MORE PEOPLE OWN STOCKS TODAY THAN EVER BEFORE
Even though it might not seem like it, I believe more people than ever own stocks. The main reason for this is the demise of the pension plan retirement package that companies used to give out and the adoption of the 401K. In today’s world, most employees have access to a 401K plan where they are allowed to invest up to 10% of their salary and get a company match anywhere from 0% up to 6%. That means for many of us, some or all of the money we are contributing to these plans will be invested in different funds which invest in stocks.
Each companies 401K plan is different but they all have a lot of similarities. For instance, there will be different investment options within the 401K that you can choose from. You will also have to choose what percentage of your money you want in each investment option. Some plans have more options than others but they all have different stock funds available.
In my 401K plan I have approximately 25% in a growth fund, 25% in a value fund, and 50% in a couple of blended or mixed funds. I used to have a higher percentage in the growth fund but as I grow older, I have balanced things out a bit more. The important thing to take note of is that even though I am not picking individual stocks (few 401K’s allow you to do that), my money is still in the stock market. And if you have a 401K plan your money is most likely in the stock market too.
During the stock market plunge of 2008 and 2009, anyone with a 401K plan was losing money. THAT was a lot of people who lost money almost every day even though many of them had never learned how to buy stocks in a brokerage account. You might think that stocks and the stock market are only for rich people but that would be an incorrect stereotype that is put forth by people with a political agenda.
This is just one reason why the Occupy Wall Street protests are so silly: these (mainly) youngsters are protesting against companies we all own and are part of. Regular every day people (who work and have families) own stock in thousands of of the big companies that the protesters hate. OWS wants to protest and block those companies from doing business but who are those protests really hurting? They hurt regular working Americans.
The stock market is vital for keeping companies in business and making our capitalist society work. It is wonderful that so many hard working middle class people have access to the stock market and own stocks in their 401K plans. If they would spend additional time learning how save and to invest even more of their money, I doubt we would have the impeding debt crises that we are facing today.
