Why I Like to Invest.

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Why I like to Invest:

Forgive me, I’m new to the blogging game. To be completely honest, the only reasons why I started this blog in the first place is because of my new-found obsession with passive income.

I’ve recently found out that blogging is not true passive income. I know, I’ve only just started. But even ignoring the setup process, I have to keep up with the damn thing. I need to post blogs regularly, promote on Twitter, make sure I have my SEO in order. Keywords and such.

**To be a little more honest, I’m not entirely sure how the whole SEO thing works.

My Background

A little bit of background on me. I grew up in a small town in New Jersey. About 20 miles from New York City. REALLY wealthy area. My parents are both college grad professionals. Both make over six figures.

As some of you know, that doesn’t mean much in some areas. Especially when property taxes are $24k a year and you want to help 3 kids get through college.

I asked them why they lived in such an expensive area, they mentioned something about the school system being good. Not sure if it was that great of a school, but I had a blast.

I did okay in school, 3.2 GPA high school AND college (no extra credit for consistency) – and I played lacrosse. Yep, I’m white.

I was an Eagle Scout and was on our town ambulance corps. Not a terrible resume, but I kind of fell into all of that. Believe it or not, it wasn’t looked upon as being nerdy to be involved in volunteer work.

**Maybe that’s what my parents paid all the property taxes for. Not the “school system” but the culture.

Financial Beginnings

Anyway, went to college, and majored in Business Administration. Fell into that too. I was thinking about History, but my Dad kept sending me articles like “Top 10 least profitable majors.” Guess what major kept popping up? (BTW – thanks, Dad)

So I figured if I was going to do business, I might as well make money after getting out (I ended up graduating with around $80k in student loans.)

A professor of mine told us that the only concentrations that made real money were Accounting, Finance, and Economics.

Accounting wasn’t for me. It didn’t seem like you were making money, just keeping track of the money other people made. I was not and still am not an organized person, so that was not for me.

I was too dumb to see what I could use an Econ degree for. At the time, I thought it was all theory. Definitely not trying to be an academic.

**Confession, I thought most of my professors followed the mantra of “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” This didn’t change until one of my finance professors donated $10 million for a building.

Start of my Career

Anyway, met a kid who got me a job on Wall Street. 40 Wall to be exact. For you New Yorkers, that’s the Trump Building.

That was interesting to say the least. We basically sold money. My boss was 28 years old making $80,000 a month. I know this because he showed us his paychecks as “motivation.”

It was slimy and dirty, and ultimately wasn’t for me. I ended up working in the finance department of a tech company down the street by the World Trade Center. Best 3 years of my professional career.

And then in May of this year, out of the blue, I got a message on Linkedin.

“Would you like to work for Google? You’d have to move to Chicago.

And so here I am, after an extensive interview process and a lot of luck. I’m now a Chicago resident, making $100k more than I was making in New York, and at the best company in the world to work for.

Why I like Investing

This whole story gets me to my main point: why I like to invest.

Compound interest fascinates me. Someone told me Einstein called it “the 8th wonder of the world.” I have not and don’t plan on fact checking that.

From my first “Finance 101” course, I was dumbstruck by the fact that money could grow like a tree. We did these TVM (time value of money) exercises in class and I was blown away.

I was fascinated with the fact that if you put $100 into an investment earning 10% for 30 years, you’d have $1,744.94.

The most important part of the above equation is the 30 years. I’m lucky I have 30 years, a lot of people don’t.

However, A lot of people my age don’t have the $100 to invest. Until recently, that was me. I got lucky. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to max out my 401K and Roth IRA this year. I also started a taxable account, primarily focused on a dividend growth strategy.

Anyway, that’s why I like to invest. It fascinates me.

I’m going to stick with this blogging thing. I’ll try to stop writing blogs a thousand other people have written. I’m going to write when I have something to say.

Some people on twitter have been overly kind to me joining the finance blog community. Or, they’ve given me some good advice. I want to give them a shout-out.

Matthew Freeman – @AllAboutTheDivi

allaboutthedividends.wordpress.com

Financial Panther – @financialpanthe

financialpanther.com

A Dime Saved – @adimesaved

adimesaved.com

Anyway, that’s it for me. Goodnight.