Finance
Personal finance guru Ramit Sethi: This common money belief could cost you 'millions of dollars'
Investing in the stock market and gambling at a casino can both theoretically make you rich — and both come with risk. But that doesn’t make them the same.
Still, some people see them that way. “When I think of [investing], I think of gambling,” 37-year-old Halima told Ramit Sethi on his “I Will Teach You to be Rich” podcast in December. She and her husband, David, applied for Sethi’s show because they have over $500,000 in debt (a large portion of which is the mortgage on their home), but David, 33, wants to retire early. Their last names were not used.
The couple delegates all the financial decisions to David because Halima doesn’t have a lot of financial literacy, they told Sethi. And although David already regularly invested a portion of his own salary, Halima was wary of starting to invest in her own retirement accounts.
“I don’t like to take money and put it into something that I don’t truly understand,” she told Sethi on the podcast.
Her belief that investing is the same as gambling is common. In fact, 55% of people said investing is as risky as gambling in a 2019 MagnifyMoney survey. But that belief could wind up costing you “literally hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars,” Sethi said.
Here’s why although investing has similarities to gambling, experts still recommend it as a key way to build wealth.
You can’t win if you’re too afraid to lose
“The people who believe [investing is like gambling] are worried that they’re going to lose money by investing,” Sethi said. “But they’re actually losing hundreds of thousands of dollars that they could have had if they had sensibly invested.”
It’s true that you don’t always make money on investments, and you can’t always predict the outcome before you’ve put money down. But that doesn’t mean you need to be wary of all types of investing.
When Sethi says investing is far safer than actual gambling, he doesn’t mean speculative investments such as cryptocurrency or a new business venture. By sensible, he means using investing strategies that have stood the test of time, such as keeping your investments diversified, leaving your money invested for as long as you can and choosing investments with an appropriate level of risk.
You don’t have to be an expert to do this. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds make it easy for novice investors to get their money in the market with lower risk than trying to pick individual stocks. That’s because when you invest in mutual funds or ETFs, you’re essentially buying a basket of shares of various companies, giving you broad exposure and decreasing the likelihood that one poor-performing stock will tank your whole portfolio.
The stock market has its dips, but it has always bounced back. And generally speaking, someone with money invested in the stock market will be better off in the long run than someone who just held onto their cash.
One reason is because cash loses purchasing power over time due to inflation. Anyone who pays attention to prices can tell you the same $20 does not go as far at the grocery store today as it did in 2019.
Stashing money in a savings account that earns a little interest is a step up. But with a national average interest rate of less than 1% on regular savings accounts, according to Bankrate, it’s still not enough to beat inflation.
The S&P 500, on the other hand, has seen average annual returns of 10% over the last 50 years. So even in a “bad” year, you’re probably better off having some of your money invested rather than all in savings.
The chart below shows the difference in returns between a traditional savings account and the S&P 500 for a $100 deposit over 10 years.
Sethi said he understands that not everyone learns about investing growing up. Some people may have even heard messages like “investing isn’t for us” from family members.
But with a number of user-friendly and low-cost ways to start investing available, everyone who wants to build wealth can find a method that works for them.
People who say investing is like gambling “don’t understand that by investing in an index fund, you’re essentially buying a share of 500 of America’s best companies,” Sethi said. “And they don’t understand that by taking a long-term view, one in which stocks have typically returned over 7% for the last 70-plus years, that they can change their socioeconomic future.”
The good news is, David had helped Halima start investing with “baby steps” prior to coming on Sethi’s podcast. David suggested Halima contribute 10% of her income toward her 401(k), but she was more comfortable starting with 1%.
It’s difficult to change your mind and attitude about something you’ve believed your whole life, Sethi said. But when it comes to investing, the proof is out there. The sooner you start, the more your money can grow.
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The seven-week military conflict in the Middle East will redefine Hong Kong’s role as a global financial centre, positioning the city as a safe harbour for capital and investments.
Anecdotal evidence suggested that more banks had turned to Hong Kong to protect their businesses and committed themselves to expanding their presence in the city. At the same time, inquiries about adding allocations of mainland Chinese assets among global investors had recently increased, potentially enlarging the customer base for the city’s asset-management industry and family offices and driving demand for offshore yuan-linked financial products.
For years, Hong Kong’s status as a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region has been challenged by Dubai, which has risen to prominence as a gateway linking Asia and Europe in capital flows, transport and logistics. With the war destabilising the Middle East – at one point forcing the closure of the Dubai International Airport and sending stocks in the Gulf region plunging – Hong Kong has re-emerged due to its geographical location, a pegged exchange rate, free capital flows and support from China’s economic strength.
“In that context, China and Hong Kong are attracting renewed attention,” said Gary Dugan, CEO of The Global CIO Office in Dubai, which advises family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals globally. “There is growing interest among some clients in increasing exposure to China and Hong Kong. It is less a simple flight to safety and more a reassessment of where investors see relative value, policy consistency and long-term strategic opportunity.”
Dubai now relies on trade, tourism and finance as the pillars of its economy, reflecting the success of its four-decade diversification away from oil for sustained growth. The United Arab Emirates city is home to Jebel Ali Free Zone, the biggest free-trade zone in the Middle East, and the second-largest stock market in the region, with combined market values of US$1.01 trillion. The city, also a global hub for gold trading, has a population of 4 million, about 80 per cent of which are foreign expatriates. Dubai’s economy grew by 4.7 per cent in the January-to-September period last year.
Before seeking a new referendum MPS needs to rebuild trust in the community through completing state audits, putting in place controls to prevent overspending and routine reports to the public.
For MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, who just wrapped up her first year leading Milwaukee’s public school system, her tenure has been punctuated by some very big numbers.
The first is $252 million. That is the amount of new spending voters narrowly approved in an April 2024 referendum to support operations in Wisconsin’s largest school district. Just months later, MPS was rocked by revelations the district was months behind in filing key financial reports to the state, which led to former Superintendent Keith Posley’s resignation.
The second is $1 billion. MPS faces a deferred maintenance backlog exceeding $1 billion. The district’s enrollment has declined 30% over the last 30 years, leaving many schools at less than 50% full. That, in part, is driving a plan to close some schools and to improve others to help lower costs.
The final is $46 million, the deficit MPS was running for the 2024-25 school year, an unexpected shortfall which has led to hundreds of staff layoffs.
Getting the district’s accounting, budgeting and financial reporting back on track has dominated Cassellius’s first year at MPS. In an April 15 interview with the Journal Sentinel’s editorial board, she talked in detail about the challenges putting that into order and progress she sees in restoring transparency into its operations.
State funding and aging buildings create budget nightmares
Cassellius says state needs to keep up its share of school funding
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel editorial board, MPS leader Brenda Cassellius says budgets and buildings are her two top worries.
Cassellius said the on-going budget crisis is her top concern. She said the state’s failure to live up to its share of funding is exacerbating MPS’ budget woes. A group of school districts, teachers and parents filed suit against the state Legislature and its Joint Finance Committee claiming the current state funding system is unconstitutional and prevents schools from meeting students’ educational needs.
Funding for special education is especially critical. About 20% of MPS students have disabilities, almost twice the share of the city’s charter schools, and the average of 14% across Wisconsin.
“What’s keeping me up now, you know, is really just the budget crisis we’re in, with not only this year but multiple years going out without additional state aid, we’ve been not getting funding for what our needs are for our students, and particularly our students with special needs,” she said.
Although the state budget increased special education funding to a 42% reimbursement rate, the actual rate has been about 35%. Another component to the budget headache is the age of MPS buildings. The average age is 85 years-old compared to 45 across the nation.
“We have just kicked this can down the curb or kicked it down the street or whatever you call it for too long. And it’s time that we really take on a serious conversation about the conditions of the learning environments in which we send our children,” she said. “Particularly in Milwaukee Public Schools, we serve the most vulnerable children. Children who have language barriers, children who have disabilities, children in high-concentrated poverty.”
What needs to happen before MPS seeks another referendum
Voters need to be comfortable MPS has made tough budget decisions
In an interview with Journal Sentinel editorial board, Brenda Cassellius said voters will need to see budget improvements before seeking more spending
Cassellius said MPS will definitely need to go back to voters for a new referendum in the future. In addition to the 2024 measure, voters approved an $87 million plan in 2020.
Before doing that, she said the district first needs to rebuild trust in the community through completing required state audits, putting into place controls to prevent overspending and routine reports to the school board and public about finances.
“I don’t think that the voters are going to want us to bring something forward until they feel comfortable that we have done the cleanup that is necessary,” she said. “And we’ve built the trust that we have the sufficient controls in place.”
In the interim, she’s hoping the state will meet its constitutional responsibility to adequately fund public schools.
“What the public expects is you know where the money is, you’re spending it as close as you can to children, you’re getting good on the promise around art, music, and PE, and the things the public said they wanted to fund,” Cassellius said. “And they want their kids to have so that they have a quality education and an excellent education in Milwaukee Public Schools, and that they had the right amount of staff that they actually need. In the school to be safe and to run a good operation.”
Rebuilding finance staff in wake of $46 million in overspending
MPS is rebuilding school finance staff in wake of reporting lapses
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel editorial board April 15, MPS superintendent discusses accountability for district’s financial problems.
The $46 million budget shortfall from the 2024-25 school year started coming into view last fall and was confirmed in mid-January. Cassellius noted that in addition to hiring a new superintendent, MPS also parted ways with its comptroller and CFO.
“We are really rebuilding the personnel and staff of the finance department. That is what’s critical, is having the right people in the right seats doing the work,” she said. “Also critical is making sure that you have the right controls in place. The audit findings found that we did not have proper controls in place and now we have those proper controls in place and when we find things we put new SOPs in place and that is what any business does.”
Identifying that shortfall, though painful, was the result of better accounting.
“Being three years behind in auditing means that you don’t have full sight on your actual revenues and expenditures. And so we have now full sight of our revenues and our expenditures and that’s why we were able to see this new deficit of $46 million,” she said. “And we still continue to work with DPI on those processes to make sure that every month we’re doing monthly to actuals and doing those accounting, reporting that to the board. In a way that is consumable to the public that they can understand.”
Jim Fitzhenry is the Ideas Lab Editor/Director of Community Engagement for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Reach him at jfitzhen@gannett.com or 920-993-7154.
Property markets move in cycles, and with interest rates rising and other pressures like high fuel costs, some markets are clearly slowing down. Many first-home buyers who have only ever seen markets going up are conditioned to think that when purchasing, competition is always intense and decisions need to be made quickly.
In those times, buyers often feel they need to act fast, stretch their budget and secure a property at almost any cost. But things have definitely changed.
In a softer market, the dynamic shifts. Properties take longer to sell, competition thins, and it’s the vendors who begin to feel pressure.
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For buyers who understand how to navigate that change, the balance of power quickly moves in their favour. The opportunity is not simply to buy at a lower price. It is to negotiate from a position of strength.
If that’s you right now, these are the key skills first-home buyers need to take advantage of in softer market conditions.
The most important shift in a soft market is psychological. In a rising market, buyers often feel like they are competing for limited opportunities. In a softer market, the opposite is true. There are more properties available, fewer active buyers and less urgency overall. This gives buyers options.
When buyers understand that they are not competing with multiple parties on every property, their decision-making improves. They are more willing to walk away, compare opportunities and avoid overpaying. Negotiation strength comes from not needing to transact immediately. When that pressure is removed, buyers are able to engage more strategically.
One of the most common mistakes first-home buyers make is continuing to apply strategies that only work in rising markets. Auction urgency is a clear example. In strong markets, auctions often attract multiple bidders and create competitive tension. In softer conditions, properties are more likely to pass in, shifting the process away from a public bidding environment into a private negotiation.
This is where leverage increases.
Private negotiations allow buyers to introduce conditions that protect their position. These may include finance clauses, longer settlement periods or price adjustments based on due diligence. Opportunities that are rarely available in competitive markets become standard in softer ones.
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