With almost nothing to do during the pandemic, people have turned to easily finished activities to occupy their time. Some of these might be simple and can help people tune out the doubts they feel due to the pandemic. These may come in the form of gambling or investments.
There’s not much difference between gambling and investments, as both require you to make decisions that involve a lot of money—that you lose. But that ends there. Both may be fun, but they’re risky enough that you may lose a huge amount of money if you’re not careful, you don’t know what you’re doing, or both. In the long run, though, investments in stocks can be a lot more forgiving.
If you’re interested in investing, it’s not so simple to start it, but it’s not that hard to study it and gain basic or working knowledge, either. Take a look at how you could get started with making your money work for you.
Investing is similar to wise gambling
A study showed how Americans have a love affair with betting to the tune of $380 billion per year. It’s not that hard to see why this is appealing—there are pretty strong choices to support, and people are looking for easy money.
Betting, however, isn’t a sure thing. There are bigger risks here than when you’re investing in stocks and safer things, like bonds and treasury bills. Stocks have the biggest value, which is why it’s a little like betting on gambling chances. The difference is that you have the chance to make up for what you lost.
Take, for instance, betting on a company to get it all. This company might end up losing more than gaining, but it’s still a better risk rather than betting it all on a lone player or team and losing without the chance to make it all back.
The risk of losing it all
When viewed from a distance, sports gambling seems like a fascinating prospect, especially knowing that you’re potentially out to lose your money at a given time. Some don’t like those kinds of prospects. Some people prefer to have a little something to gain despite losing their money, which can happen through stocks.
In stocks, you don’t just bet on one category. You can spread your money or “place them in different baskets,” so to speak. Expert investors often place their money in different stocks, which acts as a buffer for them if the ones they are looking at don’t work.
Choosing the right investments
Investing in stocks isn’t simple. You have to pick a company to back, and if things don’t work out with your choice, you’ll have to work things out until you finally get something profitable in return.
Let’s say you’re investing with a company that creates accessories for competitive shooting. You’re going to have to make sure that this company is profitable—you wouldn’t want to invest in a company that’s losing profit. Your choice involves a lot of ‘staking out’ or looking at the company’s profile, history of profits, and whether they’re worth it.
This is what happened during the rise of video games in the 90s, where they transformed from pure entertainment to becoming a competitive sport.
The rise of eSports betting
eSports betting is still in its infancy, but it does show something that people can get into. It has since become a legitimate business enterprise with people from all walks of life starting to get more and more into it. There are whole teams built to represent countries and even an Olympic event in the works.
It’s expected to only become bigger in the years to come. If you want to invest in a company that covers teams competing in these events or sponsoring the events themselves, now is the right time.
Creating security through investments
If you’re still not convinced, consider this: you stand a bigger chance at multiplying your “bets” if you invest in stocks rather than if you invest in the slot machines at MGM Grand or in Vegas. This isn’t a knock to gambling; it’s just that the very nature of gambling ironically makes it a bad bet.
Pick your basket, place your eggs in it, and remember to put your eggs in as many baskets as possible. It’s that simple.
Betting is something that people eat like peanuts—they can’t stop. There is a way to make it worth your while, though, and that is through betting in something like the stock market.
