Poll: when did you start investing in equities?

[CuppaJoe]

I started very gradually in 1972.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

Individual equities ? In a small way (4 digits) in the early 1980's. Seriously in 1993.

Mutual funds ? 1979.

 

[Hal3]

1978

Disney

 

[CuppaJoe]

Disney

One share? Were you a kid then? Would be interesting to hear about one-share purchases. I remember working with someone who did that; must have been the '80s.

 

[FIREd]

01/27/2000. Bought 1.4 shares of Vanguard 500 index fund. I paid $129.2 a share (it's now going for $80.82 a share but I don't own it anymore).

 

[oma]

1990 as soon I graduated from college and paid off my truck, I've been DCA ever since into mutual funds (Janus, Berger, Oakmark, Fidelity, Scudder, Baron, American Century, Vanguard families to name a few).

 

[2B]

I was investing in high school. One of my friends' had a custodial account and we shared investing in $2 to $5 stocks. We put together a contract for each trade where it was specified what we bought, how much each contributed, that we both had to agree to sell and that revenue was split.

We did our own version of fundamental analysis for each buy and talked about it repeatedly. I think I never had more than $500 in the market at any time. Fortunately or unfortunately, we made pretty good money but it was the late 60's - the era of go-go stocks.

I've been investing ever since. I built about a $6,000 portfolio while in college but gave about 3/4 of it back in 1974.

 

[Alan]

1993, in the company's 401(k). Before that I knew the stock market existed but retirement to me was going to be a company pension -that is the way it had always been in my and DW's limited experience.

 

[unclemick]

1966.

heh heh heh - out of college.

 

[retire@40]

80s. When I was a teenager, I opened a brokerage account with National Discount Brokers and placed my first order over the phone to buy some shares of IBM.

Many of my friends asked why I would "waste" my money doing that. Meanwhile they were buying video games. I tried to explain to them my goal was to build up enough investments so I could live off of them and retire early.

 

[Goonie]

I started back around '87 (IIRC), with a mutual fund with A.L. Williams. DCA'd for quite a while, then pulled it all out at some point in time and stuffed it into CD's. I did get back into mutual funds a little further down the road also, and am still in them.....'come h*ll or high water', of course at this point I'm seeing where a goggles & snorkel may come in handy.

 

[old woman]

Mine was 1986. I was divorced in 1984 and put $2K in my first IRA in the bank CD. 1985 I opened a brokerage account and put in 2K more so put 4K in a mutual fund. It lost money so in April 1986 I was angry and confused and wanted my money out of the fund. The broker tried to sell me stock in some company I never heard of but I wouldn't have it. I put in another 2K and got shares in my local electric company at a PE of 10 that paid a nice dividend.

 

[summer2007]

I got started last year.

I bought a retirement fund at $20 a share......................now it's at $10.80!

So needless to say so far I have not been too happy with stocks.

And up until last year I invested in fixed income things and thought I was making a big mistake!

Jim

 

[clifp]

A little bit in high school, but primarily right after college. I joined an investment club within 6 months of starting work so that would be between 77-81

 

[freebird5825]

1988 - solely invested in TSP C and G funds
mid 90s - EE bonds thru payroll deduction, diversified TSP to all funds
1997 - bought my first mutual fund, AWSHX
2002 - aggressively DCAing into way too many stock mutual funds (beginner's errors)
2003 - continued DCA, mostly VG funds
2005 - I bond ladder, trimmed out high exp ratio MFs
2007 - FIREd, discontinued DCA to stock MFs, DCA only to TE munis
2009 forward plan - will go back to DCA to stock MFs

 

[Goonie]

I got started last year.

I bought a retirement fund at $20 a share......................now it's at $10.80!

So needless to say so far I have not been too happy with stocks.

And up until last year I invested in fixed income things and thought I was making a big mistake!

Jim

I jumped in when I was in my early 30's (IIRC that's about where you are), and after a short time, I became a bit disillusioned by the performance of my mutual fund shares. So, in my infinite wisdom (not!), I bailed out. Had I known then, what I know now, I would have sat tight and let 'em ride......but I didn't!

Now, being 20 years older (wiser??) than I was back then, and still at least 10-12 years (minimum) from even thinking about using money from my mutual funds, I'm quite content to let 'em ride. I chose the retirement target funds that I have as long term investments. Had I been looking for something for a short term investment, or my risk tolerance was really, really low or non-existent, I would have dumped it all into CD's, MM's, or bonds. (I do hold a rather small portion of my portfolio in those vehicles, but not as long term.)

Not knowing anyone's specific situation except my own, I can't and won't give any specific advice, other than to say if it were me, I'd let 'er ride and keep DCA'ing in (or start DCA'ing in if I wasn't now). That's merely MHO.....YMMV.

goon

 

[summer2007]

Thanks Goonie

I can tell you that right now I'm not touching that fund...it will stay put until it at LEAST goes back to what I put in it.

I often wonder where things are headed in the future. There are so many different ways of looking at asset allocation and figuring out what did well in the past....but no one really knows what will happen in the future.

I was looking at all the pie charts in my investment paperwork and I thought that is all pretty meaningless now!

But hopefully everything stock-wise will come back and make a nice profit in the next 5 or 10 years.

Jim

 

[Gumby]

1981 - in my Senior year of college.

 

[Bimmerbill]

1993 when I got my first govmint job.

 

[Donzo]

Early 80s shortly after graduating college. First stock was Squibb pharmacuetical co.

 

[Urchina]

I put $25 into an IRA when I was a sophomore in college. Added another $25 my junior year. That account is now worth.... wait for it... $50.66. Whoo-hoo!

I started putting money into my 457 in 2002 (the first year I was hired). Real investing (researching, learning, asset allocation) started in 2006. After two years of reading everything I can get my hands on, I feel like I finally have a glimmering of a clue.