So let’s say that again.  Owning stocks is the easiest way to become a business owner.

When you buy a stock, you become a business owner.  Really.

So what does that mean?  Well, as a business owner, instead of working for someone else, to increase their wealth, other people are working for you… to increase your wealth.

And these people, employees, go to work every day, voluntarily, to increase your wealth.  Just like you probably go to work every day.

And they take care of making and selling the products and services, doing all the accounting, keeping the stores or offices running, advertising, and all the other things that are necessary to run a profitable business.  Or put another way, they do all the things you would have to do if you started your own company.

And over time, they get more customers, and increase sales and profits, and make the company more valuable year after year.

What’s so great about all of this is you don’t have to do any of the work.  They take care of it.

All you have to do is buy an ownership stake in the company.  And as the company becomes more valuable, and generates more business, your stake, or stock (same thing) in the company becomes more valuable.

Even better, many of these companies will send you a check, usually every three months, for your part of the profits.  As we mentioned earlier, this is known as a dividend check.  It’s called dividend because they divided up the profits and sent you your part.

Why would they do this nice thing for you?  Because you are one of the business owners.  You own part of the company.  So you own part of the profit.  And the company, and all of its wonderful employees, are working hard every day to increase how much profit and money you make.

Contrast this to your experience as an employee.  Your employer is doing their best to keep expenses low and pay you just enough to keep you, and no more.  They are not actively working to increase your pay.  That’s an expense.  They are doing everything possible to keep expenses low, so that they can make money for the business owners.  And who are the business owners?  You know the answer to that by now.  They are the stock owners.

So which side of the table do you want to sit on?  The employee side, where they are working to keep expenses low (that’s you and your salary)?

Or the stock owner side, where they are working as hard as possible to create more profits and wealth for you?

I’m thinking the owner side of the table is best, aren’t you?  And the simplest way to be on that good side of the table is to own stocks.

Now understand, not every business goes through the happy growth scenario I described.  Some are not well run, and some fail.  But there are many good companies that are well run, and succeed.  And you can become an owner by buying their stock.

There’s one final point to understand.  And that is that even with good companies, not every year is as profitable as other years.  Some year’s profits are up, and some years they are down.  But over time, these stocks, and the stock market, just keep making more money and becoming more valuable.  Which means your part of the company, and profits, keeps getting more valuable too.

To learn how to buy your first stock and sit on the other side of the table, you might want to check out my latest book entitled Stock Investing For Beginners.  You can browse through it for free right here.

To your health and prosperity – John