sport football: The Ugly Truth About Investing in Stocks

January 06, 2025 | Listen Online | Read Online

The Ugly Truth About Investing in Stocks

Many of you know me as the most-trusted man in crypto.

Which makes sense. I was one of the only newsletter editors writing about bitcoin back in 2016. And I've led my readers on a journey through crypto ever since.

But what some of you may not know is that I actually started my career in the traditional financial markets in the late 1980s as a stockbroker.

I made my first trade when I was just 13. I started on Wall Street at 18. And 15 years later, I ran my own hedge fund.

Markets have always been in my blood. And I continue to follow them closely.

But over the past decade, I've seen a split appear in the markets.

Many Americans – and you may be one of them – have been investing their hard-earned money in the stock market for decades and barely moving the needle on their net worth.

Yet, others starting with tiny grubstakes are becoming wildly rich.

I've been studying this phenomenon for years and what I've discovered is that…

You can no longer rely solely on the stock market to build and protect your wealth.

Today, I'll show you what you need to do instead

Friends, if your goal in 2025 is to build wealth… protect your retirement nest egg from the ravages of inflation… or achieve financial freedom… You will need an entirely new mindset.

The Ugly Truth About Investing in Stocks

The ugly truth is most people never reach the level of financial freedom they want… Not even after decades of investing in the stock market.

They're stuck on Wall Street's treadmill while being told financial freedom is just around the corner.

According to a 2024 survey by Northwest Mutual, the average American believes he'll need to save at least $1.46 million to retire comfortably. But the average American only has $88,400 in retirement savings.

That's a $1.3 million gap. And I see a lot of people making the mistake of believing the stock market alone will bridge that gap.

It won't.

Let's say it's the year 2000. You've just graduated from college. And your grandparents have gifted you $100,000 to put in an index fund tied to the S&P 500.

Today, that $100,000 gift would be worth about $416,000. That's a 315% return over 25 years, or 5.91% annualized.

Let's be generous and assume you reinvested all the dividends over the past 25 years. Your investment would have grown to $652,976. That's a 552% return or 7.85% annualized.

So even if you reinvested the dividends and held your fund for a quarter-century, you still would be less than halfway from the average retirement goal of $1.46 million.

Here's the thing… Those numbers don't include the sneaky effects of inflation.

From 2000-2024, the cumulative inflation rate is 83.2%. That means a slice of pizza that cost you $1 in 2000 now costs $1.83.

Adjusting for inflation, your initial $100,000 would be worth $349,195 after 25 years. And your inflation-adjusted return (with dividends reinvested) would be 249% or 5.16% per year.

And that still doesn't account for taxes, fees, and transaction costs.

Friends, if you believe you can fund your retirement or achieve your financial freedom just by investing in the stock market, I'm sorry to tell you…

The math just doesn't add up.

Now, let's say you were forced to retire after 25 years of saving. And all you had was your inflation adjusted $349,195.

Let's assume you follow traditional retirement advice and withdraw 4% of your nest egg per year. In that case, the retirement income from your stock market returns would be $14,000 annually.

Friends, the federal poverty level is $15,060 for a household of one person.

So if you follow Wall Street's game plan and park your money in an investment fund for a quarter-century and then withdraw it at 4% per year – based solely on your portfolio income, you'd be living just below the federal poverty level in retirement.

I want you to chew on that for a moment…

Can you survive on $44,000 per year? Sure, if you get food stamps, welfare and handouts from your family.

But who wants to live like that?

Unless you're in your 20s or 30s, if you want to achieve financial freedom this year, you will never do it by just investing in the stock market.

A Faster Way to Achieve Financial Freedom in 2025

My mission is to get my readers off Wall Street's treadmill. And in my experience, no other asset class can create more overnight millionaires than crypto.

Since I recommended bitcoin in April 2016, it's up as much as 25,252%. That's an average annualized gain of 2,800%.

And I've recommended at least 28 crypto tokens that have given my readers the chance to turn an initial investment of $1,000 into $367,000 in Binance… $543,000 in Ethereum… And over $1.5 million in Neo.

And just this past week, one of my crypto recommendations hit 10x returns since I recommended it in October. That's a 1,000% gain in less than three months.

As you can see, the right coin can do things for your financial life no other asset class on the planet can.

Stocks, bonds, commodities, precious metals just won't get you where you want to go fast enough.

I've been working in the investment business for more than 30 years. And there's nothing else I know of that can move the needle on your net worth as quickly as these crypto investments can.

Take last year, for instance.

A week before the Election Day in the United States, I held an emergency briefing to announce the first political prediction of my career.

Despite all the analysts and pundits saying the race was too close to call – I said Donald J. Trump would be re-elected president. Not only that, I predicted his victory would trigger an explosive rally in the crypto market.

Since President Trump's victory on November 5, bitcoin is up as much as 54%. And altcoins like Iota saw jumps like 300%... Ripple, 353%... Stellar, 393%... and Hedera, 576%.

As big as President Trump's victory was for crypto in 2024, it's NOT the full story.

Everyone now knows President Trump has been great for digital assets. But most people are missing a big piece of this puzzle.

During his campaign, President Trump promised he would do whatever it takes to make America "the world's bitcoin superpower." A lot of people still have doubts about that. But we'll get an answer soon.

And I believe it will create a seismic shift in the crypto market. I'm talking about insane moves of 1,000%, 5,000%, and even 10,000% in a matter of days or weeks.

Ever since I realized President Trump would win and trigger this boom, I've been working on a special project to find the best strategy to capture these moves.

And on Tuesday, January 14, at 8 p.m. ET, I will reveal it to the world during a special broadcast called Freedom 2025.

I call this event Freedom 2025 because I believe the seismic shift I see coming in crypto is the best opportunity you have to achieve financial freedom over the next 12 months.

You can click here to reserve your spot today.

I know "freedom" means different things to different people.

So I want you to visualize your ideal financial future… What would that look like? Then ask yourself, "How much money would I need to achieve this future?"

The number you write down is what I call your "Freedom Number." It's the amount of money you need to live the life you've always wanted to live.

For some, it's the freedom to own a new car every three years. For others, it's the freedom to spend your time doing volunteer work.

Whatever your Freedom number is, my first prediction of 2025 could put you on the path to hitting your target in less than 12 months.

During my event on Tuesday, January 14, I'll reveal the entire puzzle to you and explain how President Trump will trigger a melt-up phase in the crypto market bigger than all the bitcoin halvings combined.

I'll also show you a new method I'm using to reap the meat of the gains from this melt-up phase in 12 months or less. You can learn more right here.

Friends, making life-changing gains in 12 months isn't normal. But with President Trump returning to the White House, we're as far away from normal as we can be.

For the first time ever, we have a pro-crypto President coming to the White House. He'll have a pro-crypto administration and pro-crypto Congress backing him.

If bitcoin entered a bull market under the anti-crypto regime of the Biden administration, what do you think it will do under a pro-crypto regime?

So join me on Tuesday, January 14 at 8 p.m. ET. And let me show you how you could potentially achieve your financial freedom in 2025 with the right cryptos.

Let the Game Come to You!

Big T