While skeptics have braced for a recession and other potential calamities, the stock market has quietly delivered lucrative returns to less distracted investors so far in 2023.
Could this be the start of the next great bull market? It's certainly possible. Regardless, there are smart actions you can take today to protect and grow your wealth -- no matter which way the economy turns.
Allow Peter Lynch to be your guide. The famed mutual fund manager delivered returns of more than 29% annually from 1977 to 1990 to shareholders of Fidelity Magellan, making it one of the most successful funds during Lynch's tenure.
In addition to this incredible performance, Lynch also penned the investment classics One Up on Wall Street and Beating the Street, both of which are chock-full of wealth-building wisdom.
Here's some of Lynch's most valuable advice on how you, too, can create lasting wealth.
"Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves."
Recessions are nearly impossible to predict, as are economic recoveries. And even if you're able to bail out of the stock market at exactly the right time, it's hard to buy back in at the bottom, when conditions are often grim and frightening. This is why "people who exit the stock market to avoid a decline are odds-on favorites to miss the next rally," according to Lynch.
Fortunately, there's no need for you to try and time the stock market's booms and busts. A far better strategy is to invest on a regular basis as your budget allows, such as via dollar-cost averaging. By adding to your holdings steadily over time, you'll buy more shares when prices are low and fewer when they're high. Most importantly, you'll position yourself to profit as the stock market rises in value over time, as it has throughout history.
"As corporate profits increase, corporations become more valuable, and sooner or later, their shares will sell for a higher price."
This is the simple yet vital premise for successful investing. Stocks are not just blips on your computer screen. They represent partial ownership of real businesses. And as those businesses create more value for their customers and grow their profits, their stocks tend to also increase in value. When you understand this, the way to build wealth in the stock market becomes clear: Invest in the companies best positioned to increase their profits over time.
Yet if you're not confident in your ability to identify these companies, there's another great way for you to capture your share of the stock market's returns. You could buy shares in a broad-market index fund, such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI 0.93%). This low-fee exchange-traded fund (ETF) holds positions in over 3,800 U.S.-based stocks, thereby giving you exposure to nearly the entire U.S. stock market. Owning shares of the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF could thus help you profit from the growth of the U.S. economy over time.
"At some point, we will have a major correction, and everybody will get scared again, and we will have another buying opportunity."
The bear market of 2022 won't be the last. That's a good thing because market sell-offs create bargains. And if you can train yourself to view these downturns as the opportunities that they are, you could amplify your gains.
To prepare for these occasions, try to live within your means and save money when you can. This will give you additional cash to invest when stocks go on sale from time to time.
As Peter Lynch says, "I've found that when the market's going down and you buy funds wisely, at some point in the future you will be happy."
