Replies to post #43789 on NEWBIES BOARD

[rut roh]

Evening chadrabad, it sounds like you have your shit together to only be 21.

I like your thinking and your stock selection. My only suggestion would be to invest in 3 or 4 stocks to diversify.

I'm going to give you some background information on myself so you will know where I'm coming from. I have the IQ of an old rusty hammer, but I don't mind working hard and getting dirty.

When I was your age, in the early 1980's I was contracting drywall. We were doing a job for an older gentleman. He was one of those guys that drove an older truck, and would wear a pair of worn out work boots....but you knew he had money.

One day after I got to know him a little, I asked him "old man, how did you make all your money?" He went on to tell me how he started working for Exxon when he was younger. He would buy Exxon stock and buy rental property with any extra cash he had.

That set me on a path of where I'm at today. I bought my first two story house and put a kitchen upstairs. Closed the inside stairwell off and added outside stairs to make an apartment to rent out that covered most of my mortgage. That was the start of me buying rental property.

After that, every time I saved up 4 or 5 thousand, I would go to my broker and buy all Exxon and nothing else. After several years, between splits and dividends, I had a sizable amount of shares.

That Exxon stock is the reason I could stop working when I was 42. My retirement lasted about 1 month. I'm the type of person that can never actually retire, my brain is always hustling to make a buck. I'll work till I'm 90, if I live that long.

Now for the reason I'm telling you this story. I'm very lucky that old man had bought Exxon stock. If he had been buying Enron stock, I would probably not be on here telling you this story.

Now, I'm the old man that owns Exxon mobile stock and rentals.
Now that I think about it, he must of had the IQ of a hammer also. :-)

There must be something to that quote, "if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough"..... and very lucky.

If you're in the service, rentals are probably not for you. You never know when you might be stationed somewhere else. It sounds like you're on your way to a good future though.

You should not listen to me anyway, I'm just a lucky son of a b....

[Garyst]

Nice. If there is one thing I would encourage it is starting out with a 401k early on in life and keep it up thru all the years. I've made some bad moves here and there in life as we all do but the one thing I am very happy with is that I started mine also at age 22 with my 1st job and never changed it, never pulled out on the market crashes but kept things steady and added continuously along the way on every paycheck. If you do it from the start you'll never miss that money they take out pre tax as you never had it. 27 years later, it is amazing to look and see how it has grown. I'm also in the TSP. Every time someone young and new starts out at my work I always give them this lecture to start it right away :)