What Would I Do If I Had Only $100 to Invest?
The thought in most people's mind is that you need a lot of money to invest in the stock markets. But that's one of the biggest myths out there when it comes to investing. Having a lot of money at your disposal would be great but most people don't have it like that. The key to successful investing are two things: 1)start where you are (right NOW) and 2)contribute as often as you can - even if you have only $100 dollars to begin with.
How Would I Invest $100
The best way to describe "what I would do if I had only $100 to invest" came from a conversation I had recently with a friend - we'll call her Jill. Jill has a decent job but she doesn't have much discretionary funds after paying her bills. She has been hearing and reading about how well the economy is coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic last year. She was quite curious and asked me, "James, what would you do right now if you had only $100 to invest?"
The first thing I thought about was, well, what industries and companies that I do like right now that has upside potential and was trading under $10 per share. The industries I thought of were: oil, electric vehicles, cannabis, tech companies, and Oh Yeah - cryptocurrency.
My conservation with Jill took place in the first week of April 2021 ( approximately 1 month ago). Most of the stocks that I had mentioned to her that I liked were trading pretty high and it would not benefit her - accept one that was trading around six cents ($0.06). Yes, that's correct, $0.06! So, I suggested that she invest her one hundred dollars in a cryptocurrency named "Dogecoin". To me it made sense and she would have more bang-for-her-bucks.
What Stocks Can You Get Cheap
Prior to deciding on Dogecoin, we discussed various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Jill jumped in and said, "James, I can't afford to buy Bitcoin, it's trading around $56,000 for one coin." I said, "you're absolutely correct but I was talking about another cryptocurrency coin that's trading around $0.06 - would you be interested." She said, of course! I was talking about DogeCoin.
Okay, let's calculate how much money Jill has accumulated with her purchase in April of her $100: Jill would have approximately 1,666.66 shares of "Doge" at six pennies ($100/0.06).
Date(2021) $Price(Doge) $ Total Value
April 5th $0.06 $100
April 16th $0.365 $608.3
April 19th $0.4073 $678.8
May 5th $0.6405 $1,067.45
Wow, in just 1 month (April 5-May 5), Jill's $100 investment in "Doge" is now worth $1,067.45. That is a 967% return on her initial investment. Not a bad investment.
Bottom Line
Although this is only one example and it doesn't happen everytime, you do get a sense of what $100 can do? This is not your normal investment but the idea here is that there are investment opportunities out there in which you do not always need a lot of money. Just start where you are today and begin saving and then invest those savings into buying good companies (stocks) or adding on to your current positions.
Want to learn more about these and other investing strategies? Register for our 6-week "Investing 101" class coming this Fall(2021) at PASCEP/Temple University.
Wishing you the best!