Market myth #1: the stock market can make you rich.
This is one of a series of posts about common market myths that can be dangerous to your wealth.
The market is rarely the place where fortunes are made. Real people get rich by creating and running great companies. Bill Gates became the richest man by building and running Microsoft. Steve Jobs the same way. The Walton Family, ditto.
In the less rarefied world of multi-millionaires, millionaires and semi-millionaires the same thing is true. People get rich (or well-to-do) by starting a business, studying and becoming a professional or just working for a living and saving part of what they earn.
This is not to disparage the market as a tool for protecting wealth, maintaining purchasing power, living well in retirement and getting a fair rate of return on your money. But the idea that you can get rich by trading stocks is a myth that can actually destroy your financial well-being.
One of the best ways of avoiding the temptation to use the market as a “casino,” a place where you can “win the lottery” is to turn to a professional investment advisor. Someone who knows what’s possible and what’s not. Someone who is in the business of getting you a fair rate of return on your money while minimizing the risk that you will lose it. An independent, fee only RIA is someone who will not try to sell you one the latest investment fad that the wire-houses are selling, but who will act in your best interest, because that’s in his best interest.
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