Investing (aboard?)

E

El and Bill

New member
When I was 26 years old, my folks were transferred and sold their house. Shortly after they were visiting us. Dad said, "Son, we have extra money from the house sale. We're going to give you $10,000 to do whatever you want. A year from today, you'll give us back the $10,000."

That was a fortune in those days (more than our annual income) and El and I were kids. What to do with $10K? Well, we decided to invest it, whatever 'invest' meant. So we read books on investing and a week later we had the $10,000 'invested.' Oh, the mistakes we made in that year -- we quickly learned that investing is partly about understanding finances, but mostly about understanding yourself.

I spent lunch hours in the brokers office watching ticker tape displays. We spent evenings plotting stocks. We learned about our reaction to greed -- and to fear. We got some good advice from a friend --"Don't ever invest in anything you have to feed or fix." A year later, we gave back $10K to the folks and had some spare change left over for ourselves -- enough to keep on investing.

Three years later, Dad died of a sudden heart attack. Suddenly, there was insurance money to invest, budgets to keep, finances to control to help Mom make it financially. Then we truly understood Dad's wisdom -- we knew how to invest that money to sustain Mom -- that loaned $10K was the best investment Dad ever made.

When El and I were working and had kids home, El took care of our short term finances -- I did the longer investment stuff. Dumb! Recalling Dad's wisdom, as soon as we retired 21 years ago, El took over her share of the investing. And each of our kids were given a 'gift' for one year and they all understand investing.

El and I felt that a little competition would teach each of us more than solo investing. So, we kept a running tally of our percent gain (or loss) -- and remember, El is the aggressive one in life (you really understand yourself when you are managing your money!! She would race ahead and force me to be more aggressive just to keep in her dust. Then, when the market plunged (which it did the year after we retired), she would be 'forced' to be more conservative with me or she'd be dropping quickly below me. Well, she's beaten me almost every year in our competition and is way ahead cumulatively -- but we're both ahead because of this 'game.'

So you can work for money, or money can work for you. Old Growth Dave recently stated, "I am ready for a new chapter in my life and ideal cruising will be a part of it. Now I just have to figure out how to accomplish it and cut back on my 80+ hour work week." That triggered this thread.

Well working folks, most of you work at least 40 hours a week (and some 80). How many hours do you devote to investing some of that money you earn?

And, for most of you (without serious financial, health, or other such reasons) there is the opportunity to get "money working for you." El and I were teachers (and you know what teachers earn), so many of you could do it and plan for that "new chapter in my life and ideal cruising will be a part of it."

Many are probably doing it, and might want to share ideas.

What does this (investing (aboard)) have to do with boating on a C-Dory? For us, and perhaps many others, everything!
 
We have about 2,000 members on our Brat site. My wish for the year is that each of the 2,000 carefully read Bill's comments. Sure, there are many already there and don't need those wise words -- but as I look back, I wish my dad had started me investing when I was young, and that I had started our children when they were young.

Of course investing on my Navy pay of 21 dollars a month was a challenge.

Beautifully stated, Bill. And :lips for El

Dusty
 
I'll echo Dusty's comments. Good to hear from you shipmate! Wish I'd started earlier too. Not retired yet but working out of the house here isn't too hard. At least I don't have a commute and the worst traffic is a dog or a couple of cats passing me on the stairs down to the office. Am thinking of going into the used Honda Outboard Parts Business. Just waiting for El and Bill to send me some more engines, the one I got from them is pretty well stripped down. Probably the prime parts left are the Starter and the Tilt/Trim motor assembly, both of which are ready to ship!

I've got a broker looking out after our $ but I think I could do just as well myself. Working on the $econd Million here.

The first Million was too hard so we just skipped to the second one

Charlie
 
Like Bill and El, my wife and I are teachers...and have lived on modest salaries. As my Latin teacher in HS once told me, "It's a good life, but not a good way to make a living."

Our saving grace, financially, has been staying out of debt. The only debt we have ever carried has been our home mortgage. Moreover, we have always lived below our means, and put away savings.

So now, at age 65 and still working, we have enough in the bank to afford a C-Dory! Most importantly, we have a good life.
 
This is an interesting and useful thread.

My Dad retired in 1960 from the USMC as a SGM. He was one of the last enlisted pilots in the Corps and their financial "strategy" evolved around what the Marine Corp called "flight pay." In 1944 when he earned his wings, he and Mom wondered what to do with all this "gravy" he was getting as a pilot. They decided they'd just put-it-away because to spend it would probably raise them financially above their peers - and they really liked the group they ran with. Month after month, year after year they put the gravy away in various places, and over the long haul it worked for them. MORE IMPORTANT, it developed in them a degree of financial restraint, and the capacity to say "no." One of Dad's favorite sayings was that he couldn't tell me how to become wealthy, but he could give me a compass, and with it I might find financial independence.

I suppose "wealth" has to do with the bottomline of how much you're Worth; and lots of folks are driven, and some are worth a mountain of money. On the otherhand, financial independence has to do with both net worth and what you decide you need - to live the way you want to live. (Just how high on the financial hog does one Really need to be, eh?)

Jump a few decades forward. Casey was newly (re)married and found that he needed to impart some financial thoughts to his new spouse and a brand new (17 years old) son. Hmmm.... We came up with the "investment game." For a couple years we played it every six months.

We each took $10K psychic-dollars (which are notoriously nontaxable) and "invested" them wherever we wanted, but we had to track our results on a weekly spreadsheet. At the end of the game, the winner got $100 Real dollars. ...damn, two years and I never won my own game; but we won in the long run.

I still think it had something to do with that old "financial compass" idea Dad gave me. As has been said, financial management has as much (maybe more) to do with knowing who you are than the mechanics or tricks of the Market.

I'll be interested to hear how other's manage to get to their C-Dory Cruising Grounds (I had to bring this thread back to boating).

That 'ol compass works for a variety of things. (I'm tempted to say something here about autopilots - but I know Bill would jump on me for that...so I won't.)

Casey
C-Dory Naknek
...in windy Key West

Don't try to build a financial mountain by digging a financial pit.
 
I think the lesson that Bill's dad taught him is excellent. My kids are young enough that I still have time to impart that lesson on them. They're only 5 and 2 years old. I may have to wait a few years :)

My exposure to money was quite different. Working pretty close to full time since I was 14 years old, I learned early what a dollar cost me to earn. I spent money foolishly, but thankfully I always earned enough to keep myself above water. The greatest thing I learned from working at that age was that I didn't want to be stuck doing something I didn't like just to pay bills.

We were not a family of means by any stretch of the imagination and my parents didn't much believe in investing. They saved what little they could, but strictly in bank accounts and CDs. I had to learn about investing on my own, which to this day I still consider an ongoing learning experience.

Life has taught me that you make your own opportunities. Be it preparing yourself for exams, putting yourself in the right position for promotion, or finding and creating investment opportunities. I've forced myself to take risks (calculated risks) and I've been lucky. I've made some good investments that have paid me handsome returns. I live a quite comfortable life.

That brings me to another underlying theme of this message thread. In a Sheryl Crowe song she sings,
It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have.
Click to expand...

I have a comfortable life because I try to remind myself daily what I am thankful for. I have a wonderful family, two fantastic sons and a beautiful wife who lets me buy toys like a CD25 and wants to use it with me! What's not to like about that?

What keeps me going? Mild paranoia. I do not own my own business, instead I work for a medium size company and as such I always have this fear that I will be downsized or out-sourced. My goal is not to be rich but to be independent. I want to be able to wake up each morning and say to myself, "This wonderful life is not going away." The only way I see to have control is to be financially independent. So, on the one hand I am very content with my life but on the other I am in an ever vigilant state of looking for the next opportunity to arise and preparing myself financially to take advantage of it.

I'll end by saying that I hope to teach my sons about investing and independence because it is my sad belief that the U.S. economy will require more of it from them in the future and I want them to be prepared.

-Sarge/Carl
 
Excellent advise from all who have posted on this subject so far. I can find a little bit of myself in each post on this topic to date. My father rest his soul did not instruct me in investing but taught me the value of hard work. With hard work and the living below ones means attitude I have managed a comfortable life. If I had anything to add on investing it would revolve around what we chose to invest our resources in. I personally would have invested more of my time in the sweetness of time on the water with dad.He loved it and I enjoyed it to the fullest. I just wished there had been more of it.
 
My mother was the invester in our family and it was a full time job. She was a math major at Stanford University--back when not many ladies went to Stanford. She taught me to begin investing early in life. My wealthiest friend started buying real estate in 1950 with his lawn cutting money. He and his daughter's families live on a waterfront compound in Hawaii, and he ownes in excess of 20,000 apartment units. His daughters were brought in early in the game. I cannot say I was that smart, but I did begin saving when I was a teenager. I always put aside at least 10% of every paycheck from day one.

It is not where or how you invest, as much as getting into the habit of savng and investing. Certainly there are some plans which have higher returns, but many times the higher returns are higher risks.

The second thing which worked for us, is that I worked for Los Angeles County during my intern ship and residency--$50 a month--$200 a month--but those years count. Then I was at UCLA Med facaulity, eventually I was on the Administration of CSULB--and all of these had "Cal Pers"--so my pension longivity was based on years of service going back to when I was in the 20's--but the amount was based on a senior vice president's salary oat CSULB. For the 20 years of private practice I was incorporated and put aside the max the law would allow. Our cruising and early retirement ws financed by Calif. real estate appreciation. My uncle said "Buy on a Golf Coarse or on the water"--and he was correct. I suspect this would be hard to do today--but 40 to 50 years ago, waterfront property was relitatiely cheap.
 
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