My name is Nick. I am a self taught stock market investor. When my son, Nicholas Jr., was born I was motivated to learn how to make money in the market. My motivation was to learn how to invest, so that one day I could teach him how to. When I first started researching investing in stocks, I learned that Warren Buffett bought his first stock at 11 years old. I thought to myself, I wonder if I can teach Nick how to invest when he turns 8 or 9? This motivation fueled my passion for stocks. I have evolved from someone who had no clue what they were doing just 5 years ago, into a knowledgeable person who has done well managing my family’s 401K’s, after tax brokerage accounts, and custodial accounts. Investing has truly become my passion.
As a working professional father, I believe it is my job to show my kids how to create wealth. Being invested in the market is really one of the only ways to create long lasting wealth. A lot of people I encounter are afraid of stocks, because historically they’ve been told that stocks “are a good way to lose money”, stocks “are too hard, and “take too much time to learn”. I firmly reject these sentiments because if I can learn the market, anyone can. I also don’t see many African-American young professionals discussing the market. A lot of people focus on real estate, but not many of us are talking about stocks. Stocks have handily outperformed real estate over the last 100 years (10% vs. 3%). To me, it’s a no brainer on what to invest my money in. I also believe people in my community have been consumers for way too long. We are not participating in ownership of the companies that we routinely buy products from. We wear the latest Nike’s, buy our favorite cup of Starbucks regularly, and log-in to Instagram and Twitter daily. However, we don’t participate in the wealth creation that these companies make happen. Money is being made around us every single day! I hope this page inspires someone to wake up, open their eyes, and take advantage of it.
Since the day he was born, Amber and I have set aside $200 per month to invest for Nicholas. We use Stockpile to invest, because you can purchase partial shares and the commission is cheap. Our goal is to save $200/month for Nicholas, and gift it to him when he become a responsible adult (maybe when he’s 25 and engaged…otherwise he’ll blow all of his account at a bar with his friends in Vegas). With consistent contributions and the magic of compound interest, he should have around $250,000 at that age. If he takes the torch and continues, he should have about $1M by the time he’s 35. This will help give him freedom and peace of mind in whatever profession he chooses. Imagine having an account sizable enough to give you the “I don’t have to be here” mentality when walking into work. That is our goal for Nicholas. Please identify a plan for yourself or your children. $200/month is literally a random number I picked when he was born. You could choose to set aside $25, $50, or $100/month to save. Just save something!
I am a long term investor. When I buy a stock, I look for something that I will hold forever. I don’t trade in and out of stocks, because then you are treating the stock market like a casino. It’s kind of like a bar of soap – the more you handle it, the less you will have. When you gamble, the house usually wins. No one can predict what the market will do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or the next 5 years. However, over the long term you can reasonably predict that the market will appreciate faster than any other asset class over time. “Time in” the market matters, instead of “timing” the market. If you invest carefully in stocks over time, your kids will be more well off in the future than we were.
Please enjoy the blog! Hopefully you will find inspiration to save your “dollars” to fund your “dreams”. There is so much free information about stocks flowing on twitter. Follow these people on twitter to get your started! @jimcramer @reformedbroker @awealthofcs @michaelbatnick @petenajarian @fundstrat
Also, buy these books. Awesome reads to get you started!