investing Archives - Wealthy Retirement https://wealthyretirement.com/tag/investing/ Retire Rich... Retire Early. Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:04:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 Learn From “The Einstein of Wall Street” https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/learn-from-the-einstein-of-wall-street/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/learn-from-the-einstein-of-wall-street/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:30:52 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34596 Don’t miss his free masterclass!

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Editor’s Note: Hello and happy new year to all of our readers!

Our New Year’s resolution in Wealthy Retirement is simple: Continue to deliver insights that can help you prepare for – or improve – your retirement and move one step closer to financial freedom.

One way you can help us do that is to share your feedback.

Could you please take a moment to answer a few questions about your experience with Wealthy Retirement?

It will take less than 60 seconds, and it will help us serve you and your fellow readers even better in the new year.

Thank you in advance!

Take the Brief Survey Here

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor


There’s something about the start of a new year that flips a switch.

A clean slate.

A fresh calendar.

And a chance to finally level up a skill you’ve been meaning to master.

That’s why we’re starting the new year with something truly special…

We’re thrilled to announce an Oxford Club exclusive partnership with Peter Tuchman – widely known as “The Einstein of Wall Street” and the most photographed broker on the New York Stock Exchange – alongside veteran trader David Green of Wall Street Global Trading Academy.

If you’ve ever watched market coverage, seen iconic NYSE photos, or followed the pulse of Wall Street over the past few decades…

You’ve seen Peter.

Image of Tuchman

Now, for the first time, Oxford Club readers are getting direct access to him and his business partner David in a FREE live masterclass kicking off the new year.

  • Tuesday, January 6
  • 8:00 p.m. ET
  • Free – Oxford Club Exclusive

This isn’t about chasing flashy predictions.

It’s about building a real, rules-based foundation – the kind of knowledge that helps you approach the market with clarity, discipline, and confidence.

In this New Year masterclass, you’ll learn:

  • How day trading actually works (no myths, no hype)
  • What it really costs to get started
  • Core principles of technical analysis
  • Risk management techniques professionals use to survive and stay consistent.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to:

✔ Better understand the market
✔ Develop new income skills
✔ Or simply stop feeling like you’re “guessing”…

Then this is a powerful way to start.

It’s completely free to attend.

Just click below to add it to your calendar, and we’ll handle the rest.

Add to Calendar (Free Masterclass)

Apple  Google  Outlook  Outlook.com  Office 365  Yahoo

We’re incredibly excited to kick off the new year with The Einstein of Wall Street and Wall Street Global Trading Academy – and even more excited to have you there live.

Images of Green and Tuchman

Here’s to a smarter, more intentional 2026,

Rachel

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How to Make Millions by Doing Nothing https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/how-to-make-millions-by-doing-nothing/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/how-to-make-millions-by-doing-nothing/#comments Sat, 27 Dec 2025 16:30:51 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34568 You’ll see what I mean...

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“Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time).”
– The Chambers Brothers

The most important element to investing success is not stock-picking ability – it’s time. The longer you’re invested, the more money you will make.

Consider this…

A $10,000 investment in dividend growth stocks with a starting yield of 4%, dividend growth of 8% per year, and price appreciation that rises in line with the historical average of the S&P 500 is worth $17,757 after five years.

After 10 years, it’s worth $31,572.

After 15 years, you’re sitting on $56,208.

At year 20, your $10,000 has turned into $100,195.

Hold for another 10 years, and you’ve got $319,613.

Chart: The Power of Compounding

And if you stayed invested for 40 years, you’d have $1,024,893.

That’s the power of compounding and time.

Legendary investor and trader Jesse Livermore once remarked, “It was never my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting.”

In fact, a Fidelity study commissioned years ago looked at its accounts to see if it could identify common traits among its most successful investors. What it found was remarkable.

The best-performing accounts belonged to investors who either were dead or had forgotten they had accounts.

Among the thousands of accounts that Fidelity looked at, the ones that just sat there – that weren’t touched – had the best results.

The biggest favor you can do for yourself as an investor is to put money into stocks and then do nothing (or very little) for as long as possible.

And if you want to leave a legacy for your children or grandchildren, do the same for them.

Can you imagine how you’ll be remembered if your grandchild has an account that you set up 40 years prior, and that money – which may not have been much when you funded it – can now help them buy a house, fund their child’s education, or even set up the next generation the way you did?

They say that in life, timing is everything.

But in the market, what’s more important is time. Regardless of how tough the markets might be, give yourself and your family the gift of time for your investments to grow.

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My Friend’s $250,000 Mistake https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/my-friends-250k-mistake/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/my-friends-250k-mistake/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2025 21:30:42 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34516 Far too many investors are just throwing money away...

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A friend of mine is likely coming into a windfall. He was a very early employee and investor in a startup that is being acquired.

It’s the kind of result everyone who’s ever been involved in a startup dreams of.

I’m happy for him. He’s worked incredibly hard over the past 10 years and spent a lot of time on the road away from his family.

But he could have done even better.

Let me explain.

When he started, he was given a small percentage of the company. But he also invested his own money in the business in order to hold a larger stake.

He invested $250,000 and will just about double his money.

However, had he simply put that money into the S&P 500, it would now be worth $723,750.

My buddy put a decent amount of his net worth into one new and speculative company. If he’d invested in the S&P, he’d be betting on hundreds of America’s best businesses.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have known to select Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) as a stock to buy 10 years ago. But by owning the S&P 500, he would have had exposure to it as it became one of America’s hottest companies and stocks. He’d also have owned huge winners like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Costco (Nasdaq: COST), and many others.

He would’ve experienced the power of compounding dividends as well. Over the last 10 years, dividend income was responsible for 23% of the market’s total return. That’s consistent with the 24% of the S&P 500’s average monthly total return that dividends have accounted for since 1957.

By betting $250,000 on that one company, he missed out on roughly 23% more returns by the simple fact that he wasn’t paid a dividend like he would’ve received from the broad index.

I see investors make similar mistakes all the time as they try to pick the right stocks. Sure, owning top-performing stocks can be lucrative (and I’ll admit that it’s fun owning individual stocks). For most people, however, owning a diversified group of index funds or ETFs is the best way to go.

Markets go up over the long term, and if you own the broad indexes, you’ll participate in those gains. But if your focus is too narrow, you have a good chance of missing out.

Make sure you’re receiving some dividends too. They will substantially boost your return over the long term, and they make bear markets easier to handle when they occur.

If my friend had asked me what I thought before he committed that cash a decade ago, he’d be sitting on about a quarter of a million dollars more – and he would’ve had a lot less stress about whether he was ever going to get his money out.

Investing doesn’t have to be complicated. Own the broad indexes and collect dividends. Over the long term, your returns will be strong and your stress will be lowered.

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I Use These Strategies to Put Extra Cash in My Pocket https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/i-use-these-strategies-to-put-extra-cash-in-my-pocket/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/i-use-these-strategies-to-put-extra-cash-in-my-pocket/#comments Sat, 22 Nov 2025 16:30:54 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34479 As I continued to study the markets early in my career, I learned something stunning...

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Back in 1990, I was just out of college and fairly broke. I was living in a basement apartment with two roommates. It was a dump.

At the end of each month, my meager paycheck was basically gone. I decided I needed to learn about the stock market to make some money.

I read everything I could get my hands on. I spent many Saturdays at the New York Public Library absorbing as much as I could. (This was before the whole world was available on the internet.)

Soon I started trading and investing in stocks. And then my mind was blown when I discovered options.

Like most people, at first, I saw options as a shortcut to quick riches. Fortunately, I knew that I didn’t know what I didn’t know (ya know?), so I didn’t start trading options until I had a better understanding of them.

But even then, I was only buying puts and calls as speculations.

A put is a bet that a stock will go down. A call is a bet that it will rise. These option contracts allow you to control 100 shares of stock for pennies on the dollar for a specific amount of time.

For example, if you thought Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was going higher in the short term, you could buy 100 shares for about $5,250. If the stock rose 10 points, you’d make about $1,000.

Or you could pay just $325 to buy a call that expires in March with a strike price of $52.50. That means if the stock is below $52.50 at expiration, your call expires worthless. If it’s above $52.50, the call will have value, depending on how high the stock rises and how much time is left until expiration.

If Bank of America shoots higher next week and is trading at $62.50, 10 points higher than it is today, your call would probably be worth around $1,100. So you’d be up $775 on a $325 bet.

If you’d bought the stock, you’d have risked $5,250 and made 19%. By buying the calls, you risked only $325 and made 238%.

You can see why people speculate with options. You risk less and can make a much higher percentage return.

But, as I dug deeper into options, I learned something stunning: The real money in options is in selling them, not speculating with them. When a speculator buys a put or a call, someone has to sell them that option – and they get paid to do so.

Big financial institutions generally aren’t trying to hit home runs buying calls on Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) and taking on that risk, but they’ll be happy to sell you some.

The more I understood this, the more I wanted to sell options to generate income right away.

Now that I’m older, while I still like to swing for the fences once in a while, my priority for my investments is generating income.

Over the past decade, I’ve increasingly used options to generate income with various strategies, including (but not limited to) covered calls and naked puts.

A covered call is when you own a stock and sell a call on it. In other words, someone is betting that the stock will go higher. When you sell the call to them, you get paid immediately. If the stock goes higher, you may have to sell your stock at the higher strike price, but you keep the money you got from selling the call.

If the stock pays a dividend, you can also continue to collect those dividends while you wait, which further boosts your return.

Then there are naked puts. When someone is worried about their stock going down – or speculating on a fall – they’ll buy a put. If you sell them a naked put, you are agreeing to buy that stock from them if it reaches the strike price. (In options trading, “naked” simply means you don’t own the stock already. “Covered,” as in covered calls, means you do own the underlying stock.)

Let’s say you’re interested in buying a stock, but only if you can get it at a 10% discount.

You could sell puts on that stock with a strike price 10% below the current price. That means if the stock drops by 10%, you will likely get to buy 100 shares of the stock at your target price. You also got paid for selling the put, which lowers your effective cost even more.

If the stock never drops to your target price, you still keep the money you received upfront when you sold the puts.

I’ve come a long way since spending my weekends in the library. The time was well spent, as I now have a number of ways to put extra cash in my pocket. Had I sold options 35 years ago, I could have gotten out of that dumpy apartment a lot quicker – and eaten a lot less ramen.

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Is Building Wealth All About Luck? https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/is-building-wealth-all-about-luck/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/is-building-wealth-all-about-luck/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:30:58 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34390 Is the American Dream dead? Is the meritocracy a myth? Alexander Green digs into all these questions and more...

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Editor’s Note: All of us here at The Oxford Club received some fantastic news last week: Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green’s new book, The American Dream: Why It’s Still Alive… And How to Achieve It, has earned the title of #1 Amazon bestseller!

It’s a big honor, but if you’ve read any of Alex’s writings over the years, you know that it’s certainly not a surprise.

The most impressive part? The book won’t even be released for another two weeks!

Alex has put a ton of hard work into it, and I think this may be his best work yet.

Go here to preorder it today!

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor


One of the reasons that 70% of Americans say the American Dream is no longer attainable is that they believe achieving it is due to luck… not skill.

Is there any evidence to support this view? You might be surprised.

A few years ago, my friend and colleague Mark Skousen asked if I would debate Robert Frank at his FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas.

I agreed.

Robert Frank is a New York Times economic columnist and the author of several books, including Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy.

Frank puts forward a thought-provoking thesis in his book: If you have been so economically successful that your income and net worth put you in the top 1% or 2% in the country, the deciding factor was not talent, education, hard work, risk-taking, persistence, resilience or all of the above.

It was luck, plain and simple.

After reading the book, I took an informal poll of family, friends, and neighbors.

What I learned is that, with few exceptions, individuals who have experienced a great deal of economic success believe Frank’s thesis is mostly false.

They believe that hard work and persistence are the deciding factor in wealth creation.

But almost without exception, men and women who have experienced modest economic success strongly agree with it.

Psychologists would say that is because human beings tend to accumulate pride and shun regret. We tend to take most of the credit for the good things we achieve in our lives and blame negative outcomes on circumstances beyond our control.

However, I discovered another interesting pattern.

Self-described progressives tend to agree with Frank’s thesis. Self-described conservatives and libertarians do not.

This goes to the heart of political differences between the two major parties.

Democrats generally feel that economic outcomes in life are primarily determined by your group membership and your circumstances: whether you were born male or female, Black or white, rich or poor, etc.

Republicans tend to feel that, whether the hand you were dealt at birth was better or worse, your economic outcome is primarily determined by your willingness to educate yourself, work hard, and take responsibility for your actions.

This is a generalization of course, but – in my experience – a fairly accurate one.

We hear these thoughts echoed when Democrats argue for sharply higher taxes on “the fortunate” or, in former President Obama’s phrase, “society’s lottery winners.”

Republicans, on the other hand, often talk about “personal responsibility” or how affluence is the result of “earned success.”

The truth, of course, is that good and bad luck play a role in everyone’s life.

For starters, you were incalculably lucky ever to have been born.

We know this because the possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people.

You were also extremely fortunate to be born in the modern era.

For most of human history, we existed on the brink of starvation in a world filled with danger.

(For most of the last couple hundred thousand years, no one worried about saving for retirement because nobody lived that long. Most people were dead by 25, usually of unnatural causes.)

Even 200 years ago – 6,000 years after the advent of agriculture – 85% of the world’s population lived on the equivalent of less than a dollar a day.

Today approximately 85% of the world’s population lives in developing nations. That means the odds of you being born in the West were 6-to-1 against.

This is a pretty big deal.

As Warren Buffett has said…

If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru or someplace, you find out how much [my] talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil… I work in a market system that happens to reward what I do very well – disproportionately well.

Whatever your economic success or political views, let’s give Mr. Frank his due.

You were born against astronomical odds.

Even then, the dead outnumber the living 14-to-1. And 99.9% of these 109 billion people lived lives of incredible scarcity and hardship.

People alive today had just a 1-in-7 chance of being born in the West where democratic government, the rule of law, property rights, first-world infrastructure and education, and the lack of any class or caste system paved your way for success.

Furthermore, if you were born more than 50 years ago and are both white and male, you likely didn’t experience the institutionalized discrimination that would have made your economic success more unlikely.

But then also…

Billions of people have been born in the West – many of them white and male and from middle-class or better backgrounds – and the overwhelming majority of them did not experience the financial success of millionaires or billionaires.

Is it possible that the deciding factor for these individuals – and others like them – was just luck? Is the meritocracy truly a myth?

Let me know your take in the comments.

Good investing,

Alex

P.S. My new book The American Dream: Why It’s Still Alive… and How to Achieve It will be out on November 11.

(It’s available now for preorder on Amazon.)

If you want a copy, please act sooner rather than later.

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The Right Way to Own Small Cap Stocks https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/the-right-way-to-own-small-cap-stocks/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/the-right-way-to-own-small-cap-stocks/#respond Tue, 21 Oct 2025 20:30:20 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34359 When they move, they can move fast!

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Years ago, a friend of mine asked me for a stock recommendation or two. “I need to make some money,” he said.

I told him I really liked Texas Instruments (Nasdaq: TXN). “The calculator company?!” he exclaimed. “Yes, the calculator company,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

I explained that while there are still calculators out there with Texas Instruments’ name on them, the company is one of the world’s leading semiconductor makers. And it pays a nice dividend.

He snored loudly, pretending to be asleep.

I then told him about Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX). The government never gets tired of spending money on new toys for the military.

“C’mon, Marc… give me something exciting,” he demanded.

“Okay, how about Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR)?”

I explained that this company is a real estate investment trust that rents out shelf space to household-name companies to place their servers. It generates a ton of cash and also pays a solid dividend.

“Booorrrring!!!” he cried.

Had he invested in those companies, he wouldn’t have thought they were boring at all. Texas Instruments became the second-biggest winner in the history of my monthly newsletter, The Oxford Income Letter, gaining over 450% in 10 years. I sold Digital Realty Trust in 2022 for a more than 220% gain in eight years. Raytheon, now called RTX, is still in the Oxford Income Letter portfolio and is up 792% since 2013.

But my friend wanted something tiny that could really move.

There’s a misperception in the market that low-priced stocks can move faster than high-priced stocks.

Tell that to anyone who bought Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) at $400 or Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) for $300 two years ago. They’ll laugh in your face. Goldman Sachs has more than doubled to $760 since then, and Nvidia has more than quadrupled (it underwent a 10-for-1 stock split in 2024).

Still, there is something exciting about owning a lot of shares of a low-priced, very small company. And when tiny companies move, they can move fast.

Look at RedCloud Holdings (Nasdaq: RCT). It was trading between $1.40 and $1.70 in June of this year. But by July 1, it had tripled to $4.29.

PepGen (Nasdaq: PEPG) recently doubled – from below $2 to over $4 – in just a month.

And Dominari Holdings (Nasdaq: DOMH) skyrocketed nearly 13X, rising from $1 to $13, from mid-January to mid-February.

That’s the kind of action most people who get involved in microcap stocks are looking for.

And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you know the risks and position size accordingly.

Many investors don’t know this, but you can also find microcaps that pay dividends.

For example, Kimbell Royalty Partners (NYSE: KRP) has a market cap of just $1.4 billion and yields almost 12%.

And $30 million market cap Crown Crafts (Nasdaq: CRWS) sports an 11% yield.

That brings me to another point: Microcaps don’t have to be startups that have recently gone public or are involved in Bitcoin or some other speculative technology.

Crown Crafts makes baby furniture and has been around for almost 70 years.

I tell investors that when creating a portfolio, they should diversify into various sectors, geographies, and market caps. There are times when large cap companies outperform and other times when small cap or microcap companies are better.

No doubt, my buddy was looking for one of those microcaps that are about to take off. Everybody is. And it’s okay to invest in these types of companies.

In fact, I recommend that investors include microcaps in their portfolios so they have exposure to these small companies that can double or triple in a short period of time in some cases and fly under the radar in others.

Just be sure you know why you’re buying a stock, and have an exit plan (like a stop) set up ahead of time. This ensures that you will sell if things change or grab profits when it’s time.

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3 Signals That a Stock Is a “Buy” https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/3-signals-that-a-stock-is-a-buy/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/3-signals-that-a-stock-is-a-buy/#respond Sat, 11 Oct 2025 15:30:11 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34337 These are tried-and-true methods for finding the best buy opportunities.

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Editor’s Note: Over the past few weeks, I featured a couple of articles from Monument Traders Alliance’s Bryan Bottarelli about the significance of the Fed’s September meeting and how he’s planning to capitalize on the central bank’s interest rate cut.

Today, Bryan answers one question that every investor is constantly wondering: “How can I decide which stocks to buy?”

To learn more about Bryan and his team’s mission at MTA, check out their website here.

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor


One of the most common questions I get as a trader is…

“How do I know which company to trade?”

The truth is…

There are thousands of tickers out there, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

You’ve also got fear-based news headlines and social media hype hitting you on your smartphone and computer all day.

Overall, it can be difficult to know which strategies will actually lead to consistent gains.

But over my 20+ years as a trader, I’ve developed some tried-and-true methods for finding the best buy opportunities.

Here are 3 key factors I look for before trading a company.

Use these and watch your trading confidence skyrocket.

No. 1 – Notice the product in the real world

The first thing I look for when trading a stock is real world value.

For example, say I’m at a coffee shop, and I notice a lot of people wearing a certain kind of shoe.

That’s a strong buy signal because that company has demand.

This is especially true with women’s spending trends.

Women make up 70-85% of household purchases, so noticing what women are buying is one of my staple strategies for finding companies worth trading.

Start looking for these consumer trends and you’ll be ahead of 90% of other traders.

No. 2 – Look for an upcoming catalyst

A catalyst is a known date/event that could determine whether the market is bullish or bearish on a company.

These catalyst events include quarterly earnings reports, product launches, mergers, buyouts, ETF inclusion, and FDA approvals.

Before these events happen, you’ll often see traders buying, shorting or hedging a stock.

Then, the market digests the outcome and a stock either spikes or falls.

Keep in mind – this is not about guessing what’s going to happen to a stock ahead of earnings. However, when you’re aware of these events – you can position yourself in a way that increases your likelihood of a winning trade.

No. 3 – See if the company has strong institutional backing

Another factor I look for is institutional backing.

Institutional backing is when big players – mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds – all put serious money behind a stock and hold it in size.

For example, before tech group Nvidia’s big run in 2023, it had whale funds like ARK Invest, Fidelity and BlackRock all with large positions.

This institutional capital acts as a liquidity base (price support) and a confidence signal for other funds.

Another term traders should get familiar with is “Supply burn.”

Supply burn is when the available float (shares that are available to trade) gets reduced or locked up.

For example, say company insiders use their own profits to buy shares of a company (also known as buybacks).

By doing this, they destroy the supply because the number of shares available to the public shrinks.

With low supply, this creates a squeeze effect where any catalyst (like earnings) could ignite major momentum.

Think of float like the kindling… and the catalyst is the spark that could light up a stock.

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The Problem With “Buy Low, Sell High” https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/the-problem-with-buy-low-sell-high/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/the-problem-with-buy-low-sell-high/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:30:00 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34326 Even if you’re committed to buying low and selling high, you probably won’t.

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With markets near all-time highs, I’ve had numerous conversations with friends telling me they’re going to hold off on investing until the market comes back down. “I’ll wait until things turn around,” they often say.

However, when the market falls, very few brave investors will put money to work.

Additionally, the odds of getting a better price than what you’d receive currently – regardless of when you’re reading this – are actually quite low. In fact, going back to 1928, if you wait for a bear market (a drop of 20% or more), you only have a 1-in-5 chance of obtaining a better entry point than the current price – no matter where that price level is.

Chart: Why Market Timing Does Not Work

This is an amazing statistic, because most people naturally think a bear market will provide a better opportunity.

Sometimes it does. The brief bear market during the early days of the pandemic provided a decent time to buy. At the very bottom in March 2020, prices were at their lowest point since December 2016 – nearly eight years after the bull market had started.

But how many people were buying stocks as the market was plummeting and the economy was shut down? Almost no one had the guts to buy at that time.

The most recent bear market ended in October 2022. At the low, you could have gotten a better price in the S&P than at any time after December 2020.

However, even if you possessed the nonexistent skill of market timing and waited to buy at the 2022 bear market low, that was still higher than the peak before the COVID crash and was roughly three times higher than where the S&P was in 2010.

Furthermore, even investors with the best intentions of buying low and selling high have a very hard time buying when stocks are falling. It’s too emotionally difficult. Sure, some folks are buy-the-dippers, but I’m not talking about a dip. I’m talking about a real correction or bear market. That’s a scary time to buy, and most people won’t do it until they believe things have stabilized.

At that point, the market is usually in raging bull mode.

Again, think back to the pandemic or the global financial crisis. Do you know anyone who was buying stocks in 2009? At that time, the economy was still a disaster. We were nowhere close to a recovery. Yet stocks bottomed and started their move higher. I know people who still have the emotional scars from the crisis and the terrible bear market that followed. As a result, they’re still scared to invest in stocks and have missed one of the great bull markets of all time.

Waiting for a better time to buy that may never come – or being scared to answer the door when opportunity knocks – could mean tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of missed gains over time.

Invest at regular intervals regardless of what’s happening in the market – whether it’s a raging bull, growling bear, or anything in between. It may feel uncomfortable, but your future self will thank you for having discipline and not letting emotion get in the way of the most important element of investing success: the amount of time you are invested.

Remember, there’s an 80% chance you won’t get a better price in the future than what you see today.

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What Makes a Great Company… Before It’s Great? https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/what-makes-a-great-company-before-its-great/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/what-makes-a-great-company-before-its-great/#comments Sat, 04 Oct 2025 15:30:18 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34321 Could you spot the next Apple or Amazon? Start here...

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Wall Street loves a good nickname…

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was the Nifty Fifty – big, trusted companies like Coca-Cola, IBM, and McDonald’s. People thought you could buy these stocks and hold them forever.

In 2013, FANG (Facebook (now Meta Platforms), Amazon, Netflix, Google) took over. Later, it became FAANG (with Apple added), and eventually grew into what we now call the Magnificent Seven – the tech giants leading today’s bull market.

Each of these labels marked a moment in time. A small group of companies stood out. They drove innovation, attracted attention, and delivered strong returns.

But history shows us something important: today’s leaders won’t lead forever

A new wave of companies is rising. They may not be as well-known yet, but they’re quietly building the future. These businesses could help shape the next decade of growth.

So instead of chasing today’s biggest names, smart investors are asking, which companies have the potential to lead the market tomorrow?

While we can’t predict the next catchy nickname, the qualities of future leaders are surprisingly consistent.

No. 1: A Huge Market to Grow Into

First, a company needs to be in a big, growing market – worth billions or even trillions of dollars.

Some examples include artificial intelligence, renewable energy, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, space technology, and decentralized finance or digital infrastructure.

The company doesn’t need to be number one yet. But it should have room to grow… and the potential to grab a big share of the market.

No. 2: A Strong Competitive Advantage

Future leaders don’t just compete – they build defenses around their business.

This kind of protection is called a moat, and it can come from unique technology or patents, high switching costs, exclusive deals, geographical and/or infrastructure edge, big cost advantages (economies of scale).

The best companies build something others can’t easily copy – and they protect it fiercely.

No. 3: Visionary Leadership

Great companies are led by people who see the big picture.

These leaders tend to…

  • Spot trends early
  • Take smart risks
  • Build strong teams
  • Stick with their vision through tough times

They’re not just focused on numbers – they inspire innovation and push limits.

No. 4: A Scalable Business Model

Next-level companies are built to scale. That means they can grow revenue without growing costs at the same pace.

Look for business models with:

  • Cloud-based software
  • Automation
  • Platforms that others can build on
  • Subscriptions or recurring revenue

The more scalable the model, the more profits can grow over time.

No. 5: Innovation at the Core

Market leaders don’t wait to be disrupted – they lead the change.

These leaders are always…

  • Launching new products
  • Moving into new markets
  • Using AI and data
  • Filing patents or making smart acquisitions

Innovation isn’t just a side project – it’s part of the company’s DNA.

No. 6: Financial Discipline (Eventually)

Many future giants focus on growth in the early days. But to win in the long run, they need to show financial discipline.

That means improving profit margins, generating positive cash flow (or getting close), investing wisely, avoiding too much dilution of shares.

They don’t need to be profitable right away – but they should have a clear path forward.

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A Decade-Long Digital Boom https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/a-decade-long-digital-boom/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/a-decade-long-digital-boom/#respond Tue, 30 Sep 2025 20:30:39 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=34307 The moves investors make in the next few years could shape their wealth for the rest of their lives.

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Editor’s Note: Every year, The Oxford Club hosts our flagship Investment U Conference – an event that has made a meaningful difference for thousands of our Members for nearly three decades.

In March, we’re heading to Las Vegas for four extraordinary days of insights, networking, and strategy. Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld and our team of experts will reveal how to position yourself for the $13 trillion digital transformation – an investing opportunity that could shape your wealth for the next decade or more.

Early-bird registration is open now… but seats are limited! Don’t miss your chance to join us for this landmark event.

Click here to learn more and claim your spot now!

– James Ogletree, Senior Managing Editor


Each year, hundreds of Members join us for what has become The Oxford Club’s most anticipated tradition: the Investment U Conference.

Now in its 28th year, this gathering isn’t just another financial event… it’s where strategies are unveiled that have helped shape the wealth of our Members for decades.

And I’m delighted to invite you to join us March 22-25, 2026, at the award-winning Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas – where we’ll explore the next great wealth-building opportunity: the $13 trillion digital transformation.

And let me tell you… you do not want to miss it.

Why? Because what’s happening in the markets right now isn’t just another cycle. It’s the start of a decade-long digital boom – one that experts predict could surge from $1.4 trillion in 2025 to more than $13 trillion by 2035.

That’s not just growth… That’s transformation.

Artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction – it’s diagnosing diseases, coding software, and trading stocks. Robotics are reshaping warehouses, operating rooms, and even kitchens. And blockchain? It’s spawning entirely new industries as we speak.

I don’t say this lightly: The moves investors make in the next few years could shape their wealth for the rest of their lives.

And that’s exactly what our Investment U Conference is designed for – helping you spot these seismic shifts early… and positioning your portfolio to capture the biggest gains.

Over four unforgettable days in Las Vegas, you’ll hear from nearly two dozen of the world’s top financial minds as they reveal…

  • Which technologies are set to lead the $13 trillion digital transformation.
  • Which sectors may soar… and which could vanish.
  • The smartest strategies to grow and protect your wealth as disruption accelerates.

And of course, this isn’t just about sitting in a ballroom with a notebook.

It’s about joining hundreds of like-minded Members who share your passion for wealth building… enjoying world-class food and entertainment in one of America’s most exciting cities… and leaving with an investing game plan designed to help you make the next decade your most profitable yet.

But here’s the thing…

Because this is our flagship event, space fills up quickly – and early-bird pricing ends October 15.

So if you’re thinking about joining us, I encourage you to act now and secure your seat before prices rise.

I can’t wait to welcome you personally in Las Vegas.

Good investing,

Rachel

P.S. If history has taught us anything, it’s that the biggest fortunes go to those who move before the crowd. Don’t wait. Secure your early-bird seat today and join us for an unforgettable event in Vegas.

Reserve Your Spot at Investment U 2026

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