Stock investing is best suited for making money over a long period of time. Usually, when you measure stocks against other investments in terms of five to (preferably) ten or more years, they excel.
Even investors who bought stocks during the depths of the Great Depression saw profitable growth in their stock portfolios over a ten-year period. If you examine any ten-year period over the past fifty years, you see that stocks beat out other financial investments (such as bonds or bank investments) in almost every period when measured by total return (taking into account reinvesting and compounding of capital gains and dividends)!
Of course, your work doesn’t stop at deciding on a long-term investment. You still have to do your homework and choose stocks wisely, because even in good times, you can lose money if you invest in companies that go out of business.
Because so many different types and categories of stocks are available, virtually any investor with a long-term perspective should add stocks to his investment portfolio. Whether you want to save for a young child’s college fund or for future retirement goals, carefully selected stocks have proven to be a superior long-term investment.