Just Do It! (Addendum)

I would like to add a little something to the previous post. You can tell if someone is a writer, they write. It doesn’t matter if the are good writers or Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex, the worst poet in the universe. If they write they are writers. If they read about the theory of writing and discuss writing with their friends they may be sensitive souls but they are not writers.

The other day I discussed my latest market insights with a friend at work. Neither one of us are likely to ever be interviewed by Jim Cramer. But, you know what? We are both investors. By nature he is a trader. I am a buy and hold kind of a guy. We study the market, make our decisions, and invest some money. Sometimes we make good decisions. Sometimes they don’t work out so well.

You can become an investor. It is really pretty simple. Decide how much risk you can tolerate and then, make your move. Put $2,000 in an index fund. Buy your first shares of a common stock. Buy a beat up used car, fix it up, and sell it to a high school student. Take your kid to a coin shop and let her buy a Silver Eagle with her own money. Now your 6th grader is an investor.

George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, a corrupt politician famous for differentiating between honest graft and dishonest graft, while discussing his start in politics with a reporter observed, “I had a cousin, a young man who didn’t take any particular interest in politics. I went to him and said: “Tommy, I’m goin’ to be a politician, and I want to get a followin’: Can I count on you?” He said: “Sure George.” That’s how I started in business. I got a marketable commodity-one vote. Then I went to the district leader and told him I could command two votes on election day, Tommy’s and my own. He smiled on me and told me to go ahead. If I had offered him a speech or bookful of learnin’, he would have said, “Oh forget it!”

By the time Plunkitt had three followers, the district leader would light his cigar. You will be surprised how few trades it takes or how small a portfolio is required to attract the attention of a brokerage firm. After all, they don’t know. Maybe you will be the next Warren Buffet.