptions out there from beginners, from people just starting out that the stock market is something that it's completely not. And in today's video, we're going to be talking about a couple of misconceptions that I think about the stock market investing in the stock market for the long term. So let's get into it. So one of the biggest misconceptions that I think are out there involving the stock market is that it's a get rich quick scheme. And guys, I can't tell you enough, we all know at this point how many ads there are out there in the community, and I know I'm guilty for it. I have a YouTube channel. I'm sure you guys see the ads before this video, during the video, maybe after it as well. But we see so many ads. Jason Bond, Tim Sykes, all these people that are throwing money at you saying, the stock market, you can take $10,000, you can turn that into $100,000. How many times have you seen that Tim Sykes app where he's, or the ad where he's like, $10,000? That's nonsense, right? I know you guys have seen that, but there's ads every single day that are showing you that and telling you and giving you misconceptions that the stock market is a get rich quick scheme, right? You're putting money in a thousand bucks and you can flip that into $100,000. And the truth is guys, the stock market is nothing like that when it comes to investing. Sure, if you're playing with penny stocks, you may get lucky, you may put $1,000 in and you may flip that into $10,000 if you get one of these low float penny stocks, maybe you're in one of those pump and dump situations where the stock flies up, you get out at the right time. Sure, you can make a 10X return on that, but you can also completely lose your money, you can completely go from a $1,000 investment to $0 investment, just like that, with those penny stocks, which is why I stay away from them. But overall guys, investing in the stock market, it is not a get rich quick scheme, it is not something you put a thousand bucks in and it spits out $10,000 a year later, it's a slow gradual process. And to get even deeper into that regarding the slow gradual process, what the stock market needs the most out of anything in terms of emotions is patience, guys. This emotion that's inside of you that says, I need to buy a stock right now, I need to buy a stock right now, whatever stock it is, I don't care what price it is, I don't care if it's at all time highs, I don't care if the evaluation's crazy, I need to buy a stock. You need to be able to control this and wait for the opportunities out there to buy the stock. Don't just buy at the top just because you're craving to buy a stock because that might not be the best time to get in, which is why when patience comes in, you wait for those opportunities and you capitalize on them when they come around because most of the time, guys, when a stock's at an all-time high, it's going to come back at one point, it's going to correct, and when it corrects, you can actually get in at a better price point, a better starting dividend yield if that stock pays a dividend and overall, your return is going to be much better, think about it, right? If you get in at a dip buy, your return over time, if your company does well over time, if you've picked a good company, your return's going to be better than if you got in at a higher price, right? So the whole thing about investing in stocks, guys, obviously is picking the right stocks, doing your research, understanding what industries, what sectors you're investing in, making sure you're diversified, all that stuff, but once you pick out your stocks, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to buy them right away, right at the prices they're at. Now comes the patience and the waiting game where you're going to wait until these stocks you've picked start to get at better prices and better valuations. And just to go off on a little side tangent very quickly, what I personally do when I track my stocks and ETFs is I create watchlists, guys, very simple here. This is the Thinkorswim platform you guys can see up here, personal, these are my watchlists, right? I have an active watchlist, banking stocks, Chinese stocks, dividend yields, ETFs, indexes and international ETFs, long-term growth dividend plays, long-term investments, market ETFs, REITs, tech stocks, wheat stocks, and this is simply where I keep stocks that I'm interested in investing in and I just take a look at them pretty much every single week, maybe a couple of times a month and when they're at lower prices, that's when I consider buying more into that position or starting a new position if I haven't already bought in. So that's what I do when it comes to creating watchlists on Thinkorswim and just tracking my potential stocks and current investments over time. So very quickly, let's take a look at this compound interest calculator so you guys can see how patience can help you so much in the span of decades here when it comes to investing in the stock market. So let's say you're starting out with $10,000, that's a nice whole number here. Let's say you start out with $10,000 and let's say every single year, you plan on adding $12,000 to that portfolio, we'll break that down to $1,000 monthly. So that's your goal. Let's say you wanna build a lot of wealth in the stock market. Let's say you wanna have dividends coming in monthly that will pay your expenses in the next couple of decades. This can be a goal for you to achieve based on adding $1,000 a month. So let's say $1,000 a month, years to grow, you have 40 years to grow this money. And let's say the interest rate is 8%, because if you take a look at the S&P 500 since 1957-ish up until 2018, the return has been about, I think like 7.96% to be exact, but we'll round that up to 8% and that'll see, you'll see it there as 8% here on the compound interest calculator. So let's see what the future value of this money is going to be. You're going to have half a million dollars by just adding in $1,000 every single month at an 8% return. And that's absolutely crazy, right? Very quickly, let's do an example. Let's say you started out with $100,000. Is that 100,000? Yes, it is. And let's say you're adding in $2,000 every single month. Let's say you have a job that pays you very well. Let's say you add $2,000 a month from let's say a $10,000 a month income, 40 years to grow at 8%, you guys can see that's going to be nearly $3 million. So that just goes to show how patience and compound interest and decades after decades of consistently investing will help you long term. So another misconception about the stock market that drives me absolutely crazy is that it is gambling, guys. Oh my God, the stock market is gambling, right? You might as well just go to Las Vegas and throw 100 bucks on black or go play the slot machines, right? That's probably better than investing in stocks, right? That's not true, guys, because when you're investing in a stock, you're investing in a company, right? And if you've picked out a company, you've done the research, you've picked a company that grows its revenues every year, that grows its profits, it has a good moat, right? The company's protected, it has a good brand, maybe a patent. These companies, they're going to continue to do well and the stock, as the company's earnings and profits increase, the stock is going to A, have more dividends. So if that stock is a dividend stock, you're going to be getting more dividends over time. And generally when the companies do good over time, the stock price also does well. So how is putting money into a company, into a strong company like Apple or let's say Google, Amazon, Microsoft, putting in money into these companies that generate money and growing money every single year, how is that gambling, right? You can turn a thousand bucks, if you put a thousand bucks into Amazon, as it was growing up to the beast that it is today, you would have done so well on your money and how is that gambling, right? So that is one of the misconceptions that gets me fired up, it gets me kind of mad as you guys can see, but it happens, right? These are out there every single day. Another misconception about investing in the stock market is that you need to be Bill Gates, you need to be Warren Buffett, you need to have millions of dollars, you need to have a PhD in finance, you need to have a master's in finance, you need to have gone to college 15 times for finance. That's not true guys, anybody out there that has a hundred bucks, 50 bucks, 500 bucks, a thousand bucks, can invest in the stock market and with today's new platforms like Robinhood, M1 Finance, link down below, shameless plug, you can literally start investing with a hundred bucks, 50 bucks, 200 bucks because you can buy partial shares with M1 Finance and you don't have to pay commission when you buy and sell stocks with Robinhood or M1 Finance. So there's literally no excuse for anybody out there with a small amount of money to start investing and don't let all these people just make you believe that you need all this money to invest. You can literally start with a small amount of money, you can pick an ETF, a couple of stocks, usually index funds for people that don't wanna be too into it, right? And you can just slowly add more money and dollar cost average into these positions over time and you'll have a massive nest egg built in the next couple of years, just by simply getting over that rich, you have to be rich to start out, you can start out with a small amount of money and just grow it over time and you'll thank yourself. So those are just a couple of misconceptions about the stock market and the truth behind investing in the stock market that it's a slow, long process that can build you a huge amount of wealth over time. So if you enjoyed this video, guys, feel free to go down below and hit that like button. It really supports me and supports the channel in general. Consider subscribing if you wanna see more content for me. Hit that notification bell so you're notified every single time that I do make a video and drop a comment down below. Let me know what you guys thought about this one and let me know if you want me to make another stock market misconceptions video. So I'll catch you all in the next video. Thanks again for watching. I appreciate all you guys from the bottom of my heart. Peace out.