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by coliveira 2331 days ago
It is very easy to point at a company that is extremely successful today and say that it was "just a matter of investing in AAPL". The difficult is to know which company is the good one at the IPO. Thousands of seemingly great companies have failed during the last decades. Moreover, 30 years ago AAPL was a failing company. I don't think there is anyone with good sense that bought AAPL at the IPO and held that investment in their portfolio during that period. Less so with MSFT, but even MSFT lost 80% of its value in 2001. I don't think anyone wise would keep their fortune on MSFT, unless required by law.

If you read the "millionaire next door", you'll see that they made this money by saving, not by (just) investing in the market.
2 comments
WalterBright 2331 days ago
> but even MSFT lost 80% of its value in 2001

No, it was 50%. It's up around 400% since the bottom.

> The difficult is to know which company is the good one at the IPO

It's fine if you don't want to invest because of the risk. But to then say it's unfair that others who do take the risk get the rewards is ... unreasonable.

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WalterBright 2331 days ago
> they made this money by saving, not by (just) investing in the market

Even if you saved $20,000 a year, it would take you 50 years to save a million. But if you invested that instead, at a conservative 7% a year, you'd wind up with $9 million.

You'd pass a million after 22 years.

https://www.daveramsey.com/smartvestor/investment-calculator

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coliveira 2331 days ago
Not investing in the stock market doesn't mean that you'll put your money under the mattress. There are several investment vehicles, from fixed income to real state and including your own businesses. These investment are much safer and are not so correlated to the craziness and plain criminality happening on Wall Street.
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WalterBright 2331 days ago
> fixed income

These often don't even beat inflation. The provider can also go bust like any company.

> real estate

I am the poster boy for losing pots of money on "can't lose" real estate.

> your own business

The failure rate for your own business is 80-90% in the first 5 years.

Stocks are far safer.

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