4 Reasons to Invest NOW | Ask Mr Wonderful Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary

Sometimes the entire year's return comes in just a few days, and if you're not invested in those days, you miss out. Your 20s and 30s are prime earning years. The longer you wait, the less you will have in retirement, so it's best you get started right now.

[Music]

Well, it's that time of the year again, and I thought it would be a terrific time to have, well, the classic fireside chat. I want to talk about everybody's future. The scariest thing for me, for anybody, is to end up at the age of 65 with nothing in the bank. In other words, no investment strategy, no retirement fund, nothing.

And you know, the truth is not everybody knows how to build a long-term diversified portfolio, and I totally get that. You know, I was really stunned during the whole pandemic thing in March and April when I found out, when we did the whole PPP payroll loan thing, how many of the people in my organization, my employees, and other supply chain entities that I work with, you know, all those people in their 20s and 30s, had nothing put aside for the future. That is scary.

So let's talk about that because I don't want that to be you. You know, at the end of the day, you've really got to think about your future because I think no one else is going to do it for you. Everybody loves to procrastinate. "I don't want to work out today. I don't want to go for a walk. I don't want to start investing." There's always a reason not to do something, and it's your enemy when it comes to investing. You really want to get over that quickly because you need the time value of money to be on your side.

So don't procrastinate. Start investing. Find a way to get discipline. Put some aside every week and let it grow for you. You're not doing it for somebody else; you're doing it for you. So when you end up in your 60s, you have something set aside. When people say, "When should I start investing?" my answer is always the same: now. Now is the time. Why? Because it takes time, usually many, many years, for investments to grow and to build your wealth.

So you've got to have a long-term strategy. Investing can feel really overwhelming, especially when it's your first time. If you've never done this before, it can be scary. Ideally, you would have started yesterday, but there's no point in dwelling on the past. Let's get started today. The most important step in the process is to make a commitment to yourself and your own future.

More than a hundred million Americans don't have any investment accounts; that's crazy. That's one-third of the population doing nothing for retirement, doing nothing to grow their wealth. Huge problem. You don't want to be one of them. If you start now, you can give your investments more time and really start to grow your money. Think about this: if you invest a hundred dollars a week, every week, not just saving but investing, assuming markets generate growth similar to the past 30-40 years, which has been roughly around 8 percent, and you invested in a diversified portfolio and reinvested your dividends, you could have a million and a half bucks in the bank in 40 years with just a hundred dollars a week. Is that too hard to do?

The longer you wait, the less you will have in retirement, so it's best you get started right now. Let's talk about the challenge of doing it. It's easier than it's ever been before. Why? Because a lot of technology exists to help you out. It's easier than before because you don't need to know a lot about investing to be an investor.

Too many people seem afraid to invest because they don't feel like experts. That's why I decided to create Beanstalks: to create an app that does almost all the investing for you—all of it using your phone. And the Beanstalk application, it's really, really easy, and it costs only five dollars a month. Now here's how it works:

Step one: Download Beanstalks onto your phone or click on the first link in the description below to get started. Step two: in the app, you'll answer some basic questions about your financial goals and risk tolerance levels, and how much you'd like to invest to start and how much automatically each week or each month you want to set up. The app will then let you connect your bank account; it's safe and secure and then confirm how much you want to invest today. The minimum amount is a hundred dollars, and you decide after that how much you want to set up as an automatic recurring investment.

Although there's no minimum for the recurring investment, I recommend you take it seriously and commit a recurring investment. Remember, it's for you; it's your future. Step four: once you've done steps one, two, and three and approved the proposed portfolio for you, you're all set. You can now let the investing happen.

Once your money gets deposited, we invest it for you in a diversified portfolio that's right for you based on your profile. I have a team of experienced investment professionals that carefully craft and monitor the portfolios. They work hard on this so you don't have to; they're the experts. And as the investments earn dividend income, the cash is also invested for you. That's what it's all about long term.

That's great, so there's really no excuse for not starting today. You don't need to know a lot about investing to be an investor. All you need is a phone, the Beanstalks app, and a bank account. That's what you need: a phone, the app, and a bank account. Download Beanstalks: B-E-A-N-S-T-O-X. It's all in the app stores. I mean, how easy is that?

So you might ask, "Why start now after the market's gone up?" Here's what I tell them and I've learned this the hard way. You can't time the market. Sometimes the entire year's return comes in just a few days, and if you're not invested in those days, you miss out. You have to get used to volatility—the market going up and down—but don't try and time it. Nobody gets that right.

Remember when the pandemic started? People panicked, and markets dropped. Some people thought their investments were doomed. But what actually happened? The market came back, as they've done after every major drop in history. Am I predicting what will happen tomorrow? No, absolutely not. Why? Because nobody knows. I don't have a crystal ball, and neither do other investors and financial advisors out there.

The most important thing to remember is that investing is a long-term game. When I started putting money in the markets, I'd obsessively check my portfolio every hour until the closing bell rang. What a waste of time, energy, insanity! If you want your money to grow, you have to be in the markets consistently over time. Volatility, corrections, and bear markets are all to be expected.

If you look back at historical market data over the past few decades, you'll see that the line isn't straight, but overall it does trend upwards. Investments in healthcare have done really well in recent months, but high investment returns for some securities have been on just a couple of trading days. The key here is patience is a virtue in the investing world.

You're not getting any younger; let's face it. Do I really need to start investing now? You might ask yourself, "Can I wait a year until I make more money?" Your 20s and 30s are prime earning years. Make the most out of them and the money you're bringing in now so you can enjoy your life later. It's going to be a lot harder to put in extra hours at the office or start a side gig when you're my age, and you don't want to have to do that.

You want a long-term plan. We're talking about it right now. Prioritize your finances when you're young, and you'll get ahead of the game. Why is this important? Let's talk about it: savings versus investing and the time value of money.

If you start putting away a hundred dollars a week, as we talked about earlier, and you just save that money in your bank account, assuming historical simple savings rates, in forty years, you will have accumulated approximately two hundred and eight thousand dollars. Now let's talk about investing that money. That sounds like a lot, but if you invest that money, and those are invested in the markets where the gains are eight percent a year, having been historically an annualized return of eight percent, think about this: In 40 years, you will have accumulated over a million and a half bucks. That's why it's important to start now.

Put your money to work for you. So when it comes to long-term planning, now is the time to do it. I hope you've enjoyed this fireside chat today because I'm hoping it gets you past procrastinating and you start thinking about yourself and your own future, and you find the discipline to put at least a hundred dollars a week aside. You know you can do it. You really can. There's something you don't need to buy. Instead of buying it, invest in yourself. Invest in yourself for the long term.

[Music]

I think he's coming in; that bird is aggressive.

[Applause]

We defended the fort.

[Music]

If you like that video, wait did you see my next one? Don't forget to click right over here and subscribe.