With an estimated net worth of around $435 billion as of Jan. 15, Elon Musk is far and away the world’s richest person. But these days, he’s getting more attention in his role as an advisor to president-elect Donald Trump. This mainly involves Musk’s position as co-chair of the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE — a nod to dogecoin, Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency.
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As PBS reported, DOGE is not an official government agency, though it aims to drastically reduce the federal government’s budget. Musk initially said the organization would be able to trim $2 trillion from the budget — a figure that raised more than a few eyebrows in the nation’s capital. However, the Tesla CEO later backtracked on that goal and called it a “best-case outcome,” NBC reported.
The jury is still out on how effective Musk will be as a presidential advisor. However, he has clearly been effective at amassing wealth — so much so that he’s still the world’s richest person even after his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), has seen its value sink by about 70% since Musk purchased it in 2022.
Here are three examples of sensible investment advice Musk has shared through the years.
This sounds like an obvious piece of advice, but many investors still ignore it in their quest to chase high-flying stocks whose companies lack sound business fundamentals.
“The reason companies exist is to make goods and services, ideally great goods and services,” Musk said during a 2023 earnings call with Tesla shareholders. “That’s why you should buy stock in a company that makes good products. It’s common sense, actually.”
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Musk tends to hold on to his investments “for the long haul,” according to a blog on the IG website. That’s the case even when a company faces short-term challenges.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company,” Musk once said — especially if that company has a proven track record of success and a strong outlook for the future.
That bit of advice doesn’t mean you should never sell, though. As Musk tweeted in 2022, you should “only sell if you think their products and services are trending worse.”
Given the stock market’s rapid rise over the past several years, investors might think it will stay on a steep upward trajectory forever. Just look at the S&P 500. Since hitting a low of 2,280.52 in March 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the index has more than doubled to close at $5,827.04 as pf Jan. 10, 2025.
