What is an IPO? Here’s what you need to know before you start investing
The stock market saw a record number of IPOs last year. And 2021 is looking just as strong. Here’s what needs to happen for a company to go public.
Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
If you want to know what a K-shaped recovery feels like for working Americans, start with Page Benjamin.
As an unemployed single mother of two young children, Paige Benjamin has no emergency savings to fall back on and can’t fathom starting to invest at this stage of her life.
“I’m just trying to survive,” she says.
Benjamin, 34, who lives in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, is an Army veteran and worked as a full-time associate at Walmart last year, making $11.50 an hour. Her hours were reduced once the pandemic hit. Then in the fall, she was forced to leave work and file for unemployment because she couldn’t afford child care when her kids were doing remote learning.
Money has been tight and she’s struggled to pay bills. Her internet has been cut off multiple times this year, a big issue for virtual schooling. Now she’s worried that her electricity could get shut off at a moment’s notice.
“Investing seems so far gone from what I can actually do,” says Benjamin, who is Black. “It’s been so hard to get help for the people who really need it. You can’t build wealth.”
But you wouldn’t get a sense of these struggles by looking at today’s stock market.
