So why bother investing in stocks?  What’s in it for you?

And the answer is that stock investing can increase your wealth and income over time when done properly.

It does this for you in a number of ways.

For example, much has been made of the fact that there is a widening wealth and income gap in the US.  You hear this in the news all the time.  What they are talking about is the widening gap between the people in the top 10 percent of income earnings, and the bottom 90 percent.  And all the facts bear this out.  There is, indeed, a widening gap.

Source: Piketty and Saez, UC Berkeley

The income gap is the highest it’s been since the early 1920′s.  And the same can be said for the wealth gap, which has not been so high since 1927.  So wouldn’t it be a good idea to do what the top 10 percent are doing — to tap into that wealth and income too?

So what are the wealthy doing to make this happen?  Well, most of them are business owners.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are two of the wealthiest people in the world.  And it’s not a coincidence that they are wealthy AND business owners.  As of 2015, Bill Gates, who started Microsoft, had a net worth estimated at $77,534,032,783.  Yes, you read that right.  His net worth is over $77 billion dollars.

And here’s another interesting fact for you.  Warren Buffett, who started a company called Berkshire Hathaway, is also one of the greatest stock investors and businessmen of all time.  One of the stocks his company owns is Coca Cola.  He owns a lot of it, and he’s owned it for a long time.

Coca Cola, like many other successful companies, pays part of their profits each year to their stockholders.  Can you guess how big that check is that they pay to Warren Buffett every year?  Well, as of 2013, his annual check was $448,000,000.  That’s right, $448 million dollars.  Just for that year.  And his checks will probably grow and be even greater in future years.
By the way, these checks are called dividend checks.  That’s some dividend check, yes?

But the lesson here is that the wealthy own companies that increase their wealth.  They are business owners.  And owning stocks, like Coca Cola for example, is one of the easiest ways to become a business owner.

So maybe we should be doing this too.

You can learn how to do this, and the simple steps you can take to buy your first stock in my book Stock Investing For Beginners: How To Buy Your First Stock And Grow Your Money.  You can preview it here.

P.S.  And we also talk about stocks that send you dividend checks too.