Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Is Investing Gambling?

By Carter B. Banes

By gambling you are taking a chance. You could make a lot of money, or you could lose a lot of money. It is a game or contest. You can't know what will happen because it is all by chance.

Some people play with investing like a game. When you invest your money, you believe that the company you invest in will be successful and the investment will increase in value. Some people who look at investing as a game want to make money, but they also enjoy themselves. Others just do it to make money. Why don't the others look at it as a game?

When you invest your money, you aren't gambling. Some investments are very far from gambling, they're not even close. Take government bonds for example. You might even say they are more likely to pay you back with interest than your employer is, assuming it's not a government employer. There is a tiny chance they won't pay you back, but only in the severest of cases.

What about stocks? How does the stock market work in a way that's not gambling? Buying stock means buying part ownership in a company. You invest in that company with expectations that they will make a profit and you'll get paid dividends and/or the value of the stock will increase and you could sell for capital gains.

If you bet money at a horse race or put money down at a poker game, you own absolutely nothing. Whether or not you make money doesn't depend on the success of a business. It is completely by chance if yo make money.

You can use investing as another source of income. By investing, your money is working to earn money just as you do at your job. If you ever inherit or win a lot of money, never gamble it. Invest it in a low risk, stable investment and that money can grow exponentially over time.

Let's look at an example. You win $10,000 in a small lottery game, (which by the way is gambling to). You could go to a casino and double it 5 times, or even just once, but the chance of that happen is next to nothing. You'd probably end up losing it no matter how good a gambler you think you are. Or, you could put it into a stable mutual fund earning 8% a year for 30 years and even without adding anything to it have $100,000 by the end. What do you think?

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