Just curious ????

[DEC-1982]

Early eighties.

 

[38Chevy454]

Graduated college in 87 and started saving with the new job. Been in market pretty much 100% until past couple years when I became a bit more conservative. Still fairly aggressive with 70/30 target now. Only switched from 80+ equities end of last year.

 

[Souschef]

I bought my first stock, Claude Neon in 1956.It eventually became part of Whittaker and was spun off to another company.
My folks were very conservative and bought dividend paying stocks like National Gypsum and US Pipe & Foundry.
I got my stake by working overseas for 3 years and paying no income tax and saving my salary by living on per diem.
I was an aggressive investor, and am doing OK now. When I retired in 2009, I rolled my 401K into a fund that has quadrupled

 

[happy2bretired]

Early 80s

 

[gayl]

When I got my 1st job that covered rent + food, didn't drive until 26 because it was too expensive but I had a mutual fund!

Stopped 'trading' more than 5% of my portfolio last year when I came to an epiphany : indexes are boring but beat me 5 yrs out of 8.

 

[BrianB]

1978-1983: Employee Stock Purchase Plan at Radio Shack, where I worked part time in college. I was able to use those shares as a down payment on my first house purchase in 1988.

1984+: Company retirement plan with voluntary contributions, which morphed into a 401K plan about 1990.

I agree that surviving a few economic cycles gives a person more "stick-to-it-iveness". I remember coworkers cashing out in 1987 & 2002. I told them they were fools (and they called me the same!)

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Spring 1993, a relative newbie compared to most posting here. I also never got upset or all that happy either with the downs and ups of the market.

 

[athena53]

In 1972, when I was 19. I bought Republic Steel, which was the company where Dad worked at the time- probably 10 shares. The broker who treated me seriously and politely got rewarded when Dad opened up an account with him with significantly higher stakes.

In my first job we were given the opportunity to buy parent company stock with no commission and I was putting in 2% of my salary. Fortunately, it turned out to be a good investment. When I moved to NJ in 1978 I went with a broker who did her own research; she'd started out as a ballet major and ended up as a psychology major but was an avid chartist.

I got more serious about managing my investments in 2003. I'd remarried, DH and I were in a LCOL area with more $$ to save and a total of $300K in equity released from selling our respective houses in NJ (in addition to my previous savings). I also realized that retirement wasn't that far away. Up to then I'd been saving as much as I could and monitoring results in general but not actively weeding out the under-performers and re-balancing when necessary. The extra work paid off and I retired at age 61.

 

[kcowan]

1967 10% of earnings into company stock, priced at 15% below market price on July 1st or current whichever was lower. Only sold for down payments or to rebalance into other stocks.

 

[youbet]

An IDS (predecessor to Ameriprise) salesman pounded on our door in 1973 and talked me into buying some shares of their now long defunct New Dimensions fund. It did amazingly well over the next decade but they eventually combined it with another fund (I think it was called Growth) and I bailed out and used the profits for a nicer home.

While it's been a long time since I've done any business with IDS / Ameriprise, I am kinda thankful to that guy who originally stood on my chest in our living room and talked me into buying that aggressive fund with some of our CD money. It taught me a lesson. And the gal that replaced him as our rep was very educational during the quarterly kitchen table meetings she faithfully conducted.

I've been totally DIY with Schwab for decades now, but I don't know how things would have gone if a "salesman" hadn't dragged me into involvement with the markets. Clearly Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab weren't conducting themselves aggressively enough to drag me, kicking and screaming, in.

 

[Walt34]

I think it was mid 1990's. With my divorce in 1983-84 I had to start over pretty much from scratch and I didn't have anything left over to invest. We were finally getting stable and even had furniture in the living room! (I have a photo somewhere of DW sitting on the floor reading a book under a pole lamp.) So we finally started putting money into 457 and TSP accounts, me in a target date fund since I had no idea what else to do, and her in conservative TSP funds.

 

[jollystomper]

1979 with megacorp company stock. 1984 with 401K. 1988 with non-401K mutual funds. 1993 with individual stocks.

 

[Looking4Ward]

Somewhere around 2003.

 

[Maenad]

1997 - 401k with my first job.

 

[HF63]

I started working at a good company early 90's and came across Bob Brinker's program over the radio and got hook. Bob kept me fully invested during the 20000's dawn turn but some how the market has lost the lust that I had for it.

 

[Scrapr]

Wasn't really investing as i think I had a tiny bit in a stock mutual fund (Vanguard) a few shares in my neighbors company and a bit in money markets. This was right before the '87 crash. Since I did not have much in stocks it was not a big hit. I remember my GF freaking out. I was a bit nervous but held the course.

Got serius about investing when my boy was born and my company started throwing off some cash. That was '96. In 2000 I was a speaker at a conference in Denver when tech stocks started crashing. Wasn't much I could do as internet was in the early stages. So held on by default

Don't remember '03 much. Then the big one. We are a construction company so it was a double whammy. No work & investments were down. We spit balled it and did it day by day. Lower salary, stopped auto investments (company cash flow) and borrowed a little bit on the house LOC. A small inheritance also helped. Mrs Scrapr was unbelievable in doing more with less. We had bought a vacation house a few years before. I was adamant about selling it. She was adamant about not selling. I gave in...she made it work. (LOL)

 

[FrankiesGirl]

Started investing during the mid 90s (first 401k).

Didn't understand it until 2013 tho. Literally had no clue how investments or the market in general worked until then.

 

[Huston55]

I think it was mid 1990's. With my divorce in 1983-84 I had to start over pretty much from scratch and I didn't have anything left over to invest. We were finally getting stable and even had furniture in the living room! (I have a photo somewhere of DW sitting on the floor reading a book under a pole lamp.) So we finally started putting money into 457 and TSP accounts, me in a target date fund since I had no idea what else to do, and her in conservative TSP funds.

A bit off topic but, this reminds me of our (me & GF/DW) first apartment out of college. Our “coffee table” was a used Strohs beer case under a naugahyde covered piece of plywood. Ahhhh, the good old days!

 

[retire2020]

Since 1995. Was a bad boy! Played with margin, all in individual stocks, lost about 1M around 2001(still burning that loss), changed investment strategy to mutual funds in 2003 but never panicked and sold anything. Worked out well in the end and retired on 12/1/2016

 

[rkser]

In 1994 - With Fidelity Contra Fund

 

[Sue J]

Opened my first Vanguard acct (Roth IRA) in 2010. Up until then we only had CDs and savings accounts. I still like CDs and cash but I have learned to like mutual funds. DHs state pension funds were always invested in the markets and that was enough risk for us.

 

[GravitySucks]

Well. 1981 ? I lost a bundle chasing Philippine Long Distance Telephone on its way up. Turned out it was how Marcos was getting a payout while leaving for exile. Why then? Why that? Who knows?
1989 started on my 401k. All mutual funds almost all equities. That and some minor stock options was it.
2013 put most of the 401k in an IRA to play with even more MF and ETFs and living expenses.

 

[Walt34]

A bit off topic but, this reminds me of our (me & GF/DW) first apartment out of college. Our “coffee table” was a used Strohs beer case under a naugahyde covered piece of plywood. Ahhhh, the good old days!

Ah yes, I'm very familiar with the interior decor style we all used to call Early Poverty.

 

[jazz4cash]

Early 80's
Megacorp had company stock profit sharing which transitioned to 401k. I remember always being curious about "the market" and wondering about the DJIA (what's a point?) but no one anywhere in my extended family ever had any interest whatsoever. Mom had US Savings bonds.

 

[Asher Aion]

Early 1990's we bought some bonds the nice man at the bank advised. In 1999 we woke up and realized our net worth was very red (we did own a few businesses) and something had to change.
Today we are comfortable and I am able to fully retire when
I am ready.
Awesome.