Investing is for rich people, right?

The money in your bank account isn't in a vault with your name on it. Legally, you lent it to the bank, and the bank invests it however it likes.
So you're already an investor, just one who gets paid very little and gets no say.
The question isn't whether to invest. It's whether you choose where, or let someone else choose for you.

If you have money in a bank account, you're already investing. You just never chose to. The moment you deposit money, it stops being cash in a drawer and becomes a loan to your bank. The bank decides what happens next, and it keeps what it earns. It pays you a little interest, sometimes none, and owes you no explanation. That's not a scandal; it's how banks work. And as we pay with cash less and less, more of our money ends up living in a bank by default. So the real choice was never between investing and not investing. It's between letting someone else invest for you, on their terms, or deciding for yourself where your money goes. Some of your money belongs in the bank. The rest deserves an owner who pays attention: you.

Let's make it concrete

Tomás keeps $10,000 in his bank account. His bank pays him 0.5% a year, so $50. He doesn't think of himself as an investor.

His friend Aisha puts the same $10,000 into a world index fund. Some years it drops, and one year she sees $2,000 vanish and wants to cry. Over long stretches, though, funds like hers have historically grown several percent a year on average. That's not a promise, but it's a very different story from $50.

Both of them are investors. Tomás just let his bank decide, and his bank paid him $50 for the privilege.

So is my money safe at the bank?

Up to a point. Most countries guarantee deposits up to a limit: $250,000 per bank in the US, CHF 100,000 in Switzerland, €100,000 in the EU. Above that, you're simply a lender to a business.

When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023, the US government ended up covering every depositor, even above the limit. But for a tense weekend, nobody knew whether they'd get their money back above the guarantee. Sometimes the government steps in, sometimes another bank does, and sometimes, like Lehman Brothers in 2008, nobody does.

Isn't this a bit unfair?

Partly, yes. Your bank uses your money to invest, keeps most of what it earns, and pays you very little. When things go well, the profit is theirs. When things go badly, the losses can land on customers or taxpayers. And the people with the most money usually get better rates, advisors, and options, while small savers get whatever is the default.

But the default is a choice too, even if nobody asked you to make it. You don't need to be rich to choose where some of your money works. You need a little time, a little curiosity, and an amount you can afford to leave alone for years.

So, is investing for rich people?

No. You're already investing. The only question is whether someone else decides where your money goes, or you do.

Here's the irony. A century ago, buying shares meant knowing a broker, having a big sum to start, and probably owning a top hat. Today you can buy a tiny slice of thousands of companies from your phone or through your bank, with whatever amount you can spare. When it comes to investing, you already have tools that only the rich used to have. Most people just never got the memo.

There's no single right answer. Some people start by keeping a solid cushion and putting a small amount, one they won't need for years, into something broad and diversified. Others take more time to learn first. What matters is that it becomes your choice, not just the default.