while you have been hitting the snooze button, stocks have been soaring. this isn t a new thing. it s been going on for four years. whether it s $100 or $10,000, you need to be invested. putting that money in the bank or the pillowcase is costing you as inflation erodes the value of your money. i know what you re thinking, easy for you to say now that we re setting records. pay attention. when the market was at its lowest, i was saying the same thing. for those people who did stay involved in the stock market, they have seen something of a gain. today with the stock market in record territory, half of you still say that investing in stocks is a bad idea. i know you re afraid. i know you still don t trust banks and regulators and maybe even companies. but while you re mistrusting or being wary, everyone else is making money. lots of it. the question for those who had the foresight to get into the market is now what? with the dow ascending from its
no, you don t sit it out. i focus on long-term. i focus on creating hope in people. letting them see, look, if you re going to be investing in the stock market or equities, you have to invest. those are growth type of investments. putting your money into the savings account for long-term for your retirement is risky. it s riskier than putting it into an index fund over the long term. they have to trust themselves, educate and inform themselves. that s an interesting point. most people would think the opposite. putting my money in a bank is not risky. putting it into an index fund, which is a basket of stocks, is risky. comes down to people s fear. no guts. worried about the market. the market is volatile and it s risky. what do you do when people tell you that? it s the thing about fear and ignorance allowing us to dictate financial decisions. we should never allow that. nothing wrong with being ignorant, something wrong with staying ignorant. we should never be scared of somethi
bottom of 6,547 to its new record of 14,539, set on march 14th, the question is, stay in or cash out? it s an important question and one i ll get to later in the show. first, i want to focus on the 47% of you who admit you do not invest in stocks. not even through an ira or a 401 kansas city k or some sort of pension plan. we re going to figure out why you don t and bust some myths so you can take advantage of the market even in the midst of a bull rally. let s start with the reasons you aren t invested. you have no money, no trust in the system and no guts to withstand the ups and downs and uncertainty of the market. you re just plain scared to get in. joining me now for more on this, lewis barahas, who heads up his own management firm in california, and ryan mack, a financial planner and a vocal advocate for financial literacy in america. ryan, let s start with you. no money, that s what a lot of people say.
progresses, if the unemployment rate continues to fall, we may see the fed s scaling back a bit. a couple points to remember, the fed, and i would agree with them, doesn t necessarily think it s that $85 billion a month in purchases that matter so much. it s just the fact they are keeping the balance sheet large. if they stop buying, but all of that money is still sloshing around in the system, that is still going to be very supportive obviously for the financial markets and the economy. the other thing to keep in mind, as we get the fed into this situation where they re needing to provide less support, that s because the economy is doing much better. as they pull out, because a lot of people say the minute the fed bails out of this thing, take all your money out of the stock markets and move somewhere else. the fed pulls out, that s a signal that the market is life support, right, like you re taking somebody off life support because they re brighting on their own. all the medicine
not put pun in the market. what other alternatives do you have? show me another that can give you a 13.2% return. you show me another that can give that type of return or security. what we have to do, this is what lewis has been doing for years, directly addressing and making sure you know there are other alternatives such as exchange traded funds. for $150 a share you can buy the entire s&p 500. all you need is a trading account to get in. this gives you exposure. again, you don t trust because it s high risk. there s ways to mitigate that risk by diversifying your portfolio. you talk to people who start off without a great deal of financial literacy. not guys dealing with exclusively high net individuals who know the financial markets inside out.