Ways To 2x Your Money: Most schemes that promise to double your money only serve one purpose: to put your money in someone else’s pocket.
There’s no shortcut when it comes to building wealth. The best investors in the world didn’t amass billion-dollar fortunes by gambling on questionable ventures.
Instead, they put time, discipline, and a lot of research into choosing and trading their assets. Eventually, their patience paid off.
Warren Buffett, who is widely considered one of the world’s most successful investors, has spent a lifetime studying how the stock market works and which management methods are effective in building profitable businesses.
Buffett doesn’t follow the crowd into popular stocks that inevitably lose value when the glamour wears off, and he doesn’t waste time trying to buy low and sell high over days or weeks. As he has said many times, his “favorite holding period is forever.”
In other words, Buffett built his fortune by making smart choices, then sitting back and watching the value of his portfolio grow.
It’s impossible to duplicate Buffett’s trades because it’s too late by the time they are made public. Fortunately, you can double your money by making smart choices of your own. These are three techniques to get you started.
Start Now
Now is a great time to start investing. Ten years ago would have been even better. The best time to invest is as soon as possible because time is a critical factor in your portfolio’s final value.
Outsized portfolio growth is made possible through the magic of compounding. Every time your assets grow in value or you receive and reinvest dividends, you start earning returns on your returns. It’s the financial version of the snowball effect – you earn more as your portfolio grows.
There is a basic financial rule that gives you an idea of when you can expect to double your money. It is known as the Rule of 72, which says that if you can average annual returns of eight to ten percent, your balance will double within seven to nine years.
Ten percent isn’t an unreasonable return rate, though you must make smart investment decisions to get there. Historically, the stock market has averaged roughly ten percent in returns each year, though individual years are higher or lower.
Take A Disciplined Approach
It’s true that people who have plenty of cash to invest from the start will earn more. Obviously, a $10,000 portfolio will grow in value faster than a $1,000 portfolio as returns compound. However, that’s no reason to be discouraged. Plenty of successful investors started with almost nothing.
Launch your portfolio with whatever you have – online brokerage firms make it easy with no-fee trades and no minimum balance requirements. Then, be aggressive when it comes to adding funds to your portfolio on a regular basis. Take five or ten percent of each paycheck – more if you can manage it – and put it directly into your investment portfolio.
There are benefits to making regular purchases of the same set of stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or other assets. It’s a proven method called dollar-cost averaging. If you buy more shares each pay period, you don’t have to worry about price volatility. Over time, your average per-share cost will even out.
Make Smart Investment Decisions
Time and discipline are key components of any effective strategy to double your money, but there is one more element that will determine your success: your choice of assets. The wrong stock or an otherwise speculative investment will wipe out your returns – and very likely decimate your principal as well.
Stay away from the current hot stocks, and don’t worry about companies that are getting lots of media attention. Put your money into companies with wide economic moats and sustainable competitive advantages, as these are most likely to beat the market over time.
Examples of economic moats include:
- Economies of Scale – Large, established companies can typically produce goods and services at a lower per-unit cost than small competitors. For example, Walmart’s sales volume is so high that suppliers are willing to sell merchandise to the retailer at a lower price to win a big contract.
- Intangible Assets – A well-known brand with a good reputation or a bit of proprietary technology can prevent competitive threats. For example, AbbVie’s best seller, Humira, will be under patent until 2023, and Merck’s Keytruda won’t face competition from generics until 2028.
- Network Effects– Some products and services become more valuable as more people sign up to use them. For example, social media companies like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have competitive advantages that are hard to overcome. No one wants to be alone on a new platform.
- Switching Costs– The more difficult and/or expensive it is to change providers, the less likely consumers are to consider competitors. For example, Apple products and services are so deeply intertwined that Apple users tend to be loyal for life. The effort necessary to transition away from Apple’s smart devices, apps, and Apple-provided services is so daunting that the lower cost of other hardware and software brands isn’t persuasive.
Buying individual stocks in reliable companies isn’t the only way to double your money. If you aren’t up for the sort of in-depth research required to make smart trading decisions, consider a mutual fund or an ETF.
Both types of funds have clearly-stated goals, and they pool shareholders’ money to buy a basket of stocks and other assets. A single share gives you instant diversification, though it is essential to pay attention to expenses.
ETFs tend to have low expenses because they aren’t actively managed. Instead, the funds’ portfolios are designed to mirror the returns of an underlying index. In some cases, the underlying indexes are highly-specialized.
For example, they might focus on cryptocurrencies or precious metals. However, the simplest and most effective way to invest without a lot of research is a basic low-expense ETF that mirrors a major index like the S&P 500.
How To Double Your Money
The old adage that says you must have money to make money is no longer valid. Indeed, the more you have, the easier it is to grow your portfolio, but many successful investors started small.
You can double your money by launching your portfolio as soon as possible, making regular contributions, and choosing reliable assets that can be counted upon to deliver long-term returns.
After that, double your money again using the same strategy, and so on. Over decades, you will see your wealth grow – it just takes patience, discipline, and time.
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