How much money I made from the stock market in 2020
I won’t bore you with a cliche intro on how 2020 was a weird year and the stock market was no exception.
I am a 23 year old woman, recent college graduate with thousands of dollars in student loan debt, living with roommates to spread my dollar as far as it can go. After binging dozens of Graham Stephan videos throughout the year, I finally decided it was time to throw some money I had in savings into the stock market. I used E-trade as my preferred trading platform and will likely continue using it as I’ve had no complaints so far.
It started when my friend Noah texted me and told me to buy Peloton stock immediately and blindly, I decided to listen. I was on my morning post gym walk on September 3, 2020 when I purchased 1 share of Peloton stock for $81.75. On the same walk I purchased 2 shares of Anaplan stock for $58.58 each or $117.16. The next day I purchased 1 more share of Anaplan stock for 56.70 and 3 shares of Slack stock for $29.00 each or $87.00. Within a matter of 48 hours I put $342.60 into the stock market. I don’t make large purchases very often and considering this is almost a months worth of rent for me and I live in Nevada a state known for gambling addictions I thought… I should probably slow down.
On September 21st, I sold my Peloton share, which turned out to be a terrible decision considering as I draft this article PTON is currently sitting at $150.10 a share but oh well. I sold for $94.91, a gain of $13.17.
On November 25, 2020, I sold my three Slack shares for $35.38 per share or $106.14 for all three shares, a total gain of $19.13.
On December 1, 2020 I sold my three Anaplan shares at $69.91 per share or 209.72 for all three shares, a total gain of $35.86.
As I draft this article the current price per share for each company are:
PTON: $150.10
WORK: $42.24
PLAN: $73.31
Overall, I had a total gain of $68.17 in 2020. Screenshot attached for proof.
I will need to pay about $22 of short term capital gains tax. So overall, net of tax I have a gain of about $46. Had I left this money in a high yield savings account that yielded 1% APY for the entire year, I would have a gain of about $3.43. I would need to put $4,600 into the same savings account for an entire year in order to yield the same $46 gain.
Putting this money into the stock market returned much greater value for my money. Although I missed out on a quite a bit of potential gains had I held onto my shares a bit longer, at the end of the day; a gain is a gain. By doing this I’ve learned that I am quite risk adverse when it comes to the stock market. However, this made me wildly more comfortable with the entire concept and process of buying and selling shares. It no longer feels like a foreign concept that only the 1% can take part in.
If you’re curious about dabbling into the stock market, take this as your sign to do so. You do not need to break the bank or have thousands of liquid cash lying around to invest in the stock market.
