For many individual investors, the best way to build wealth over the long run is with one or more simple, low-fee index funds , which can be all we need to build secure financial futures . Index funds require little brain power from us and little attention. Keep adding money to the funds over many years, and they should grow well for you, delivering roughly the same returns as the indexes they track.
An S&P 500 index fund, for example, will aim to offer returns similar to the index itself, which encompasses 500 of America's biggest companies. But if you want to aim for above-average returns, you might add some individual stocks to your mix. (The Motley Fool recommends spreading your money across 25 or more , for diversification.
) Here are three stocks with promising futures. See if any of them pique your interest. 1.
Starbucks Starbucks ( SBUX 0.24% ) boasts over 38,000 locations around the world, where its 381,000-plus employees serve up coffee, tea, snacks, breakfast, and much more. The company had more than $36 billion in annual revenue recently, and it has room to grow more.
Shares have outperformed the S&P 500 handily over the past 20 years, but they haven't always done so over shorter periods, and the company is facing some challenges. To avoid being disappointed, it's smart to buy into stocks when they seem undervalued , thereby giving yourself a margin of safety . Starbucks shares do appear undervalued at recent levels, with a forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) r.
