Investing turns you from a mere consumer to an owner.
When you invest in the stock market you are investing in a collection of great businesses, which provide products and services to real people. Ones you and I interact with everyday.
By investing in the stock market you are investing in our way of life.
You are investing in Capitalism.
Capitalism may not be perfect, but it is the best solution we as a society have come up with.
It has pulled the majority of the world’s population out of poverty since the 50’s, led to incredible advances in technology and has given us the standard of living we enjoy today.
If you are still unsure on the wonders of capitalism, let’s look at life expectancy.
For the majority of human history life has been pretty “nasty, brutish and short“(Thomas Hobbes). Until recently you wouldn’t expect to live a long life in comfort, surrounded by all the things our modern world has to offer.
These graphs from Our World in Data clearly show our changing fortunes over the last 200+ years. In the 21st Century we are more fortunate than most, and in large part this is thanks to the capital markets.
It is worth pointing out that the figures are skewed by child mortality. In the past, if a child reached their fifth birthday, it was generally expected that child would reach adulthood.
Is it a coincidence that child mortality has plummeted since capitalism and globalisation took off in the 1950’s? I think not.
Aside from catapulting humanity to new heights, capitalism has also generated enormous amounts of wealth for those that participate in the stock market, AKA business owners.
Whether you like it or not, we are all customers of the stock market.
Look at your bank statement, the majority of your monthly outgoings will be flowing into businesses listed on the stock market:
- Clothes?
- Food?
- Fuel?
- Gadgets?
- Phone contract?
- Booze?
- Beauty products?
- Gym membership?
As you are already sending your hard earned cash to these businesses, generating profits for them, wouldn’t you like a share of that profit?
If so, then you should invest.
Investing turns you from a mere consumer to an owner.
When you invest into the stock market you are buying shares in businesses, which makes you a part-owner and entitles you to a slice of their profits.
As a consumer it is a one way transaction, you give money for a product or service and the business generates a profit.
When you are an owner, you give money for a product or service and also benefit from the profits generated from other transactions.
Make it a two way transaction… INVEST.
The choice is yours.
Thanks for reading,
Tom Redmayne
Financial Planner-in-waiting
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Tom Redmayne 
As my friend Mabel likes to say, “If you can afford the product, you can afford the stock!”
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