how did you find the silver spoon?

[jollystomper]

Most of my learning was DIY. My parents always emphasized saving, but being immigrants they never talked about investment beyond real estate (at the time they came to the U.S., that was one of the big dreams among immigrants - home/real estate ownership). But I never got the real estate bug, particularly since they did not do well owning an apartment building and it just seemed too much of a hassle to me.

In college I lived below my means because there were no other options - credit cards were not available to college student in those days, and I disliked owing people money (I had observed too many examples of physical harm, forced coercion, or worse to debtors in the neighborhoods I grew up in). Interestingly it was one reason DW (who also saw those harmful things resulting from debt) was attracted to me.

After college I saw my finances as being a foundation for real independence. So I read a lot on the topic - the key sources were Money Magazine (for which I had a subscription from the early 80s until the early 2010s), a thick personal finance book from either Barrons or the New York Times (I just cannot remember which), "Master Your Money" by Ron Blue, "The Truth about Money" by Ric Edelman, and "The Millionaire Next Door". I remember listening to Bob Brinker's "Moneytalk" radio program as well. I was wary of listening to one single source, but there were points they were consistent on that made sense, and I would try to follow them. I also took personal finance course at a local college and aced it (and resisted the hard sell by the teacher to become a client of his firm ).

Of course I made mistakes along the way. For example:
- I misused the first credit card I had (an Amex card I received when I graduated because I had a job).
- I trusted one of my older brothers about life insurance and stock investing (hey, the folks were his friends, what could go wrong?), but my reading taught me that the insurance was wrong and the stock "investing" being done was more "gambling".
- I waited a year before listening to my older co-workers and opening a 401K, and waited more years before raising my paycheck contribution to get the full corporate match.
- I did not do a deep dive of tracking our money until 1990, and learned that we were spending about $3K more than we had earned that year, and credits card and auto loans were what were supporting our lifestyle.
- Some of my initial mutual fund perchases were loaded funds.
- I started buying individual stocks during the the dot-com boom and thought I knew something, when in fact a trained animal throwing darts at a list of stocks would have done just as well during that time.

Fortunately I learned from them (or perhaps from most of them ) in time. Ultimately, reading about John Bogle and his investment philsophy appealed to me as being much simpler than what I was doing but having a return potential that I would be happy with. I am not a "perfect Boglehead", but the majority of my investments became much simpler and moved in that direction. For stocks, I still liked to read "The Motley Fool" and "Dogs of the Dow" philipsophy. That, at times, is my level of market "gamblig" .

Our foundation was our savings, particularly after our annual income started to grow rapidly in the mid 90s. We did not grow our lifestyle as much, and our strong savings foundation built by LYBM is, in my view the most important aspect of why, from a financial perspective, we are where we are today.

 

[engineernerd]

Learned about LBYM from Mom, who grew up in Germany and kept German attitudes towards debt all her life.

Learned about investments through reading, including an old John Bogle book (forgot what the title was). But got most of my impetus when I changed jobs from a state government job with a defined-benefit pension to a private-sector job with no pension, eight years into my career. The state gave me the option to take my vested balance and roll it over to an individual IRA. Started my self-directed IRA at Vanguard and was off and running with their index mutual funds.

 

[Al18]

My company offered 401K when I was in my mid-20’s. I researched them and decided it was a good idea to start investing in stocks. I was a saver and already had some CD’s. I took advantage of the free advice from the 401K representative offered 1 day a year. Knowledge built from reading financial magazines and the internet starting around Y2K

 

[SnowballCamper]

When I was growing up in the 60's my folks and maternal grandparents were of the opinion that a bank account was safe and the market was not. They were Great Depression babies and although my grandfather was employed throughout the depression they all shied sway from 'the stock market'. And so that shaped my thinking...at least until the early 80's.

I think stories of the Great Depression shaped my dad's perspective on money (he is in his 80s now). So far as I know he only ever owned company stock from his employer. Other than mentioning that land is a good investment because there is a finite supply, the advice was limited to living within your means. Oh, and stocks are just paper... He did purposely get a job with the state government after maxing out SS contributions. I have no idea if WEP upset his strategy or not.

 

[38Chevy454]

I think biggest factor is that being an engineer, I understood the math. Save early and often. I started the 401k at first job out of college. I was, and still am, a believer in the stock market so put my money in stocks inside the 401k. Let it ride and kept investing along the way with each paycheck, adding to the compounding.

Parents were LBYM types, but never really discussed any investing or personal finance stuff. I worked my way through college and graduated with very small debt - mostly because in last quarter I had senioritis so bad that I quit my college part time job once I had the real engineering job accepted and just pending graduation in a couple months. So had a couple thousand in credit card debt is all which I paid off in short time once working. I mostly am self-taught through reading and talking to others to learn what they did. I would listen to Bob Brinker when I thought about it and not doing something else.

My one set of grandparents had some utility stocks in their retirement back in 70s, so I sort of got a little exposure to stocks and dividends through that cursory exposure. Also had a very brief bit of basic economics in high school class that mentioned stocks and bonds. But nothing in direct personal finance type education. I probably gained most of my knowledge in the past15 years. Up until then it was just save and know that the nestegg was growing.

 

[MC Rider]

As the Who sang, I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.

Got an actual silver spoon that was Grandmas after she died.
Got in debt in my 20's and 30's, got out in my 40's when I finally started to make enough money to save. Saved because we did not change our Live within your means strategy, so we had "extra" money.
Realized we had $100k saved and got CDs. Bought a house in LA, and between selling that at a profit and retirement funds, we retired and are not rich but fine and have enough.

Enough is good by me, and something billionaires will never have.

 

[MRG]

I learned from the inside out.

Went to work at Megacorp. I was hired to write code for a stock distribution system. Of course I didn't know what a stock or a distribution was at the time. They taught us a lot about financial services and mutual funds.

After working on the mainframe for a decade I switched to helping develop imaging and workflow app that were used in the back offices of many financial services organizations. I was involved in some very interesting problem situations over the course of 29 years.

 

[Koolau]

My parents learned about "investing" during the depression. They were (dad) 22 and (mom) 17 when the GD began. They saw what happened to people who owned "paper" investments.

So mom and dad invested in a small business that they started. If/when they saved, they saved in a pass-book savings account - but mostly they reinvested in the business. They never invested in "paper."

That's what I saw and what I learned. When I began w*rking for Megacorp, I invested in the 401(k). It was simple and I spread out my investments "just because." I was a natural savor due to my parents stories of the GD. Investing was totally "learn by mistakes" for me.

This site finally helped me gain more knowledge as well as discipline. But a lot of my investment results were driven by blessing (or luck - I think it was blessing but accept the term "luck").

About the time I retired, I learned about this site and set myself up for FIRE going forward. I'm still not convinced I know much about investing but I consider that I have "enough."

I now own a few "silver spoons" but never saw one growing up! YMMV

 

[splitwdw]

My parents and grandparents owned stock. All of the kids were given shares by an uncle that had no children. A couple of us use to go camping with this uncle who would talk a little bit about investing over breakfast. Some of us were interested and kept learning and investing. I have all the original shares he gave me. I really don't remember my parents or grandparents talking about the stocks they own. I've always invested in individual stocks and still have them. When I found this site I heard about index funds and started learning about them for my husband who was afraid of the stock market and individual stocks. I enjoy the market and don't mind the ups and downs.

 

[1242Vintage]

A few years into my engineering career, I wiggled my way into the finance branch of my organization and loved it! I was the only engineer in a sea of accountants and MBA-types … so I went into an MBA program to even the score.

My specialty was finding funds for busted projects. Broken construction projects are like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Figure out what went wrong, why, how to fix it, bottom-line how much money is needed to make the project whole again and then go find, beg or borrow the cash needed. Fun!

Applied the finance topics I learned at work, through my coworkers and in MBA program to both my job and to personal financial decisions and portfolio management strategies.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

DIY. Compulsive saver from early days on paper route, discovered Value Line in 1980s at library, found it fascinating. Never knew anyone else with an interest in investing until much later.

 

[old medic]

Honestly our Silver Spoon was finding this forum. We had some 401 savings and a mortgaged house.
Now retired with more income than when working and mortgage free.

 

[Onda]

I learned on my own, and for the most part my investments performed poorly until I was 32 or 33, but that was more than made up for in my 50s.

 

[DJRR]

Really bad job market when I graduated college. Went to a recruiting meeting for a company called First Investors (I think?). They turned out to be scammy stock churners, but they showed a graphic illustrating compound interest. I don't know if anyone ever tried to explain it to me before, but it was eye opening. Got a copy of money magazine and Twentieth Century Investors in Kansas City was the hot company. Appealed to me because I wanted to do Finance and did not live in NYC. I started investing with them. I heard from the original gold bugs and bought a half dozen Kruggerands. I sold my mutual funds to buy a cool car and the Kruggerands after the gold market crash and was back to zero, but no debt. Finally got a corporate job with a 401k after 10 years and the rest is history. Took another 24 years to the first million (mistakes included), 5 years for the second million, and 1 year to the next $300k and counting.

 

[Time2]

Half of my silver spoon started with marrying a frugal woman, Our first year married we saved 30% of the $18,000 we earned. (1982) The other half was taking an interest in listening to Bob Brinker on the Radio somewhere in the late 80s very early 90s. I shifted my working hours to Saturday and Sunday afternoon to be alone with my electronic repairs and Bob Brinker on the radio. We nerve had any 401ks, I was self employed for many years, so I had SEP/IRAs and IRA available and we maxed out everything we could. I wish I had started Roths when they came out, but we did start using them at some point.

 

[zangbao]

I learned from my best friend who told me to invest all my retirement savings in index funds and never touch it. He didn’t even entertain a discussion. So that’s what I did.

That was over 20 years ago and I’m glad I listened.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

My dad was a pretty smart, self-taught investor. He was an accountant for a long time, and I got my number sense from him, so he figured out how to evaluate risk and return mostly on his own I think, and although we never talked a lot about it, I was comparing interest rates and fees for my first savings account as a child, and enjoyed seeing the numbers get added to the passbook every time I went in to make a deposit, or just get an update on my interest. He's also the reason we paid off my student loans, our mortgage, and our car loans early (although I'll advise the next generation to consider carrying some debt if it means saving a lot more early on). My paternal grandparents taught him frugality and LBYM, as my grandfather was part of the gig economy before it was cool, doing 2-3 jobs at once most of the time, like reupholstering furniture and/or driving a cab in addition to whatever day job he had at the time, a habit he picked up during the Great Depression.

 

[Sue J]

I am a natural saver. My parents were Depression era, my Dad growing up with a divorced Mom, living "on the dole" at times. He taught me the value of Live Below Your Means and always knowing how much you have and how much you spend.

I have always tracked income and expenses and when DH and I started out, if we had a few dollars left at the end of the month it was a WIN!

So I was a very good saver, but not a sharp investor. I found the best CD rate I could and invested any savings in CDs. Later, when we had more meaningful savings I started investing in mutual funds. My first one was Vanguard STAR in a Roth IRA because the opening investment was low. I watched it go up and felt like a genius. Then I would see a drop and feel not so smart.

But I kept adding to it and watched it grow. As it got bigger the drops didn't sting so bad. I learned about other Vanguard funds, mostly the balanced ones like Wellington and Life Strategy Growth. I watched the dividends and capital gains distributions. I watched it all compound!

Then I got bolder and tried VFIAX Vanguard 500 Index Fund and VTSAX Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund. Even though the pundits recommend a more conservative allocation I felt comfortable with 80% stock overall.

I used to see the drops in the stock market as something to worry about. Now I see them as an opportunity to buy because my favorite mutual fund is on sale.

Compared to a lot of the folks here we are not wealthy, we are in the small potatoes category. But we live quite comfortably, I'm still saving and investing. The Roth IRA has grown beyond expectation. I've learned enough about investing to know what I'm doing and where I'm comfortable.

So no actual silver spoon here. Just a successfully retired DH with a COLAed pension and the ability to still be saving and investing.

 

[GrayHare]

I put pretend money into stocks as a kid then followed those stocks in the newspaper. It helped me learn the factors that influence share prices. It was only after I had a real j*b that I put real money into stocks and funds.

 

[Winemaker]

My parents were trying to upgrade their 3 BR 1BA ranch house in city suburbs, so they were saving as much as they could while I was a teen. A few of my friends had fathers that owned businesses and they w*rked there during breaks, and they were able to buy motorcycles and cars. So I did chores around neighborhood and had a passbook savings, Once I turned 16, I started in a retail store, and met a couple that couldn't afford to buy a hand drill for $5.99. I swore then I'd never be poor.

At the time, a HS graduation requirement was to write a research paper on any subject approved by our instructor. At the time, US citizens were going to allowed to buy physical gold again as an investment. So that's what wrote about. My research back then showed it might be more profitable to own shares in gold mining companies, so I took my tax refund and money from my passbook and bought a mutual fund, I think it was USGold. I bought it and it made me a bunch of money, and I sold it when I needed cash for down payment for DW and I's first house. The rest was history.

 

[fognostic]

I was aware my parents were investing growing up. While I was taught what a stock and bond was, I wasn't taught the basics of personal finance and portfolio management. This was before discount brokerage days and my impression was their broker had some influence over their stock and bond purchases. But that was enough for me to take an interest. I got involved in an investing club early on that was focused more on stock picking, then I transitioned to managed funds and shortly thereafter to index funds. Along the way, I read many books on investing and asset allocation and picked up plenty of info on internet after that. My investment results would have been far better had I started with the knowledge I have now, but that's the way of life.

For our children, I kick started their investing education with a UTMA and Roth and sought their buy in on how things were allocated with enough education in those conversations to make their eyes glaze over. I also included them in more eye glazing conversations about DW and I's financial planning and investing strategy for retirement as they became older teens and young adults, both for their education and so they know how and why they don't need to worry about Mom and Dad having enough to retire. We have frank discussions about costs for college, self-support, savings targets, healthcare, budget targets, etc. We also don't keep dollar secrets from our children like our parents and their generation generally do.

 

[Diogenes]

It's really impressive in this thread, how many folks anchor their thrift and frugality in a Depression-era experience, perhaps through parents or grandparents. Also how in so many cases, these parents/grandparents were blue-collar, upstanding in their work ethic, selfless and longsuffering in their character, but unsophisticated in things like price-earnings ratio, compound growth and the like.

My grandparents and great-grandparents had it easy... at least for a while, until certain events in the early 20th century rocked their world. Those who weren't shot or "disappeared" came to espouse a radically different notion of money: it's fleeting and never far from confiscation. And besides, there was nothing to buy anyway. Then came other dislocations, and fast forward to the 1980s, when I'm a high school kid in American Suburbia, doing alright in math-class but not versed in anything related to investment. A neighbor clued me in to mutual funds, and before long I had an account open at Fidelity. Later I learned about index funds vs. actively managed ones. Efficient Market Hypothesis, portfolio construction and the efficiency frontier and so on. In college and grad school, I came to appreciate the distinction between theory and practice. That converted me into a Boglehead long before the term existed. Right around that time, I got interested in early retirement... yeah, still in my 20s.

Amazing, how from such different provenance, we converge to similar outcomes!

 

[FIREd]

My father was my first inspiration, though he built his wealth mostly through real estate acquisition. He dabbled in stocks but only as a hobby.

I started learning more about the stock market when I opened my first 401K. But it’s only when I started considering early retirement that I learned as much as I could - to lower fees, increase returns, balance risk, etc…

 

[Badger]

Both my parents came from lower income families but understood the importance of LBYM, saving, and investing. They encouraged me to adopt LBYM and saving with a "pay yourself first" philosophy but we never really talked about investing. Investing I had to learn on my own with lots of visits to the library, reading investment magazines, other periodicals, and asking a lot of questions. My knowledge is still pretty basic but my wife and I have succeeded with modest incomes and backgrounds remote from any financial education to create a high 7 figure NW.

 

[Steelpony]

My mom had started my practical money management education at around age 6-8. I was fascinated by the fact a bank would give me money to store mine with them instead of a shoe box.

Around high school age at times I would sit on a porch listening to a ball game with a couple college educated adults and/or at other times 2 high school educated adults in the mid to late 60’s.

Both groups often talked about high inflation (later labeled Stagflation) comparing it to the Depression and how to handle the situation. That was huge. The tinder was sparked then. So luck and chance just like 95% of my life.