Your first big break?

[street]

^ lol!

[unclemick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Car-Guy The date was July 1st, 1970. (Draft Lottery) The luck of the draw most likely kept me from going to Vietnam... It was probably the major game changer for me and the rest of my life and it was totally out of my control. My other breaks, I made for myself, for the most part.

1966. 1-A, Passed my physical waiting for the word when I got a call from Boeing. II - A and a career in the Space Program.

heh heh heh -

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Being born. It's everyone's first big break!

-BB

[foxfirev5]

Strong family, great wife ( a lttle HM but it keeps me on my toes), good health. What can beat that ? Of course it's easy to dismiss money once you've got enough. Big breaks - not so much.

Simply plodding along and gratefully accepting opportunities and fortunes as they occur.

[Beldar]

I've led a Rodney Dangerfield sort of life, no "Big" Breaks or respect, to be quite honest.

But if I stretch it, I could say being awarded an ROTC scholarship back in the 70s allowed be to attend college and earn a degree. My parents weren't well-off so this was the only way to gain entry. Otherwise, I might have ended up like many of my contemporaries at the time, clerking at a department store or low skill labor ( I'm not knocking that by any means ).


_B

[aja8888]

Break No.1 - Being smart enough to leave home to be on my own at 17 to be away from alcoholic parents.

Break No. 2 - After four years of active military duty during the 1960's, getting the G.I. Bill to go to college on ($222/month!).

No more "breaks" after that - Just hard work, dedication to living right, and saving enough to retire on (but not early).

[travelover]

I've never gotten a break in my life. I worked hard to be born a white American male of above average height, to a middle class couple adjacent to a well to do suburb with excellent schools. I don't much sympathy for anyone who did a lousy job of picking their parents and grandparents.

[brucethebroker]

Pulling a high number in the draft lottery (very early 70's). If I never get lucky again...

[Scuba]

My first big break was being awarded a full tuition, room & board scholarship for four years of college. Had I not gotten that, I would probably have had to go to community college and live at home for 2 more years, and who knows what direction my life may have taken.

[HFWR]

Still waiting...

[kcowan]

My grade 8 teacher motivated me and I became a A student after 7 years of Cs. That resulted in streaming into the brainy group where I had real competition and ended up with the prize for highest math marks in the school upon graduation.

Got accepted in the air force reserve that help pay for university. Earned a Ford Foundation Fellowship for graduate work. Went back and thanked the Grade 8 teacher after getting my Masters. (Also no wars so no call-up.)

[Lukeee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcowan My grade 8 teacher motivated me and I became a A student after 7 years of Cs. That resulted in streaming into the brainy group where I had real competition and ended up with the prize for highest math marks in the school upon graduation. Got accepted in the air force reserve that help pay for university. Earned a Ford Foundation Fellowship for graduate work. Went back and thanked the Grade 8 teacher after getting my Masters. (Also no wars so no call-up.)

What was the defining thing(s) the teacher did that made you do the 180 degree turn?

[pb4uski]

No particularly big breaks, but some smaller ones.

Worked for family business as all around handyman the last two years of high school and learned to do a lot of different things... but more importantly it gave me confidence that if I put my mind to doing something that I could figure out how to do things.

I vividly recall a conversation with dad where I said that I was thinking of not attending college and becoming a mechanic since I sort of liked swinging wrenches... he make it crystal clear that his son was not going to be a grease-monkey and that I needed to rethink my plans.

A summer job between my freshman and sophmore college years where I had to work hard and sweat my a$$ off for minimum wages made me appreciate the opportunity that I had to attend college... from then on I was Dean's List but my bad first year caused me to fall short of graduating with honors by 0.0025.

My parents having the ability to pay for my tuition and room and board so I graduated college debt-free.... I has a small stipend for books and living expenses the first year but funded those on my own for the last 3 years.

My first review as a full-time employee... managing partner told me that they though that I was a smart young guy but that I wasn't applying myself worth a lick and that in 6 months they would either promote me or kick my a$$ out the door. I was having a great time and partyng a lot... that talk was the kick in the a$$ that I needed... I was promoted 4 months later...... As an aside, I later left the firm on good terms and about 8 years later that same managing partner joined the board of directors of my then-current employer.

Meeting up with DW at our 5th HS class reunion

Learning to "pay myself first" and save and invest in equities.

A couple bad experiences with debt in my early 20s that took a while to work myself out of... taught me to avoid credit card debt early and it has been a big benefit to our finances.

[nash031]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgtest What was YOUR big break?

First big financial gain was purchase and sale of my first house. $0 down VA loan, probably put about $30,000 into it in mortgage PITI, but took away more than $60,000 after the sale two years later. Just under 50% ROI year over year. Not bad. (That said, that money went straight to a downpayment on the next house where I lost most of that gain, so over 4 years between two properties I broke even.) My real first break would've been taking that $60,000 and investing it in AAPL... thought about it, then didn't.

Similarly, being able to buy our current home in 2011 when the market was near bottom, and now having sold it to move is going to be another good financial move assuming we weather whatever impending real estate doom is coming.

The seminal financial wake up moment, as I've mentioned before, was my father's diagnosis with cancer two years after he retired. He died 4.5 years after retirement. I'm not working until I'm 77. Savings rate went from 15% to more than 50%, and I'm now in a situation where I expect to be FI in less than a year (depending on our new mortgage payment!).

[pb4uski]

Actually, now that I think of it there was one big break... sort of.... when I was in my early 40s the industry that I was working in was subject of a big accounting issue... this issue first broke during the year that our Chairman & CEO was the president of an industry group.... since I was the company's chief accountant he dragged me into it to help... I ended up serving on an AICPA Task Force that developed accounting standards for the issue for a few years as a result was then asked to serve on a few different industry committees in my field... when I later decided to leave the company I ended up working for one of my colleagues on that AICPA Task Force.

If that issue had broke at a different time then I would not have been dragged into it and my path would probably have been very different.

[Jerry1]

Plenty of breaks along the way, but since this is a financial focused forum, I’ll go with the thing that did me the most good financially and allowed me to retire early. Through a chain of events, I got to the level of director at our company. There’s a very significant difference between being a manager and making it to director. My break was that as a manager, my boss, a director, was chosen to head up another project in the company and they allowed the position to be back filled. While I was not the VP’s first choice, we had a good relationship and his first choice, someone he knew from outside the company, declined. After that, I got the offer and was not too proud to take it. It worked out great financially and I enjoyed the experience even though I’ve never been able to say that I “loved” my job.

[sengsational]

I already posted the 'life big break', but from a financial transaction perspective, I got lucky with houses. My first house, I bought when single, so picked a rough but promising neighborhood with a 15 minute commute to midtown Atlanta, where I worked. Soft market when I moved, so rented it. The neighborhood transformed and I sold for over twice what I paid. Those proceeds funded 529 accounts.


The other lucky break started as a compassion effort... bought a house in a 55+ community from my aunt, who was about to default on her mortgages. She lived there a while paying whatever she could afford, and way below market rent. She went to assisted living and I rented out that house. A court case changed the neighborhood so kids could live there. Great school district, so again, house doubled in value and I sold.



Like my dad used to say, I'd rather be lucky than good, lol!

[Fedup]

First big break was bought a large house in Silicon Valley and it doubled within a year. We couldn’t believe our luck. We never had to pinch pennies after that, lol.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover I don't much sympathy for anyone who did a lousy job of picking their parents and grandparents.

Next time around I'll try to do a better job of picking!

[calmloki]

Picked strawberries and beans and sweated and made pocket change but didn't really learn anything. My parents wanted to raise Hereford cattle and kids in the country; Hudspeth Land and Livestock had a herd auction and the folks borrowed the $115 I had earned to add to the purse for auction time. I got a calf, which grew. Started going out with them to potential ranches and that took. I became a property dreamer and schemer. Visiting places that were way outside our families ability to buy opened my eyes - my big break was to be opened to dreaming about how to accomplish something.