The lie in your head has a price tag: $1,000
Ask a non-investor why they've never bought a stock, and you'll hear some version of the same excuse: "I don't have enough money yet." There's a specific, imaginary number attached to that fear — usually around $1,000 — that people believe they need before the market will let them in.
Schwab's 2025 Modern Wealth Survey (2,400 adults, polled April 24 to May 23) put a spotlight on it. Roughly half of non-investors said they don't have enough money to invest. Not that they lack interest. Not that they don't trust the market. They think they're too broke to be allowed in.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: that belief is a myth. And it's an expensive one.
The real minimum is $1, not $1,000
Fractional shares quietly killed the "you need a grand" rule years ago. You no longer buy whole shares — you buy dollar amounts. Want exposure to a dividend-paying ETF like Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity (SCHD), recently priced at just $31.31 a share? You don't need $31.31. You can put in $5 and own a sliver of it.
GOBankingRates' money expert Hankwitz said it plainly in August 2025: "$10 is the right amount" to start. Not because $10 makes you rich — because $10 breaks the mental block. The "right" amount is whatever you can afford right now. And notably, 2025 opened as one of the worst market years in recent memory before the Nasdaq-100 (^NDX) rallied about 12% — the people who started small didn't miss it.
"But the market's at an all-time high — isn't it too late?"
This is the second myth, and it's the one that stings the most. You finally get comfortable with the $10 idea, then you check the news: the S&P 500 (^GSPC) just notched its 24th record closing high of 2026 — through inflation fears and an Iran war. Your gut screams: too late, wait for the crash.
Citi Wealth's Investment Lab dumped 65 years of data on that gut feeling on May 4, 2026. Going back to 1960, they found that waiting for a pullback before investing has historically cost investors more than the risk of a near-term correction — across 1-, 3-, and 5-year holding periods.
Read that again. Sitting in cash "waiting for the dip" lost people money more reliably than just buying at a high and riding out a drop.
The proof is from this year
Earlier in 2026, the S&P 500 dropped 9%. Terrifying if you'd just bought in. But investors who bought right before that pullback were back to breakeven within a month. All-time highs aren't a ceiling — they're what a healthy market does over and over.
"Okay, but what if it crashes and never comes back?"
The final boss of investing myths. And this one has a real, scary example — which is exactly why it's so persuasive.
The S&P 500's 2000–2013 stretch was a genuine "lost decade." After the dot-com bust, it took 13 years to reclaim its prior high. Thirteen years. That's the horror story Wall Street skeptics love to quote.
But here's the part they leave out: investors who stayed invested through the tech bubble, the 2008 financial crisis, and the 2022 bear market fully recovered and went on to profit. The market didn't just come back — it kept climbing to today's 24 records. The people who lost were the ones who sold at the bottom and never returned.
- Myth 1: "I need $1,000." Reality: you need $1. SCHD is $31.31/share; buy $5 of it.
- Myth 2: "It's too late at all-time highs." Reality: Citi's 65-year data says waiting cost more.
- Myth 3: "What if it crashes forever?" Reality: even a 13-year lost decade fully recovered.
The classic beginner pick, and why the math favors small buyers
If you want one name that's practically built for first-time buyers, look at Apple (AAPL). It earned $7.46 per share in 2025, up 23% year over year, with analysts expecting another 17% growth this year.
The sneaky part is Apple's buyback machine. It shrank its share count from ~26 billion shares a decade ago to under 15 billion today. Fewer shares means each remaining slice — including your fractional slice — represents a bigger claim on those earnings. Apple is quietly working to make your tiny stake worth more, whether you own one share or one dollar's worth.
How to buy this on AlphaEx
You can act on every myth above in the next five minutes. Here's the whole process:
- 1. Create your account — head to AlphaEx and sign up in minutes.
- 2. Deposit any amount — remember, $10 is the "right" amount. There's no $1,000 gate.
- 3. Search the stock — type AAPL, SCHD, or your first pick into the search bar.
- 4. Tap Buy — choose a dollar amount, not a share count. $5 of SCHD works.
- 5. Track your live profit — watch your position move in real time on your dashboard.
- 6. Sell to your balance anytime — your money isn't locked away.
Dividend ETFs like SCHD can pay you passive income just for holding — cash that lands whether the market is up, down, or setting its 25th record.
The most expensive word in investing is "later"
Half of non-investors are frozen by a number that doesn't exist. Citi's 65 years of data says waiting costs you. The 2026 record run says "too late" has been wrong 24 times this year. And even a 13-year nightmare ended in profit for people who simply stayed in.
You don't need $1,000. You need $10 and a decision. Open your AlphaEx account and buy your first fractional share today — before this year's 25th record makes "later" cost you even more.