Updated: June 9, 2023
According to a 2016 study done by the Shareholders’ Association of the Philippines, less than 1% of Filipinos are invested in the stock market.
The reasons vary, but the primary cause would be the lack of general knowledge of how the stock market actually works. After all, this is not something being taught in our school system.
In my opinion, if more Filipinos can realize how much one can potentially earn in the stock market, then interest and participation would certainly grow.
But how much can you really earn from the stock market? That’s what we’re here for today, thanks to a reader who sent me this question:
From Mark A.
I have P300,000 just sitting in my bank account. Can I put this in the stock market? If so, how much will my money earn per year?
Your money has the potential to grow on an average of 12% per year in the Philippine stock market.
So if you put P300,000 in the stock market, then your money can grow and have an estimated value of P528,000 after five years.
In contrast, if you put P300,000 in a time deposit with 4% annual interest, you’ll only have around P364,000 after five years.
Now, before you withdraw your money from the bank and open a stock market account, there are several things that you should know.
Contents
Growth will fluctuate and is not guaranteed.
Bank interest rates are guaranteed returns. That’s why people feel safe putting money in savings accounts and time deposits. In the stock market, that 12% is not guaranteed — the growth will depend on the Philippine economy.
Sometimes, the growth will be negative, and you’ll experience paper losses. And sometimes, the growth will be phenomenal, and your money can grow by as much as 20% (or even more) in a year.
For the Philippines, the stock market index has grown by around 12% per year from 2010-2015; around 13% per year if we go back ten years (2005-2015), and around 11.5% per year if we look at fifteen years (2000-2015)
The value of your investment in the stock market will go up and down, and the best way to minimize your risk of losing money is to be prepared to be in it for the long term while electing competent people into the government who can help the country progress.
Invest only what you can afford not to touch for a long time.
There’s no way to predict how exactly the stock market will behave in the future. That’s why you should be willing to ride the ups and downs of the economy until significant growth happens.
This means you should not put in the stock market any cash that you plan to spend soon. For example, that money for your house renovations next quarter or that fund you saved for your wedding next year — just put the money in the bank for these cases.
You can’t just buy any company and expect to make money.
There are more than 250 publicly-listed companies in the Philippine stock market — some of them are stable companies, like Ayala Land and Jollibee, while some are young corporations, such as Double Dragon and Xurpas.
Businesses come and go. Some will grow to become market leaders for decades to come, while some will eventually become bankrupt or be acquired by their competition.
Because of this, there is a need to be careful in choosing the companies that you’ll invest in because you don’t want to buy shares of a company that will close down after several years.
But if you choose wisely, your money’s growth can be remarkable. For example, if you invested P300,000 in Jollibee shares back in November 2000, then your money would be worth P7.1 million by June 2016 — that’s around 21% compounded annual growth.
How much can you earn from the stock market?
There is no simple way to answer this question, but if we want a guesstimate based on historical data for the Philippines before 2016, then it is safe to assume at least 12% per year.
But there are no guarantees — there will be bad years, and there will be good years. Your income will mostly depend on how long you’re invested and, more importantly, which companies you will buy in the stock market.
It’s like buying a piece of art. There’s no guarantee how much its value will be in the future. But the longer you hold on to it, the more expensive it becomes, especially if the artist is somebody well-known in the art world.
Lastly, just like most things in life, the better you understand how something works, then the higher your chances are of making money from it. That’s why it’s important to learn first before you invest.
What to do next: Click here to subscribe to our FREE newsletter.
