How Did You Learn About Money??

[FinanceDude]

I learned how by working at the Foundation at the University I attended, by hanging around the Foundation accountant.......

 

[Ponks]

Mostly self taught myself. Browsing the internet, reading books, and participating in forums such as this.

Ponks

 

[MooreBonds]

Hearing my paternal grandparents bring up the subject quite often on random topics, combined with an affinity for numbers (reading the Wall Street Journal in the morning with my dad when I was in kindergarden..sure, I didn't grasp many of the concepts, but I knew enough to tell him to buy IBM. Too bad he didn't listen to me. ) Add in a helping of being a bit of a money hoarder, and you arrive at someone who has a desire to learn about money, and how to grow it.

 

[mathjak107]

i learned by not having any

 

[shorttimer]

subscribed to Money magazine and read it from cover to cover for years.
Read the financial section of the paper every Sunday and the special money section every Monday for years.
Took books out of the library like Bernstein and read.

And I still learn new things.

 

[Outtahere]

Books, newspapers, internet and I'm still learning.

 

[brewer12345]

Self taught.

 

[donheff]

Self taught shortly before ER and continuing - thanks teachers

We were only able to accumulate a substantial nest egg because of an OK adviser (who also made a few bucks off of us, but I don't begrudge her any of it -- we were clueless). And a nice Fed pension helped. Without the advent of the Internet I think I would still be in the clutches of advisers.

 

[FinanceDude]

We were only able to accumulate a substantial nest egg because of an OK adviser (who also made a few bucks off of us, but I don't begrudge her any of it -- we were clueless). And a nice Fed pension helped. Without the advent of the Internet I think I would still be in the clutches of advisers.

Your paragraph above I find pretty funny...........

 

[youbet]

And a nice Fed pension helped.

Don, you are the master of understatement!

I tend to categorize my fellow ER types into three groups:

Big pension at least equal to your ongoing, inflation adjusted, subsistence ER budget. That means the least amount of pressure on your investment performance.

Medium pension that partially convers your subsistence ER budget. You need some investment income, but even marginally successful, conservative investment perfomance will be OK.

No pension and minimal SS. You need the portfolio to do at least as well as the overall market over time as you told Firecalc it would do or you're in financial trouble. The pressure is on!

I'm in the middle category. I envy the folks with the big pensions whose investment success, or lack of success, only determines the amount of "extras" they have. My hat is off to the folks in the no pension category as that's a level of pressure I'd have to learn to live with.

BTW, I realize that an all portfolio person with a huge portfolio and low budget can go conservative and be investment-stress free too, or just buy an annuity. But I don't know many with that kind of money.....

 

[BarbaraAnne]

I came across a book by Venita VanCaspel, a financial planner, just as I started earning commissions for selling large computers in the very early 1980's. I went to one of her seminars and she talked about a concept called "mutual funds" which was new to me.

I was so impressed with her book that DH and I decided to follow her advice and started investing in mutual funds and the in the stock market with my commissions. We lived way below our means and my company paid for my car and our vacations (those were the days! ). We lived off of DH's income and invested the rest.

I read everything I could on personal finance and investing and after leaving my company went through all of the coursework to become a CFP. I never planned to practice, just to learn the necessary information to help our family and friends. It was extremely valuable!

 

[FinanceDude]

I came across a book by Venita VanCaspel, a financial planner, just as I started earning commissions for selling large computers in the very early 1980's. I went to one of her seminars and she talked about a concept called "mutual funds" which was new to me.

I was so impressed with her book that DH and I decided to follow her advice and started investing in mutual funds and the in the stock market with my commissions. We lived way below our means and my company paid for my car and our vacations (those were the days! ). We lived off of DH's income and invested the rest.

I read everything I could on personal finance and investing and after leaving my company went through all of the coursework to become a CFP. I never planned to practice, just to learn the necessary information to help our family and friends. It was extremely valuable!

Now THAT is a great story............

Thanks for sharing it..........

 

[Dawg52]

What little I know has been self taught. Gladly accepting pointers here.

 

[rs0460a]

BTW, I realize that an all portfolio person with a huge portfolio and low budget can go conservative and be investment-stress free too, or just buy an annuity. But I don't know many with that kind of money.....

- Well...

 

[Lusitan]

I was pretty stupid with money until about a year after I graduated from college. When I got engaged my wife and I started saving to pay for our wedding, and that goal spurred me to learn more about LBYM, saving, and investing. The old Motley Fool LBYM board, when it was free, was helpful, and I picked up many book recommendations from others.

Now I have a pretty good understanding of the basics but I am glad to have found this community - it's a great way to learn more about investing for ER and get a few laughs in when I feel like taking a break from work.

 

[Zathras]

Monopoly (why I always ended up with Baltic I will never know)
I love numbers, so that helped out. And I learn a lot from books and from the experience of others here (thank you all).

 

[OkieTexan]

Mostly by trial and error! I like the post that said "By not having any!" I can relate to that, too!

At age 25, my father died and his employer-provided life insurance policy paid off to me. I put the money ($5K) in a passbook savings account. I asked my step-father for a suggestion about how to best utilize that money. He said, "Don't ever spend it." Since then, he has been my financial mentor. Considering his successes, I have been fortunate indeed to have a good frienship with him for 30+ years.

I have also been fortunate to have found a good financial planner. We have worked together for twelve years now. He still manages about 60% of my portfolio. I do the rest myself. I have met some really crummy FPs over the years. Some were hard to get rid of, too! But, I have stuck with this one guy because the results have been worth it.

At age 27, I went to work for a company that had no pension plan. I knew that if retirement was going to be in my long-term future (at any age) I would have to save the money and rely on investments to increase its value. I set up a 2-pronged plan. One side is tax-deferred; the other is taxable. I have not changed the basic strategy for all these years. It has worked well.

The rest has been trial and error. I have tried all kinds of financial instruments to make money. I have had CDs with 15% interest rates. When stocks were flat, I tried bonds, bond funds, and tax-free munis. But I always went back to equities. It has been the best choice for the long haul.

I am in the third category (no pension, minimum SS). While the risk tolerance caused some sleepless nights in 2002, I have adjusted to the idea that risk is necessary to get workable results. FireCalc was pretty kind to me; but I still understand that funding a retirement that could last 30+ years is a formidable task.

I still have a lot to learn.........

 

[unclemick]

Junior high school:

A relative of my father (aka the Swedish maid) died and left him enough money in mutual funds to buy a new house in the city with paved streets and sidewalks. Since maids made a lot less than log train mechanics - curiousity started at the Public Library - Handbook of Mutual Funds or something like that. After college - I proceded to make every investment mistake in the book - while reading a lot.

I haven't bought commodities yet - maybe some PCRIX lies in the future.

heh heh heh

P.S. - the house 1957, I started investing 1966 - a tad before index funds.

 

[simple girl]

Started out by reading "Your Money or Your Life". This helped set our priorities about what was most important in our lives...TIME together to appreciate all that life has to offer. Then, set on the goal to become financially independent. I knew nothing about investing. Started by getting book after book out of the library. Also surfed the net extensively. Learned quite a bit on the Morningstar site. And now I'm learning more and more through all of you on this site!

Learning about finances kinda feels like learning yoga. You are always a student, always learning...you try not compare yourself to others, rather grow within yourself to get better and better as you "practice" the poses

Namaste!

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I tend to categorize my fellow ER types into three groups:

That's a very good characterization I hadn't thought too much about in that way.

Except that we have several friends who live off double military or govt-pensions. By conventional standards they have been in a lower economic bracket all of our pre-FIRE lives. Happily, this is something of little importance to any of us.

Now they are retired at age 50 and 52 with a lifetime, COLA income that I could only dream about. The only financial difference between us economically after I FIRE will probably be our fancier house and nice estate when we die. They are quite naive about investing, though they are frugal, and this is fine in their situation.

Pensions are powerful. And your comments are insightful: the stakes for becoming financially sophisticated and cautious can be much greater without a pension to fall back on.

 

[justin]

Mostly self-taught. Formal schooling also helped (spreadsheets, economics, optimization, statistics, time value of money, inflation, business law, real estate law, consumer law, etc.). This forum has helped immensely. Being brought up in a family focused on LBYM, saving and investing may have been the ultimate reason I'm so focused on FIRE today.

 

[Donzo]

In the early 80s when I got my "career" job I was offered the 401K with match for the first 6%! I started studying the options offered for investment in the 401K and did not stop there. Started auto investing in a couple mutual funds in 84 and was hooked.
Reading Your money or your life in 92 put what I was feeling in print and helped me focus. My saving and investing became much more "hardcore" after that book. I have 2 copies and loan them out often to folks that ask me about leaving work and investing.

 

[Sam]

I learned by starting at the bottom, the very bottom, and not wanting to stay there. The circumstances make it easy for me. My problems now is to transfer the knowledge to my kids. It's such a hard job. They have no idea what poor is, let alone poverty.

OTOH, a few of my friends and aquaintances started out with me in the exact same conditions, do quite well today, but still have no idea what LBYM is. A few of those slowly realize now that they will have to work forever unless they begin to change immediately. At almost 50, it's a little late, but definitely better than never.

 

[HelpMeRhonda]

I'm surprised more people here don't reference the The Millionaire Next Door book. It is a real study of LBYM.

 

[justin]

I'm surprised more people here don't reference the The Millionaire Next Door book. It is a real study of LBYM.

By the time I read it, everything in the book was an exercise in "stating the obvious". Most millionaires live in simple houses and drive simple cars. When you spend money on status symbols to keep up w/ the joneses, you have less money available to make you more money. And the expensive "stuff" costs you more every month to maintain.

In other words, I could have a million in the bank and BE rich, or spend a million on status symbols and LOOK rich (but really be broke).