First of all, what is my goal? Most people have a goal le having a million dollars when they retire. For me, that didn’t make sense because I am already retired. But for most people it means that people are looking at a time when they no longer have an income, they want a nest egg to rely on. But I have already done that in the 401K that my company provided, and I turned that over to a financial advisor who has worked out a plan for us, including a cash holding as emergency funds, based on our expenses each month. It has some bonds, and ETFs and it continues to grow at about 12% each year, which is respectable. I don’t really take much out of it except that one account has a requirement to be emptied in 10 years, so we take a little each year to avoid a big tax bill on it.
So, I am not trying to work toward the same goals that most people have. My goal is more to leave some money for each of my 5 kids to help them along, and we have grandchildren as well, nt to mention great grandchildren. So, my goals are to leave money, rather than earn money.
But that is an overall life plan. When I decided to start in the stock market, it was really because it fascinated me. I didn’t know how it worked, and I wanted to learn. I first became interested in it when I was 30. Things were much harder back then. Not only did you have to pay someone to acquire the stocks for you, but you also had to buy a minimum of 1000 shares.
That’s why they said, “You have to have money to make money.”
I learned about that when I was 30. There was a company whose stock had just dropped way down. I think it was about 2 dollars. The company was in the same field as ours. They had also just appointed a new CEO. I knew her, well, I knew of her. I just knew that the company would turn around.
I figured I could get 100 dollars and buy 50 shares and do good when the stock turned around. But the fees and the minimums meant that it was too rich for my blood.
lIt hurt even more as I watched the stock go up to 21 dollars in about 3 months. So, as I was out of my league, thinking I could do something in stocks. I never lost my fascination with it.
Things are so much better now. First, many brokers do no fee trades, and you can buy just one share if you want to. In fact, on some sites you can even buy a partial stock, so you can buy a half a share or a quarter share if you need to.
So, when I found out that you could do that, I knew that I was destined to own stocks.
But I didn’t know about it until I was retired. Day late, and a dollar short!
Anyway, now that I have found out about it, I am excited. I’m not trying to build a huge financial empire. I’m looking at it as an experiment, a learning experience maybe as a hobby. I don’t need to make money, but I don’t want to lose money either.
So my goal is to find out about the stock market and how it works. But I found something else special. I spent a lot of time in corporate America. But as a retired person, I was out of that world. In the study of the stock market, I got to dig into the corporate world some more. It’s a bonus!
