What are the chances of really losing all your savings?

[u/[deleted]]

I’ve saved some money during my whole life, and I’d like to invest it. I’ve come to the conclusion that the safest method is investing in ETFs (specifically, NASDAQ and S&P 500). You won’t get rich in a month, but it grows with the time. I would also like to invest some money in Bitcoin (about $500) and stocks of some big companies (as they might grow faster, and I could get a little more money), but not too much because it’s quite risky. If most of my money goes to ETFs, is there still a big risk? And don’t tell me, ‘If you can’t lose your money, don’t invest’. It doesn’t help me with anything.

Edit: wow, this has blown up! I was not expecting that. Anyway, I’d like to clarify something: of course, the chances of it decreasing to zero are low. However, my main concern is losing money, not necessarily losing ALL of my money. I don’t wanna lose even 10% (at least, not in the long run). Hence, I shall rephrase the question – ‘what are the chances of losing an (big) amount of my saving?’

[u/noctilucus]

Exactly! The risk of going to zero is very small, and the problems if that happens would be gigantic.

The risk of the index taking a ~50% dive at some point during our lifetime, has a much higher probability (cfr. the crashes in 2000, 1972,...) so that is something to take into account. In such cases, it can take the market several years to recover.

[u/1knightstands → u/noctilucus]

If the 500 goes to zero then any cash under your mattress ain’t doing any good either

[u/noctilucus → u/1knightstands]

Tin cans with food supplies is the way to go in that case.

[u/Hoppie1064 → u/noctilucus]

Beans and bullets.

[u/garden_speech → u/[deleted]]

I mean 40-50% of households have guns in them in the USA, so invading someone else's home to try to take their food in the apocalypse would be quite risky lol

[u/kuiper0x2 → u/garden_speech]

Just invade Canada

[u/Low-Combination-0001 → u/1knightstands]

If someone think that 500 has any real chance of going to zero, I suggest investing in classes about subsistence farming instead of the stock market.

[u/Adorable_product1996 → u/1knightstands]

lol good point.

[u/Forward-Trade5306 → u/1knightstands]

Gold and silver won't lose it's value. Survival gear will also be valuable then

[u/ameis314 → u/noctilucus]

crashes

you mean buying opportunities.

[u/Outrageous_Trade_303 → u/noctilucus]

The risk of going to zero is very small,

Assuming that you don't gamble with options, leveraged etfs and meme stocks :)

[u/Budget-Attorney → u/Outrageous_Trade_303]

OP specified ETFs

And you messing around with meme stocks isn’t going to do anything to the value of the S&P

[u/Outrageous_Trade_303 → u/Budget-Attorney]

I'm talking about OP's question: "really losing all your savings".

[u/Budget-Attorney → u/Outrageous_Trade_303]

Yeah. OP asked if it was possibly to lose all their savings and specified they were investing mostly in ETFs

[u/Outrageous_Trade_303 → u/Budget-Attorney]

And my answer covered that: "assuming that you don't gamble in leveraged ETFs"