How many times have you heard: "I don't understand the stock market."? More of in a sense that the individual doesn't know what a ticker symbol is rather than why when they buy it goes down, and when they sell it goes up.
In light of recent Occupy this and that, I made an assumption that 90% of people in the world wonder why things happen. They don't see much of the big picture and are happy living life as it is and not taking the time to understand even why things happen.
But enough of that, what is the stock market, what does it mean? Why do all of these "fat cats" keep making "billions" of dollars? I don't understand, I have heard mutual funds are the way to go, but which one how do I invest? A friend is a wealth manager but wants all of my retirement and savings, wants me to roll it over into some online investment management tool and wants me to set up for retirement and slow and steady growth.
That sounds awesome except I make $50k per year and put away $250-500/month in some form of savings (if that). How am I going to be one of those fat cat billionaires? Well investing in individual securities isn't quite the answer to that, but what is the fun of pouring money into some account and watching it grow like an aged tree?
401k's, IRA's, savings, mutual funds, bonds, etc are all great. But where are the 60-70% returns those fat cats are getting?
Options, individual securities are fun and should be reserved for "fun" money. Take a chance on $1000 and buy something, anything, but which one? How do I make that first step? transaction?
