In my mind, Ive already spent the 42m EuroMillions jackpot many times over. Ive paid off my mortgage, bought my mum and dad their house outright and Ive got a pristine 1955 Mercedes Gullwing on the driveway that Im far too scared to ever take out.
We all dream of life-changing money. That moment you check your bank account and instead of reading minus numbers, there are more noughts than will fit on one screen.
But I know in my heart that 20 or 30 on twice-weekly lottery tickets is not only a total waste of time, its money I could be using for the entirely realistic prospect of making myself richer.
You see, 3,000 a year to invest might sound hard to scrape up from nowhere, but its only 57.50 a week. With this, a little research, time, and (crucially) compound interest, youll be well on your way to a richer future.
Compound your way to 1m
If we reinvest any dividends we get from the companies we buy shares from, that means our gains are compounded over a number of years: effectively, the gains speed up the longer we can leave our money in play.
Thats true whether we invest in stable, dividend-paying FTSE 100 stocks that build up over time, or we try something with a little more risk-reward and go for FTSE 250 company shares that have better growth prospects for capital appreciation.
The interest, or dividends in our case, is added to our principal amount every year.
That means our total balance doesnt just head up in a linear fashion, it actually grows at an increasing rate every year, whether we pay it any attention or none at all.
Simple strategies like this give you the opportunity to accelerate your wealth with minimal effort.
Legal, general and sound
Take for example one of my favourite long-term buy-and-holds: FTSE 100 life insurance giant Legal & General (LSE:LGEN). A 40-year-old investing 3,000 a year in LGEN shares at current prices would get around 1,000 shares. In 2018, LGEN paid a 16.42p dividend per share just to hold its stock.
Bosses have improved that dividend by an average of 1.3p per share every year since 2014.
At the end of year one, a 40-year-old would add 164.20 (1,000 x 16.25p) to his or her principal by doing nothing at all.
If the individual reinvested that dividend payment in a Stocks and Shares ISA, at the start of year two it would mean 3,164.20-worth, or around 1,039 shares. At the end of the next 12 months, adding another 3,000 to the LGEN stockpile would give our investor another 1,000 shares on top. With the additional 1.3p average dividend per share rise, those 2,039 shares would bring in 357.84 (2,039 x 17.55p).
From 3,000 to 6,357.84 in two years. Project 10 years into the future, add in a few growth shares and a FTSE 100 index tracker to the portfolio and you can see how by his or her 50th birthday, simple, repeatable, ever-increasing gains are not only perfectly possible but actually quite likely.
If the investor had put that 3,000 into EuroMillions tickets, the most he or she would have is two disappointing days a week and 1,200 pieces of crumpled up paper.
Life-changing money doesnt appear in an instant. But you can make you and your family happier, smarter and richer if you start investing today.
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