Chapter 2
The rewards of investment
Becoming a millionaire
At the age of 20, Sally Kelk decided to put £100 per month into an investment fund that invested in a broad range of shares on the London Stock Exchange. She did this for the last 20 years of the twentieth century. The return that she achieved during this period amounted to 19 per cent per annum (the actual average annual return for UK shares between 1980 and 1999). At the age of 40, in the first week of the new millennium, she sold all of her shares. She banked £215,245. Not bad for the sacrifice of £100 per month, or a total of £24,000. She feels the sacrifice was not too onerous as she spread the pain of saving over 20 years.
It gets even better. Sally has a chance of being a ...
Get The Financial Times Guide to Investing, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
