For short-term traders, 2022 has been a nightmare. All three major U.S. stock indexes have entered a bear market, and the bond market is on pace for its worst year in history. With the exception of energy stocks, there have been few safe-havens to put your money to work.
But for long-term investors, 2022 has been a blessing in disguise. A number of short-term headwinds have created the perfect storm to lower equity valuations. For patient investors, it's a roll-out-the-red-carpet opportunity to put their money to work at highly advantageous prices.
Image source: Getty Images.
Big dips in the market can also be millionaire-making events, depending on your starting capital and investment time frame. If you have $250,000 ready to invest, which won't be needed for bills or to cover emergencies as they arise, the following three stocks can make you a millionaire. The catch is you'll have to hang onto these investments for the next decade (till 2032).
PayPal Holdings
The first game-changing company that has the competitive edges and innovative capacity to quadruple a $250,000 initial investment over the next 10 years is fintech stock PayPal Holdings (PYPL 0.34%).
PayPal has lost close to 70% of its value since the summer of 2021, with concerns about high inflation impacting low-earning consumers weighing on its shares. However, the skepticism surrounding PayPal tends to be short-term in nature and overlooks an exceptionally long growth runway for digital payments.
Although estimates for the global digital payment market vary wildly, ResearchAndMarkets.com is forecasting a red-hot 20.5% compound annual growth rate for global digital payments through 2030. In my view, this figure could be even higher depending on how quickly the metaverse becomes its own ecosystem. PayPal could very easily hold the world's leading share of this sustainably fast-growing industry.
As I've mentioned before, what's been most-impressive about PayPal has been its ability to grow in a challenging environment. Even as the likelihood of a recession has grown throughout the year, total payment volume on a constant-currency basis has sustained a low double-digit growth rate.
Furthermore, PayPal's active accounts are increasing their usage on its digital payment platforms. Two years ago, as of Sept. 30, active accounts were completing 40.1 transactions on a trailing-12-month (TTM) basis. As of Sept. 30, 2022, active accounts completed 50.1 transaction on a TTM basis. Engagement is everything when it comes to digital payments -- and more transactions will lead to higher gross profit for PayPal.
PayPal also has levers it can pull to make itself more attractive to investors. Over the summer, CEO Dan Schulman laid out plans to reach $900 million in cost-savings this year and $1.3 billion for the full year in 2023. The company also authorized a $15 billion share repurchase program. PayPal is already historically cheap on an earnings basis, and higher operating margins based on lower expenses will only enhance its incredible value.
Fiverr International
Another stock that can make you a millionaire by 2032 with an initial investment of $250,000 is online-services marketplace Fiverr International (FVRR -0.96%).
If there's a knock against Fiverr, it's the expectation that the labor market is going to worsen in the coming quarters. The central bank is purposely raising interest rates to tame inflation and shift wage power back to businesses. If the unemployment rate were to rise, it could dampen demand for freelance projects.
But once again, we're talking about a short-term issue and not anything that would meaningfully alter Fiverr's growth strategy or long-term sales trajectory. Over the next decade, a company tied to the success of the U.S. labor force would be expected to benefit from the expansion of U.S. gross domestic product.
However, long-winded periods of economic expansion are just a small reason to be excited about Fiverr's growth prospects. What should really excite current and prospective investors is the permanent shift we've witnessed in the labor market due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Fiverr's industry-leading take-rate.
Although some workers have begun returning to the office, a sizable percentage of people now work at least part-time from home. Data from the 2021 American Community Survey shows that 17.9% of people primarily work from home now, which is a 214% increase from 2019. Gig economy companies like Fiverr that allow freelancers to showcase their skills and services have becoming increasingly important.
Fiverr's marketplace is also unique in the way freelancers present their services. Whereas most competing online-service marketplace platforms have freelancers price their services on an hourly basis, freelancers on Fiverr price their tasks as a packaged deal. This leads to improved price transparency for buyers, as well as a willingness to spend more on these services over time. Even with recessionary fears brewing, spend per buyer climbed 12% in the September-ended quarter from last year.
Maybe best of all, Fiverr's take-rate crushes its competition. "Take-rate" describes how much of each deal negotiated on its platform it gets to keep. Fiverr's take-rate expanded to 30% on the nose during the third quarter, which is nearly double its peers.
Image source: Pinterest.
A third stock that can make you a millionaire with a $250,000 investment by 2032 is social media stock Pinterest (PINS -1.55%).
As with PayPal and Fiverr, Pinterest has been hammered by the current bear market. Skeptics have been particularly worried about Pinterest's declining monthly active user (MAU) count and wonder how its ad-driven operating model will fare if a recession materializes. Historically, advertising revenue is one of the first things to decline when economic growth weakens. But as you can probably surmise, these concerns are both short-term in nature and don't impact Pinterest's many catalysts.
The first thing to note about Pinterest is that its MAUs are, once again, rising. Even though year-over-year MAUs were flat at 445 million when the September-ended quarter came to a close, this marked the second consecutive sequential quarter where MAU's increased.
To add to this point, the company's user count has steadily climbed when examined with a wider lens (say a five-year time frame). Despite a short-term MAU decline as life returned to some semblance of normal in the wake of the pandemic, there isn't anything for long-term investors to worry about with regard to attracting and engaging users.
Another important selling point is that Pinterest has never had any issues monetizing its users. Whether its MAU count has been rising over the long run, falling in the short-term, or has been flat year-over-year, the company's average revenue per user (ARPU) keeps climbing -- especially in international markets (aside from Europe at the moment). This demonstrates the value of Pinterest's platform and the willingness of merchants to pay a premium to get their message in front of its 445 million MAUs.
But as I stated back in March, Pinterest's platform is its greatest advantage. While data-tracking software changes have hurt other ad-driven platforms, the entire premise for Pinterest is to have users willingly share (and pin) what interests them. This makes it really easy for advertisers to target specific users, if they choose. It also makes Pinterest a logical choice to become a significant e-commerce player at some point this decade.
Unless Pinterest is acquired, it has a good shot at quadrupling your initial investment by 2032 and making you a millionaire.
