Have you ever wondered how to turn
a thousand dollars into a small fortune?
Maybe you think it's impossible
especially as we're facing a devastating recession.
However, today I'm setting myself a challenge
to prove this can be done.
I've hand selected five different investments,
these include index funds, business, art,
individual stocks and cryptocurrency.
The data suggest these are good investments
during a recession.
Therefore, after looking at each in detail,
I'm prepared to put a thousand dollars of my own money
into every asset, so we can see the results together.
However, this might not go quite to plan.
I never thought I'd spend a thousand dollars on this.
No, get out of here, look at that.
Hi guys, it's mark.
So I'm a millionaire businessman
and I've seen many economic downturns in my time.
This is nothing new, we're heading into tough times.
But this has happened before and it'll happen again.
The 20 year old YouTubers making videos
about shady crypto coins
are about to be in for the shock of their lives.
The days of investing in random crypto coins
and making a fortune are over, at least for now.
It's time to look at the tried and tested methods
that can actually make you a millionaire.
If you want to create wealth beyond your wildest dreams,
you need to wake up and start investing
in assets that perform during times of economic downturn.
Many experts put the chances of recession at over 50%.
But to be honest, I think we could already be in one.
As we move through this video, the risk level will increase
but the potential award will also be much higher.
All of these are relatively safe investments
based on previous data,
although that doesn't ensure future returns.
Just remember, I'm a businessman, not a financial advisor
therefore, nothing in this video
should be taken as financial advice.
My aim is to show you what I'm doing
so that you can come to your own educated decision.
If you gave me $5 every day and I gave you $50 back,
would you be happy with that deal?
Of course you would.
So why aren't you taking it?
Let me explain.
This leads me into investment one, index funds.
I've given this a 3 out 10 on the risk scale
as it's been delivering solid returns for decades.
The figures don't lie.
If you invest $5 every day, let's call that $150 per month
into the SMP 500, at an average return of 8% for 45 years,
then you would have $791,000.
Now, according to Google, there are 16,436 days in 45 years.
So now if we divide $791,361 by 16,436 days,
we can see that every $5 you put in is turned into $48.
That's pretty close to $50.
Now I bet that's got you thinking
about your $5 Starbucks frappe a bit more carefully.
Index funds are seen as one of the safest investments
over the long term.
However, during a recession,
they become even more appealing.
This is because instead of betting on individual companies
to pull through the tough times,
you're purely investing in a long term success
of the whole market.
Think of it like going to a horse racing,
instead of putting all your money on one prize stallion,
you decide to spread it across all the top performers.
So now if one or a few of them lose, it should be okay
because you will benefit from the others winning.
This is a proven winning strategy.
Over a 15 year period, 92% of the top hedge funds
are trailing the S&P 500 index.
I mean, these guys are meant to be the experts
but they are getting destroyed
by a very hands off investment, which is so easy to manage.
You may think the S&P 500 isn't very well spread,
as it's only made up of the top 500 American companies.
However, as of 2017, only 70.9% of the companies
that make up the S&P 500s revenue, were from the US.
So it's a lot more global than you might first think.
But if you want to spread your money further,
then there are lots of different funds
that cover different countries and companies.
I have some of my money in emerging markets index funds,
so I believe, we're gonna see a big shift in global powers
over the next 5 to 10 years.
Even though I also invest elsewhere for bigger returns,
I always gradually buy index funds
whatever the market's doing, be that trendinG up or down.
There's multiple brokers you can use.
If you're in the US, you can use public.com.
I'm gonna use my UK Vanguard account.
Let's put $750 into the S&P 500,
and $250 into a global index.
There we go, all done.
88% of millionaires are self-made entrepreneurs
according to Fidelity Investments Research.
So that brings us onto investment number two, business.
I'm giving this a 3.5 on the risk scale.
As unlike index funds,
you could lose all your money in a bad business move.
However, the power is in your hands, not someone else's.
If you haven't started a business,
then now could be the perfect time
as we head into a recession.
There's a good chance you'll be starting from your home
and have minimal employees
and very little overhead to maintain at this point.
That combination puts you in a great position
to provide an inexpensive solution and win over customers.
In an economic downturn, businesses and consumers alike
are looking to cut costs,
which may allow you to break into the market.
But your window of opportunity could close soon,
as recessions are typically short lived
and followed by long periods of growth and prosperity.
The period after World War II, for example,
is considered the greatest expansionary phase
in modern times.
Similar points can be made
for the years after the energy crisis recession,
the Gulf War recession, the Dot Com bust
and the Great Recession.
Each recession was followed by a longer period of growth
than the period of recession.
The biggest mistake I see people making on a daily basis
is putting all their money into assets
they don't have direct control over.
As you know, I'm not against the stock market.
However, I don't think enough people value their skill sets.
I was on a call the other day
with someone in my free Discord,
and he asked me an interesting question.
He was making around $400 per month
selling PDFs that help people in his country
pass the state exam.
He was wondering how he should invest that money
to make more.
Later on in the call, I discovered
that he was currently only selling these templates
with organic marketing,
which proves there is a real demand for his product.
If he just invested $200 per month
back into paid advertising within his business,
he could see an immediate return
greater than any stock market investment.
I think of it like starving a plant of water.
You can't ever flourish in a drought.
So if you've been overlooking business,
then I implore you to dream big
and prepare for the next expansionary phase.
At the moment, I'm focused on growing my podcast
"Strike It Big."
We really need a way for episodes to be edited
as we film them.
That's why I'm going to invest this thousand dollars
into some new technology, which should save me time
and help us post weekly episodes.
Question, what do Picasso and Banksy have in common
apart from being era defining artists?
The answer is, you can invest in their work
for a fraction of the asking price.
That brings us onto investment three, fine art.
I'm giving this a 5 outta 10 on the risk scale.
You might not have considered fine art
as a potential investment.
To be honest, neither had I,
until I looked into the shocking stats.
You know, the S&P 500,
that investment many millionaires
don't stop banging on about.
- S&P 500 index fund.
- The S&P 500.
- Well contemporary art investments
have actually done better than the beloved S&P 500
over the last 25 years.
To be exact, the S&P 500 had a 9.5% average annual return,
whereas contemporary art average 14% price appreciation.
But surely if we are facing a recession,
the demand for these expensive paintings will drop,
and then the value of our investment will plummet, right?
Well, actually, the global demand held up pretty well
during the last great recession.
In 2007, global public auction sales topped $32.9 billion,
while in 2008, the figures hit $28 billion.
This only shows a slight dip in demand
and it was still higher than 2005,
when auction sales were only $17.2 billion.
Maybe more importantly, during 2009,
Yves Saint Laurent's art collection
set a new record for a single owner collection
totaling $483.8 million.
To put this into perspective.
This happened just five months
after the complete collapse of Lehman Brothers
and the markets.
Again, if we look at our old friend, the S&P 500,
this didn't recover the pre-recession levels until 2013,
two years later than the art market.
Due to the eye watering prices these paintings command,
unfortunately this asset class has only been accessible
to the already rich and powerful.
There is also a degree of skill involved
with picking the right pieces,
that the average investor just wouldn't understand.
So, how are we gonna invest this thousand dollars in art?
Well, I've been doing some research,
and companies like Masterworks really stand out,
as they use data that isn't available
to the average investor,
and a top research team
in order to determine which hired artist markets
have the most momentum.
They're even asked by worldwide groups like Citi
to collaborate on reports about the art market.
This just shows how much comprehensive data they have.
They help people get fractional pieces of art
rather than the whole thing.
This isn't NFTs.
This is breaking a painting into shares
so people can add a piece of it to their portfolio.
Their incentives are also aligned with the investors,
as Masterwork only make money
when they sell a painting for a profit.
With this said, I still think investing in art
is for the long term.
And that's why this platform
doesn't actually accept investors that are older than 70.
Oh, dammit, looks like I can't invest
this thousand dollars after all.
Only kidding, I still got plenty of years left in me,
you cheeky buggers.
Masterworks aim is to hold its art pieces
for 3 to 10 years.
At which point it then sells the painting
and distributes the proceeds amongst investors
based on their number of shares.
But so far the paintings they have sold ahead of schedule
have delivered 25% net returns
for the last four years in a row,
through Covid, a bear market and rampant inflation.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results,
but that's pretty incredible.
So with that said, let's invest a thousand dollars.
I really like Mark Bradford's "Promise Land."
It even shows a progress bar
that lets us know how much of the asset
has already been bought.
The paintings are valued every quarter,
so I'll be keeping an eye on this closely.
If you also want to get involved
then I'll leave an exclusive invite link
in the description below.
Imagine you invested $1,000
and woke up in the morning with $10,000.
This is what most people dream of,
and it's happened time and time again
with investment for individual stocks.
However, I'm gonna give this a 7 outta 10 on the risk scale
as finding the best stocks to invest in isn't an easy task.
Investing in individual stocks gives you complete control
over how your money is allocated.
When you invest in index funds,
you can't pick and choose the individual companies.
Instead, you're stuck with whatever the fund decides to do.
So stock picking gives you the ability to beat the market.
But bear in mind that 90% of people lose money,
hence the high risk scale rating.
If you're interested in giving this a shot,
then now could be a very good opportunity
as the market has fallen from the highs of the pandemic.
And there are lots of deals available if you can find them.
During a recession, it's more important than ever
to invest in well managed companies that have low debt,
good cash flow and strong balance sheets.
You're able to find all this information out for free
on Yahoo Finance.
Some industries are also considered more recession resistant
than others, such as healthcare.
If you think about it,
people can't put off most healthcare spending.
When you're sick, you need to see a doctor and buy medicine.
Walmart and McDonald's are also great examples of companies
that have thrived during past recessions.
This is because when people have less money,
they flock to discount stores like Walmart
and drown their sorrows in comfort foods
such as McDonald's burgers.
However, I'm gonna invest my thousand dollars in Apple,
as they sit on the luxury end of the market
and people would hate to give up their nice phones.
It's also important to remember
that most people don't even buy their phones these days,
they finance them through contracts.
This gives people access to iPhones
and puts money in Apple's pocket,
regardless of their customer's bank balances.
A thousand dollars of Apple bought.
By the way, if you wanna pick up a free stock
worth up to a thousand dollars from public.com,
then I'll leave a link in the description below.
When you hear about people becoming millionaires
from a simple thousand dollar investment
in a short period of time,
you can only be talking about one thing.
Investment number five is of course cryptocurrency.
And I'm giving this an 8.5 outta 10 on the risk scale.
Back in the day, if you'd mentioned cryptocurrency to me,
I would've disregarded it as a short term craze.
However, as Bitcoin rallied, I had to take notice.
The more I dived into the technology behind crypto,
the more interested I became.
I made a goal to invest around 5% of my portfolio
and faced some challenges along the way,
such as my bank account being closed down.
This is because Bitcoin is a digital currency
that is not controlled by any authority or bank.
And many experts believe crypto and blockchain technology
will go on to disrupt many industries such as banking,
law, cyber security, insurance, and more.
The top 10 crypto currency coins are always fluctuating,
but the two that remain in first and second places
by market cap, are Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Which I like to call the blue chip cryptos.
These are the most popular and safest coins.
At the moment, as we're heading into a recession,
naturally, prices across the board
have dropped quite drastically.
A lot of investors see this as a great buying opportunity.
Crypto is certainly not something to overlook
but should only be part of a diversified portfolio
due to its high risk.
I'm gonna invest $500 into Bitcoin and $500 into Ethereum
using the FTX app.
This is because the fees are 85% cheaper
than the other exchange options.
Also, I get free crypto on every trade I make over $10.
I'll even invite link below if you wanna use the same deal.
According to Hip Hop DX, the rapper, Drake
has reportedly bet over $1 billion via online gambling
since December, 2021.
This brings us onto something
I never thought I'd be doing on this channel,
online gambling.
This is a 10 outta 10 on the risk scale.
The rise of online gambling is creating millionaires
but is it the gamblers making millions or the creators?
Let's put this to the test.
I'm prepared to put $1,000 of my own money on the line
to prove to you how quickly it can evaporate.
I never thought I'd spend a thousand dollars on this.
Now the following clip, didn't go to plan
and goes completely against my narrative
that gambling is bad,
so much so, that I nearly didn't show you this clip.
Honestly, after this happened,
I didn't think this clip would see the light of day.
Whenever I've done a challenge on this channel,
I've always kept it 100% real.
Such as spinning the crypto wheel
or throwing an investment picking dart.
So here's what really happened.
Curtis, you better come in, this looks quite exciting.
Look, we got all these lollipops going on.
- I never thought it'd be doing this.
- Right, 10 free spins.
- All right, here we go then, press anywhere to continue.
- Yeah, straight in,
straight in. - Find out YouTube
are doing this.
Oh, is that a win? - And yes and some more.
- And some more.
Oh. - And some more.
Oh, we've got a 50X.
- What, what, what? - What?
- $4,000.
- We've actually won 4,000.
- No way.
- It keeps going up and up and up.
- No, get out of here, look at that.
- That's crazy. - That's sensational.
That can't be real, can it? - I think it is.
- Obviously we weren't expecting this result.
It's extremely lucky.
And the chances of something like this happening
are very slim.
After a big win like this,
many people get sucked into gambling
and are always chasing that feeling again.
Over the long term, the house always wins.
It's like the opposite of investing.
When over the long term you have a high chance of success,
gambling is just a rigged game.
To demonstrate how unpredictable games like these are
and how it can easily go the other way,
we gave it another thousand dollar spin.
- No. - No gain anything.
This just shows how rubbish gambling is.
- Oh, no
- It is pretty bad considering we put a thousand in
and now we've got what, how much left?
All right, 350 or so and we put a thousand in.
- Yeah. - Terrible investment.
- That's not a great investment guys.
So I'm gonna leave the next video right up there
but don't click on it just yet.
Make sure to subscribe if you wanna grow your wealth.
Okay, (clicking) I'll see over there.