In a way, I think it was my Granddad who got me turned on to the idea. When I was younger, he told me that I should look into putting my money into something that was more profitable than just saving/checking accounts, CD's, etc. and that I should start looking into stocks.
Although oddly, he never did any investing himself. But, he had a gov't pension, retired at the age of 55, a paid-off house, and he and Grandmom still managed to save up a decent amount with just CD's and such.
Even though he only had a 6th grade education, he had a lot more real-world knowledge than many so-called college graduates. He was probably at that age, and had the security with retirement, good health insurance, etc, that he knew he was comfortable. But he realized that my generation probably wouldn't have it so easy.
Well, about a year and a half after he passed away, I finally made my first investment, into a mutual fund. My other Granddad had a money magazine that I was reading through, and it recommended 20th Century (now American Century) Ultra. It had posted something like a 20% return over the past 12 months. Being naive, I thought it would be able to do that consistently.
Well, I goofed up when I placed the order (this was August 1991, in those dark, dim, pre-internet days) and bought Growth instead of Ultra. Still, it managed to do well, and as time went by, I bought some Ultra as well.
I also remember running a calculation. If I invested $1,000, and it returned 20% every year, in 39 years I'd have $1M! Now, realistically, I knew that would never happen, because that rate wouldn't sustain itself, plus there's taxes on capital gains and such. But, I figured that if I kept investing, it really wouldn't be that hard to become a millionaire at a relatively young age and be able to retire early.
So, if that unrealistic calculation actually worked out, I'd be a millionaire by the age of 60. I was 21 in 1991. Well, now it's roughly 20 years and 3 months since I made that first investment. And I'm around the $640K mark. So, barring catastrophes, hopefully I'll hit $1M ahead of schedule!