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She's a Lot
Ambition Looks Good on You.
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Help! I'm broke but want to get rich
When we think of investing and the stock market, we often picture wealthy, arrogant men in suits saying words we don't understand à la The Wolf of Wall Street:
But the reality is that in order to invest, you don't have to:
- be a man
- have a finance degree
- be wealthy and invest a lot
- take risks and day trade
- know everything about the stock market
In our modern world, investing has truly become accessible for anyone with $5 and access to the internet. If you have even $5 extra dollars a month, you can (and probably should) start investing today.
Ok... prove it.
A She's a Lot reader started investing just $5 a week two years ago - today, her investments have grown by over $100, and she has a total of $700 in her investment account.
Based on average annual returns, in 20 years (2044), she'll have almost $19,601, when she only contributed $5,200 but earned $13,701.
If she didn't invest at all, but started contributing $100 a month instead, 10 years from now, in 2044, she would have $19,384 (almost the same), but she would have contributed $12,000 and earned only $7,284.
This example shows why the real key to growing wealth is time.
Compound interest is powerful. The earlier you start, the larger growth you'll see, even if you start with less than someone else.
So is investing $5 a week going to be enough to retire early? Not exactly. But it's a great example of how much even the smallest amount of money can do. The goal is that, one day, you'll have the means to contribute more and create wealth for future you.
But how do I even get started?
The first step is to identify how much you can afford to invest every month. Our free monthly budget worksheet helps you calculate how much you should be saving and investing each month, based on your actual income and expenses. Once you know what you can afford without missing payments on bills, you can open a brokerage account.
There are many options out there, but especially if you're new to investing, I recommend a platform like Betterment.
Betterment allows you to automatically invest without picking your own stocks (also known as robo-investing). So, you don't need to be a stock market expert to get started! They also offer free tax-loss harvesting, which is an investment strategy that helps lower the taxes owed on gains by selling off lower-performing stocks. Betterment does this for you automatically! And no, this isn't an ad. I just love Betterment!
So, how do I know what to invest in?
While you can absolutely pick your own stocks (I'd recommend buying index funds like SPY or VOO to start), you can also use a robo-investor so you don't have to pick stocks. Brokerage accounts that offer robo-investing, like Acorns or Betterment, have you answer a few questions to assess your risk profile. These usually include things like how much you plan to invest regularly and when you plan to pull out. Then, they allocate your funds to different investments to match your risk tolerance and how soon you plan to pull the money out.
What if I lose money instead?
The stock market does go up and down. However, over the long term (think years), it always grows. In fact, it grows about 10% on average every year. That means if you play the long game, your money is going to grow. The key is not to get spooked when the market temporarily drops due to news, like tariffs, new regulations, or other political or economic issues. Be patient and you'll see growth!
Wishing you a rich life,
Lora at She's a Lot
