Stocks - ing stuffers - investing for fun

 Look investing/STOCKS can be fun/exciting/scary/to big/ whatever adjective you want to add.  Look most people that invest are not expects and are self thought.  I am on of those. Have I done well Yes. I have done poorly Yes.  Even the experts don't seem like experts most of the time.

I think it was around 2008 I really started to seriously invest which happened to be when I actually had more then a couple of pennies to invest. Which was probably around 10 thousand or so.  That was a lot of money for me. I did what everyone should do listen so some random advise for a friend. Wait no you shouldn't. Really you shouldn't.  Anyway he came over to my cube at work, because that is the best place for investing advice and said hey did you hear VISA is going to IPO soon. I was like WOW that is cool I know what Visa is and I work at a company that works closely with visa. So I put all my 10k into the IPO. Hindsight it was a good investment Visa is a very solid company and in 2008 the economy wasn't the best so it by pure luck ended up being a very good investment.  I wish I could tell you I've kept that money in for the entire time and have $189,090, but I don't.  I haven't figured out how much I've actually made, but I know I've cashed out some and reinvest in other things or paid for life with it.  The point of this story is that every dog has his day and a broken clock is right at least 2 times a day.  Just because I got lucky and made a good investment doesn't mean I was a genius or any better then the next person. My failures/missed opportunities are much bigger then any victories I've had.  10 years ago I found a conversation with a friend saying I was going to invest some of my Visa stock into in either Apple or Amazon. Spoilers I picked Apple and it was gone up and amazing 964.16% in the same time Amazon has gone up 1714.98%. As you can see even in victory I had a defeat. Investing in stocks will always leave you with the what could of been feeling. This is the same if you trying to play the buy the highs and sell the lows game. 😋

To be completely open here is a list of Stocks/Investments I've got right.

• Visa 14+ years
  
• Apple 10+ years
  
• Tesla 1 year
  
• Google 10+ years
  
• Disney - 1 year
• VTSAX - 10 years
  

Here is a list of stocks I bought and sold before any kind of income or lost money on 

• At&t - over 15 years ago
  
• BRK.B - over 14 years ago
• Netflix - over 10 years ago - made like $100 on there big dip
  
• Lulumon - over 15 years ago

 

As you can see I hit big in some places and missed in so much more.  I've never invest a lot of money I need that money to live life at that point in time.  Example would be Tesla I invested in Tesla because of there market position and diversification of the company. But I wasn't sold on the hype of company and the CEO seemed to be causing the company harm. So I invest 1 in one share. Now that one share has done well, but it crashing or taking off wasn't going to change anything. 

Most of my investing funds are from the initial 10k I started with and I follow the boglesheads of buy and hold.  Really I stared with Visa and Apple and only sold to diversify.  Any addition funds I add to my portfolio all goes into the index funds.  When I get dividends I usually put those into a stock.

Remember there is a lot to investing and you can get very deep into it.  You will not get rich doing it. Only the lucky or the once in a generation gets wealth from picking stocks.  If you have the itch or just like have a little fun. Do it, but set a max you will invest into stock like I did. My initial 10k was my max the rest doing into index funds or savings. 

Some quick stats from yahoo finance in 2018 the richest 1% owns 50% of American stocks. From Money.com the riches 10% owns 84% of all stocks.  The best quote I've read is "When you are buying a stock someone else is selling it, and when you are selling a stock someone else is buying it." - Unknown So based on the stats it is a good bet that someone wealthier than you is buying when you are selling and selling when you are buying.  This can be fun enjoy and learn.  Nothing is wrong if you are learning and improving.  If you have the itch scrach it and maybe you will make some money or have something to talk about with you friend on the time you almost became rich.