If you live in the UK, did you buy petrol last week?

If so, then thank you. A very small fraction of your payment accrued directly to me. I own a small piece of the oil company that either traded, supplied or drilled the fuel (or all three). If you purchased from a supermarket, then an additional fraction from the retail sale would also flow through to me. And if you happened to buy a chocolate bar as well, there’s a very good chance that a further fraction also came directly to me.

Of course, there was nothing special about you, or the place you bought the fuel that day. The customer before and after you also sent a fraction of their payment my way. As did every other customer that moment in all the fuel outlets around the country.

All the companies involved in that transaction are both publicly listed and dividend paying. I own a small piece of every major company in the UK and US through index funds. There’s a direct line between the dividend payment I receive at the end of the financial year and the payment you made last week.

Of course, the amount coming to me from your transaction is very small, probably less than 0.000000001p. But, crucially, it’s not zero. It’s a positive number. And if you add up enough positive numbers, then eventually you get a large one.

I’m a practising capitalist, but also a lazy one. I’ve been invested in large public companies for decades through regular contributions to index tracker funds. You don’t have to be clever, or insightful, or really any skill at all. You just have to show up to the market with money and keep it there.

To people who don’t intentionally invest, the stock market probably seems like a mystery. But it doesn’t have to be. You can buy the whole market in one transaction, and then start benefiting from those fractional payments that occur continuously throughout the economy 24/7.

Investing is straightforward.