or is it Mock Stark-up? Beats me. It always seemed weird to me. I followed the KISS principle and chose to work as a carpenter all my life to feed my family.

Never bet what you can’t afford to lose. Your friend’s experience is not the norm I assure you. The stock market is betting, no matter what anyone tells you, especially for the average person. So set aside a specific amount that you’d be comfortable losing if it happened, and don’t go above it. It’s not terribly difficult to do it and most of the big financial institutions have their own online trading programs. You will pay for every transaction however, and how much you pay depends on how much you trade and how much money you’re working with. So if you are very keen to get started, do it, but follow this advice and do your homework.

That's a good investment, but can do much better- am 45 and retired at age 30 by doing this. Made over $12M during the covid crash and rebound, it was all very obvious and simple to me...but is something you can learn.
You Tube is your friend,and are many gold/stocks/options/crypto traders who offer services that cost $50-$200 a month and they give you signals on what to do. Look on Telegram as well.
I suggest trading options, and/or Gold and Indices.

95% of the population will spend hours a day on mindless social media and entertainment and gaming, will buy nice cars and luxury good sand new phones every year etc.

But ask them to spend time learning stuff and risk a couple hundred dollars and they won't.

You can lose money in the stock market contrary to some social media posts. The market doesn’t always go up. Turning $3k into millions? It’s possible but winning the lotto is possible too. Odds are about the same. Take some courses, assess risk and then only invest what you can afford to lose as your short term/ flyer investment strategy. Long term, you need a solid investment profile, risk analysis and plan that is executed over decades to average 6-10% annual returns to fund your retirement.

that's not how investing works. the idea that you buy a few shares in something and it skyrockets is literally the issue with cr$pto. even the idea of investing in something like apple or Microsoft in the late 90's is more of an homage to a changing landscape than it is to investing. it's also the cause of the internet bubble(s).

but thru the help of my Indiginous Elders I've started to learn the central questions of Existence. 'Where did we come from before we were born on Planet Urth? Why are we here? and Where do we go next?' These questions require patience to learn, but the Elders teach, above all, 'Do no harm. Have loving patience. Help where you can and do loving positivity.' OCM Coast Salish Sto'Lo <3

he sells it. That’s the thing most people forget when they’re talking about how much money someone has in their stock. Unless they sell it, it’s just a concept. I knew someone who always talked about how he used to be a millionaire because he had this stock that went up and was worth so much. But he never actually had that money at all because the stock fell as fast as it went up. So unless you sell that stock and have genuine money in your account, it’s just air.

A few years ago, a friend bought truckloads of Tesla stock. I warned her. She shrugged off my charismatic advice. Look at the price of Tesla now. She's still my friend, and now she obeys. Believe you me!

Tesla has had a 5 to 1 and a 3 to 1 stock split. So if you look at the stock price it does show a low price...but she should have 15x more stocks. Without those stock splits Tesla would be worth thousands.
I mean...governments have mandated EVs so it's simple to see what will happen.

BTW I'm the trader above that everyone has down voted for spitting facts. In the Covid crash ANYONE could have bought hundreds of stocks at all time lows.
Get off of useless media,and pay attention to what's going on.

I'm a slow learner and never had much business or money sense, but when I learn I usually end up learning well. It took me a long time to learn math equations in school. I would be up all night trying to figure out one equation but when I learned how to do it I was an A student. I don't plan on investing very much. Maybe $200-$500. I'd research the companies and products first of course. The only thing I understand about the stock market is that the aim is to buy low and sell high.