Basic financial literacy is important to learn. The items I mentioned are somethings everyone should be able to do after hours of reading. Worst case VTI/Vangu

Basic financial literacy is important to learn. The items I mentioned are somethings everyone should be able to do after hours of reading. Worst case VTI/Vanguard funds require limited work. You can also get a bank to manage your money for you and pay the fee. If you learn it yourself though, you will always be able to save that MER fee. There are many people who work 9-5 and just put all their money in $BRK or an ETF fund or other investments and in their retirement are doing okay. The ones who didn't are struggling from the people I have interacted with. As for the political instability, if it gets bad enough, we are all going to die of famine, so no point thinking doomsday. Also, since you are holding long term, who cares if it goes down, you are worried about 15/20/25 years from today. I think this is what stops many people from getting the market, thinking banks are corrupt, the system is crazy, and so on. Leave your politics to the side, this is the market, it doesn't care about conservatives or liberals, Chinese or American, black or white, it cares about dollars and cents. Where I work hard is my options trade. If you really want to see proof that you can make money, without working hard, shameless plug, www.marketgodfathers.com, I provide option trades before the market opens, I provide when I enter and when I exit. If someone follows my plans, they would make the same amount of money, percentage wise with a $30K account and no research required or work. So there are ways. Obviously, you might think this is incorrect, but if you spend time researching the market, you can definitely do what I do on your own. I do it in bull markets, and I will do it in bear markets. The thing about money in the market is when you make more, you want more. It never stops. Also, when you learn one way to make it, you always want to enhance it and do better. It's a never ending journey. Remember the richest people in the world pay people to manage their money, so the stock market is where you want to be.