If you walked into your favorite store and were told, that on average, you could save 8% on all your purchases, purchases you had planned to make anyway, what would you do? What if they handed you a $25 gift card as you walked in the door?
Would you say "Hmm, I don't like the fact that the price has come down, I think I'll wait until the sale is over" or would you say "Wow, every time I've come in here lately, the prices of the things I want have gone up. Now that they are on sale, I'm going on a buying spree".
If we were discussing clothes or food or toys, most of us have no trouble saying that we'd buy while the stuff was on sale. Yes, we might be tempted to wait, and see if the price would come down more, but especially for things we know we need/want, we'd probably go ahead and buy--I mean we were coming to the store to buy them anyway.
For some reason, stock seems to get another reaction out of people. If the price falls, people run for the hills, rather than embracing the fact that stocks are on sale.
Like most other investors, we saw our net worth drop noticeably during December. Like most other investors, we weren't happy. However, now that January is here, I'm going shopping.
Some stocks dropped because the market was oversold and the company just isn't worth what it was selling for a month or two ago. However, given that the market as a whole has dropped, now could be just the time to invest in those blue chip companies that aren't going anywhere, companies that seem to make money in good times and in bad.
Can you think of a few you have been eyeing? M-1 Finance is an online broker which does not charge sales commissions. M-1 Finance also allows you to invest in fractional shares of stock. So, what does your ideal portfolio look like? Some Exxon, a little AT&T, a dash of Realty Income, and for fun, how about some Carnival--oh, and don't forget Amazon and Alphabet! What, you don't have enough money to invest in all of them? No problem, M-1 Finance allows you to create "pies" or baskets of proportionately balanced stocks. In this example (and I pulled these names out of thin air--I have not researched them an am not recommending purchasing them, or not) I could decide I want 16.6% of my money in each of those stocks, or I could decide I want half of it in Alphabet and 10% in each of the others, or any other combination I want.
Once I have designed my pie and funded my account, M-1 Finance purchases the shares or fractional shares for me, in those percentages. As new money is added to the account, M-1 Finance invests it so as to keep your pie in the balance you chose. If Alphabet goes through the roof and Exxon drops, next time you invest M-1 Finance, unless you tell it differently, will buy less Alphabet and more Exxon. You can also hit the re-balance button and M-1 Finance will sell some of that Alphabet and buy Exxon, to get things back in balance.
M-1 Finance generally offers new investors a $10 bonus if they sign up with an affiliate link. During January, 2019, M-1 Finance is offering a $25 dollar bonus to both new investors and those who refer them. So, use this link to open and fund an account with M-1 finance (you only need $100) and you will get a $25 bonus, and you give me money to shop with, now that stocks are on sale.
