Everyone tells you to buy stocks to get rich. Hardly anyone mentions the five things you should do before you invest a single dollar.
Skip them, and you could end up with less wealth or even lose money. Jaspreet Singh, CEO of Briefs Finance, lays them out in order.
One of the five is learning to research with AI, which can feel like having a Wall Street analyst on call. Jaspreet is hosting a free livestream on November 17 to show how he and his analysts use ChatGPT and Claude to research stocks and find better ideas.
1. Stop Paying the Credit Card Interest "Stupid Tax"
Imagine someone handed you $8,000 to invest, and you never added another penny. If it grew 22% a year for 45 years, it wouldn't end at $1 million or even $20 million - it would top $60 million.
You probably won't earn 22% a year in the stock market. But Mastercard, Visa, Amex, and Discover are earning it, and the people paying are anyone carrying a balance.
The average American's credit card debt is about $8,000. The average APR - the yearly interest rate on that debt - is around 22%.
That's how credit card companies pay for huge buildings and private jets. Jaspreet calls that credit card interest the stupid tax.
The stock market has averaged about 10% a year historically. Maybe you do better and earn 13%, or maybe you're the next Warren Buffett, who has averaged 19% a year since he started investing.
Even Buffett would come out ahead paying off a 22% credit card instead of investing. Plus, the market can go down.
Next year the market could rise 30%, 10%, or 2%, or it could fall 30%. Paying off your card a year early is a guaranteed 22% that stays in your pocket.
2. Save $2,000 Before You Invest in Stocks
Before you invest anything, save $2,000. Jaspreet would rather you save it even before you attack your credit card debt.
This money goes into an emergency fund, separate from your investments. Many investors are tempted to skip that step, and the reasoning sounds smart:
- Inflation is around 3.5%.
- A bank account pays 0.1% to 1%, or maybe 2% to 3% in a high-yield savings account.
- The stock market has averaged about 10% a year.
The problem is timing. Emergencies tend to hit at the same time the market crashes, because when the economy goes down, people lose jobs and companies go bankrupt.
Say you had $20,000 in stocks, and the market falls 40% the same month you lose your job. Your cushion is now $12,000, and you're forced to sell at a low right when you'd want to be buying.
Life happens. Your kids get sick, your car breaks down, the AC stops working, and without cash, those bills land on a credit card.
Your emergency fund isn't there to make you rich or beat inflation. It's a shield.
3. Learn How to Invest in Stocks With AI
Investors love to say a stock's price depends on its valuation, a multiple of its profits, or how fast its revenue is growing. Those things matter, but a stock's price comes down to one thing: supply and demand.
A stock is worth what someone else will pay for it. Take a marker: one person says it's worth $1, another says its ink is worth $3, and a fan of whoever used it might pay $10.
With millions of trades happening every second, stock prices move the same way. The financials shape whether investors buy or sell, which is why sentiment - how investors feel about a company's future - matters so much.
Investors want companies that will make more money tomorrow, not ones on the verge of bankruptcy. The question is how to research that.
Jaspreet owns an investment research firm. His analysts read financial statements, talk to executives, and research whole industries.
What they've found is that AI can now handle some of that research better than ever. It can't do the whole job, but it helps with sentiment and with spotting changes in a company or industry.
The catch is that answers are only as good as the questions. Most investors type "What stock should I buy?" or "Should I buy Nvidia or Tesla?"
Jaspreet suggests something closer to this:
I'm looking at purchasing Nvidia, and I'm a growth investor. I want companies with at least 20% revenue growth year over year. Is Nvidia growing steadily on revenue and profit, and which competitors are growing faster without seeing the same stock price growth?
That prompt gets a far more detailed and thoughtful answer. When you do what everyone else does, you get what everyone else gets, and most people lose money in the stock market.
Jaspreet will show exactly how he and his analysts prompt AI at his free November 17 livestream, with sessions at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET. Investors who attend live get a free guide with his team's top 10 prompts, ready to paste in with whatever stock you're researching.
4. Know Your Stock Investing Strategy
"Is Nvidia a good stock?" is one of the worst questions an investor can ask. Good for what?
There are three investing strategies, and the answer changes with each one:
| Strategy | The goal | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | Buy a stock at $100 and watch it climb to $1,000 | Investors chasing big long-term gains |
| Income | A $100 stock pays you $3 a year, and that payment keeps rising | Investors who want cash flow without selling shares |
| Wealth preservation | When the market crashes, your $100 stock stays near $100 | Investors near retirement who already have their wealth |
Nvidia can be a good stock for a growth investor, since it's investing heavily in AI and trying to grow fast. That also means more volatility.
An income investor would look elsewhere, because Nvidia pays a small dividend. They want companies that pay strong dividends and raise them aggressively.
A wealth preservation investor with millions saved would likely avoid volatile, high-growth tech altogether. You can also be a hybrid, with some stocks for growth and some for income.
Once you know your strategy, your questions get sharper: "Is Nvidia a good growth stock for me?" or "Is AT&T a good wealth preservation stock for me?" Feed that strategy into your AI, too, and your answers improve.
5. Write Down Your Plan to Buy the Dip
The way to build wealth in the stock market is what Jaspreet calls always be buying: you buy every week, two weeks, or month and let time do the work. For some investors, that pace won't build enough wealth by retirement.
There are two ways to speed things up. The first is market shifts, using better research to find where money is moving and earn slightly better returns.
The second is POOP: panic leads to overselling, which leads to opportunity, which leads to profit. It's what happens in a market crash.
Crashes are part of the economy. In the last 100 years, there have been 16 recessions and 25 market crashes.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2000 | The dot-com bubble burst and the Nasdaq fell 78% |
| 2008 | The stock market was cut in half |
| 2020 | The stock market fell 34% |
| 2022 | The stock market fell 20% |
Each one was like Black Friday for investors. The financially savvy and prepared could buy everything on sale.
The pattern repeats. The media says the world is ending, that this time is different and the economy will never recover, and investors panic and sell.
The next crash may be even louder, with social media and more financial news outlets than ever. Jaspreet says he has built a lot of wealth during recessions and market crashes, simply by having cash and buying.
By Jaspreet's count, 2025 alone had three crashes:
- February: President Trump announced tariffs, markets crashed, the tariffs were canceled days later, and markets hit new record highs.
- March: Trump announced tariffs again, stronger this time, and markets crashed before another reversal sent them to new highs.
- April: Liberation Day set off a global selloff, and investors with cash made their money back unusually fast.
Then came the attack in Venezuela earlier in 2026, the attack in Iran, and the oil price shock. The economy has stayed resilient so far, but a recession and more volatility will come.
Your plan needs two parts. First, decide how you'll build cash for the next crash, setting money aside while times are good.
Second, decide what you'll buy, whether that's the broad market, dividend stocks, or specific growth stocks. Then wait, and when the next crash comes, execute.
When times are good, we forget they won't always be good. When times are bad, we forget they'll eventually get good again.
