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Before I go onto my life rant, here is a quick rundown of my accumulated wealth so far.
- 50$ in checking account
- Perfect credit record for half a year
- 1.5k in my stock portfolio (more on that later)
I also have some materialistic possessions that keep me comfortable, most notably my desktop computer, a smartphone, a closet full of clothes, headphones, and the newest addition to my family of stuff, an Asus Transformer tf700.
If I was to estimate my "net worth", well I would put it at about 5,000$ if I sold all my things of value and counted up all the money I got from selling them. Compared to children in Honduras, I am very very rich and my standard of living surpasses their wildest expectations. Compared to Warren Buffet, I am piss poor. In all fairness though, I am only 19 and Buffet is in his 82. I have the majority of my life left to live while his is almost up. I bet he would trade in all of his "net worth", or all of his billions, in exchange for 50 more years, but alas that is not how the game of life works.
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Warren_Buffett_KU_Visit.jpg/220px-Warren_Buffett_KU_Visit.jpg)
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Why am I comparing myself to someone like Warren Buffet, more specifically, Warren Buffet instead of other billionaires such as Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, or Michael Dell? Well, I particularly like Warren Buffet's life story. For those of you who are not familiar with it, his life story can be found on his wikipedia page.
"The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to your advantage, and seek a margin of safety. That's what Ben Graham taught us. A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing." - Warren Buffet
Buffet made his wealth from notable stock acquisitions such as Coca Cola and IBM. His portfolio is based on american banks and insurance corporations like Wells Fargo and he heavily supports anything American. However, he has a dislike for anything technology and doesn't trust it (like facebook, twitter, google).
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In a lot of ways, I respect Mr. Buffet. He has shown himself to be a bona fide investor, and the guy has a good heart (giving away most of his fortune to charity when he dies). I think that is the most responsible thing someone of wealth can do.
I think the guy kinda gave up though. It woulda been cool to have him involved in specific technological niches such as ESPORTS (a billion of his $$$ given to esports tournament funding? HELLZ YA), but alas, that is simply a whiff of my imagination getting the better of me.
My imagination does that a lot whenever I aspire to be rich like Warren Buffet (not Forbes top 10 billionaires rich but rather 7-8 figures rich). Then reality hits. I am, in fact, not worth 7 figures, but only 4. I don't even have a car, I live with my parents, and I have no education past a high school diploma (which I BARELY got).
I can pretend to be the next Mr. Buffet whenever my stock portfolio outperforms the S&P 500 and give myself a little pat on the back because I just beat most of those large Wall Street Hedge Fund Managers, but in the end, a 20% increase in my portfolio of $1,500 only means that I made $300, certainly nothing to brag about.
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Being a college dropout and not wanting to immediately pursue another degree and finish my college, I would rather get a part time job and start earning some real world experience instead of studying for another god-dang test in which there is little to no applicable use outside of the exam room. I mean cmon, when are you gonna impress someone EVER about telling them how the Krebs cycle works or that cellular respiration keeps everyone alive?
Well, that pretty much ends this day's daydreams about being $$$ richer. But in reality, I have something that not even kids wit college degrees have. I have something that Mr. Buffet for all his fat stacks of cash doesn't have, and that is time.
Quick question, how much money does it take to buy a minute of time?
+ Show Spoiler +You can't buy more time because time is priceless.
My life could have played out many different ways. What if I had more confidence in high school and banged all those hot girls that I was too nervous to talk to? How would that have changed who I am today? Would I have ever discovered Broodwar and posted this on TL? What if I had a relationship during my brief year in college, would that have helped me to finish a degree instead of being where I am now?
Regardless of the answers above, I don't think you can control the events that happen to you, but I do believe you can control what to make of those events and to decide whether you can learn anything from them, or if they hinder your progress towards longer term goals.
Although it may seem like an impossibility that I will ever accumulate even more than 1,000,000$ dollars, It will BE an impossibility if I don't work towards that goal every day, if I give up and stay content with where I am in life now.
So really, my aspiration, although seemingly crazy and absurd, keeps me sane every day as I make an effort to make my unpredictable future unpredictable in my favor
  
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Theoretically if you were super obese and you had enough money to buy gastric bypass, that in a sense is buying you more time.
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On May 21 2013 10:49 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
Theoretically if you were super obese and you had enough money to buy gastric bypass, that in a sense is buying you more time.
I think super obesity would subtract from your total allotment of time of life and a gastric bypass would only bring back some of it, hence buying you more time
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On May 21 2013 10:39 Race is Terran wrote:
... I don't think you can control the events that happen to you, but I do believe you can control what to make of those events and to decide whether you can learn anything from them, or if they hinder your progress towards longer term goals.
Is this really true?
It may not be as much as manipulating a scene or a conversation,but there is always something you could have controlled differently just based on the fact that you're aware of it.
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On May 21 2013 11:34 nanaoei wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2013 10:39 Race is Terran wrote:
... I don't think you can control the events that happen to you, but I do believe you can control what to make of those events and to decide whether you can learn anything from them, or if they hinder your progress towards longer term goals. Is this really true? It may not be as much as manipulating a scene or a conversation,but there is always something you could have controlled differently just based on the fact that you're aware of it.
I think you misunderstood me. I just meant I believe people have control over the perception of events that happen to them and they have a choice to either make the best of it or to let it bring them down
edit: Well based on the number of 1 stars, I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my ramblings, I'm sorry if you guys disagree with me, I tend to be highly opinionated (for better or for worse, but mostly worse)
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our time is kinda different from what Buffet came from though.
During his time, it was possible to start up a company and becomes super big and successful, IBM, coca cola for example.
nowadays there are smart players everywhere in the stock market and is more international integrated.
Buffet already benefited a lot from the early investments and becomes a big player himself, so he isn't facing the same difficulty as we do.
Many smart players don't even buy stock to get rich, they invest to earn a second source of income. If your main target is to get rich off it, you are gonna play risky and not the way the rich and smart guys play the game.
you can say time is priceless and you can't buy time, but the act of buying helps you to save time. Just think about why you are paying to go to bus/bike etc when you can walk for free. (but walking is healthy, right?)
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Buying better health insurance or even personal doctors buys you more time.
If you've scratched a diploma like you said though, college might not be for you. Have you considered starting a small business? You're probably not going to be the next Wal-Mart, but it definitely is a way to more money if you can put in the intense commitment it takes to make a business grow.
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On May 21 2013 12:11 ETisME wrote:
our time is kinda different from what Buffet came from though.
During his time, it was possible to start up a company and becomes super big and successful, IBM, coca cola for example.
nowadays there are smart players everywhere in the stock market and is more international integrated.
Buffet already benefited a lot from the early investments and becomes a big player himself, so he isn't facing the same difficulty as we do.
Many smart players don't even buy stock to get rich, they invest to earn a second source of income. If your main target is to get rich off it, you are gonna play risky and not the way the rich and smart guys play the game.
you can say time is priceless and you can't buy time, but the act of buying helps you to save time. Just think about why you are paying to go to bus/bike etc when you can walk for free. (but walking is healthy, right?)
Well to be honest...the college road was kind of closed forcefully for me I guess. I got expelled :/ I didn't really choose to drop out, it was a decision made for me.
As for my stocks, I don't even consider it a second source of income, it is just a hobby. I like to read the news, and I try to stay versatile industry-wise. I guess an example is Ive learned about companys from renewable energy, to foreign banks, to semiconductors, oil/natural gas/coal, the list goes on and it just fascinates me
On May 21 2013 12:15 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:
Buying better health insurance or even personal doctors buys you more time.
If you've scratched a diploma like you said though, college might not be for you. Have you considered starting a small business? You're probably not going to be the next Wal-Mart, but it definitely is a way to more money if you can put in the intense commitment it takes to make a business grow.
I have considered starting my own business, but I don't have any services or goods to base that business on
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It sounds like you want to make lots of money but you have absolutely no idea how to go about doing so.
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On May 21 2013 12:30 theonemephisto wrote:
It sounds like you want to make lots of money but you have absolutely no idea how to go about doing so.
Well I don't expect to get rich quick. This is something that is going to take decades to accomplish; it's kind of a long term goal
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this is what I think you should do.
Being market player won't cut it. Its basically you wanting to make money out of thin air. Too many people are in there, low chance of becoming successful.
I'm 28, and from my and my friend's experience I tell you this.
First and most important. Find a job, as if you gonna do something useful for others, its not about making money, its about making something. You could be cook, programmer, manager, sales man or make small buseness for yourself etc., but you should really get good at it. Then, you're goal should be hitting above average income. Thats boring, I know. But its the safest way.
After you have extra moneys on your deposit, you can start playing around with them, but still keeping your main job/business first priority.
This is most likely way to become millionaire. Billionaire? not likely, but who knows.
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On May 21 2013 12:53 saddaromma wrote:
this is what I think you should do.
Being market player won't cut it. Its basically you wanting to make money out of thin air. Too many people are in there, low chance of becoming successful.
I'm 28, and from my and my friend's experience I tell you this.
First and most important. Find a job, as if you gonna do something useful for others, its not about making money, its about making something. You could be cook, programmer, manager, sales man or make small buseness for yourself etc., but you should really get good at it. Then, you're goal should be hitting above average income. Thats boring, I know. But its the safest way.
After you have extra moneys on your deposit, you can start playing around with them, but still keeping your main job/business first priority.
This is most likely way to become millionaire. Billionaire? not likely, but who knows.
I have been looking around for some jobs in the sales area because that's what I want to do, but it's been pretty rough so far. Especially getting rejected BECAUSE you have no experience in the area to start with. The thing is though, there's plenty of places hiring like a subway and mcdonalds in the area, but I don't want to get into fast food again.
Do you have any suggestions on being able to find a job? I think I'm gonna start looking at those job websites like craiglist and monster and whatever else google has to offer because cold calling different stores around the area has led absolutely nowhere
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On May 21 2013 12:52 Race is Terran wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2013 12:30 theonemephisto wrote:
It sounds like you want to make lots of money but you have absolutely no idea how to go about doing so. Well I don't expect to get rich quick. This is something that is going to take decades to accomplish; it's kind of a long term goal
Long-term goals without any plans or even beginnings of plans will never be accomplished.
You don't have any particular knowledge or ideas about what to do. You don't have a college education, and I presume (correct me if I'm wrong) that you don't have any particularly marketable skills (programming in particular is one of the few skills that can get you into an upper middle class job without post-secondary education). You don't seem have a large amount of seed resources. You're playing around on the stock market, but that won't make you money unless you're a Buffet-level genius and/or get incredibly lucky, especially without any real training or resources.
The best and most reliable way to make more money is to get a better education. Go to college, apply yourself, get a marketable degree, learn useful skills, and make connections while you do so. Without that it's a much more difficult road, especially in this economy.
Part-time work in a job that doesn't require a college degree is rarely going to lead to the kind of wealth that you want. At any professional or technical job, they don't really care about job experience, they care about relevant job experience. Since no kid has that kind of experience, college can provide a substitute along with internships and other college-related opportunities.
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On May 21 2013 13:18 Race is Terran wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2013 12:53 saddaromma wrote:
this is what I think you should do.
Being market player won't cut it. Its basically you wanting to make money out of thin air. Too many people are in there, low chance of becoming successful.
I'm 28, and from my and my friend's experience I tell you this.
First and most important. Find a job, as if you gonna do something useful for others, its not about making money, its about making something. You could be cook, programmer, manager, sales man or make small buseness for yourself etc., but you should really get good at it. Then, you're goal should be hitting above average income. Thats boring, I know. But its the safest way.
After you have extra moneys on your deposit, you can start playing around with them, but still keeping your main job/business first priority.
This is most likely way to become millionaire. Billionaire? not likely, but who knows.
I have been looking around for some jobs in the sales area because that's what I want to do, but it's been pretty rough so far. Especially getting rejected BECAUSE you have no experience in the area to start with. The thing is though, there's plenty of places hiring like a subway and mcdonalds in the area, but I don't want to get into fast food again. Do you have any suggestions on being able to find a job? I think I'm gonna start looking at those job websites like craiglist and monster and whatever else google has to offer because cold calling different stores around the area has led absolutely nowhere
You really need to find something you like to do and make a career out of it. Your age allows you to try different things, even if you fail, you have plenty of other options. I'm not sure about salesman, but my profession is programming, and its straight forward. You get good at it, get large paycheck.
My friend started bakery company, he already has 4 baking shops in 4 years and stable income. Instead of playing with money, he invests it in his own business and does rather well.
My 2 other friends, dropped their jobs and started to seek easy money, by reselling the goods (which supposed to bring lots of money in short period). They failed, they have no career and no money now.
Most obvious solution for you would be getting higher education. Don't try to be 'smart' like Bill Gates and drop out thinking that teachers are stupid and you know better. There is very little chance that you're genious. So be a normal person, get degree, get job and work hard.
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Basic economics says the price of time is how much you would trade for use of that time. For example - I choose to spend 3 mins of my life writing up this post on TL; if you offered me $300 to sit here and do nothing instead, I would take it, putting a maximum cap on my time at $100 a minute.
Better start thinking in terms of opportunity cost if you want to become a successful investor.
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how did u get expelled from college?... can you try a different college?
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On May 21 2013 14:39 saddaromma wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2013 13:18 Race is Terran wrote:On May 21 2013 12:53 saddaromma wrote:
this is what I think you should do.
Being market player won't cut it. Its basically you wanting to make money out of thin air. Too many people are in there, low chance of becoming successful.
I'm 28, and from my and my friend's experience I tell you this.
First and most important. Find a job, as if you gonna do something useful for others, its not about making money, its about making something. You could be cook, programmer, manager, sales man or make small buseness for yourself etc., but you should really get good at it. Then, you're goal should be hitting above average income. Thats boring, I know. But its the safest way.
After you have extra moneys on your deposit, you can start playing around with them, but still keeping your main job/business first priority.
This is most likely way to become millionaire. Billionaire? not likely, but who knows.
I have been looking around for some jobs in the sales area because that's what I want to do, but it's been pretty rough so far. Especially getting rejected BECAUSE you have no experience in the area to start with. The thing is though, there's plenty of places hiring like a subway and mcdonalds in the area, but I don't want to get into fast food again. Do you have any suggestions on being able to find a job? I think I'm gonna start looking at those job websites like craiglist and monster and whatever else google has to offer because cold calling different stores around the area has led absolutely nowhere You really need to find something you like to do and make a career out of it. Your age allows you to try different things, even if you fail, you have plenty of other options. I'm not sure about salesman, but my profession is programming, and its straight forward. You get good at it, get large paycheck. My friend started bakery company, he already has 4 baking shops in 4 years and stable income. Instead of playing with money, he invests it in his own business and does rather well. My 2 other friends, dropped their jobs and started to seek easy money, by reselling the goods (which supposed to bring lots of money in short period). They failed, they have no career and no money now. Most obvious solution for you would be getting higher education. Don't try to be 'smart' like Bill Gates and drop out thinking that teachers are stupid and you know better. There is very little chance that you're genious. So be a normal person, get degree, get job and work hard.
Dropping out and getting expelled are two different things. Im only 19 and regardless of when i start up my education again im not gonna be finishing a degree at a normal time. So i kind ofdont feelthe rush of needing higher education immediately and would rather take a year off first
On May 21 2013 22:43 Kalingingsong wrote:
how did u get expelled from college?... can you try a different college?
I don't want to get too into it but it basically involved a couple ounces of marijuana..really my only other choice now is going to a community college for 2 years and then transferring to another school for another 2 years if I want to finish my education
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Time isnt priceless. People are paid to use their time to work. People are paid for their time expended at work.
Also people are paid literally just to show up somewhere, henceforth paid for their time.
You CAN buy time, just not your own.
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Fuck it'd be sick to have $50 in my account.
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On May 21 2013 23:59 Capped wrote:
Time isnt priceless. People are paid to use their time to work. People are paid for their time expended at work.
Also people are paid literally just to show up somewhere, henceforth paid for their time.
You CAN buy time, just not your own.
people are paid X amount to show up somewhere, hence you can trade money per hour of time. However, you can just as well work somewhere else for a different variable of money per time, thereby increasing/decreasing the amount your time is worth whilst still working the same amount of time. So time does not have a price, therefore it is priceless. Not to say it is worthless, but I consider time priceless because there is no limit to the amount of money you can trade for your time during a human beings lifetime (figure will always be a variable and not constant)
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warren buffett made his money by basically using his obscene power to force companies into giving him lots of covenants and terms at extreme rates. like when he put money into bank of america last year, he did so after they included a provision to give him the right to buy a fuckton amount of shares at a huge discount, which was worth like 60% of his investment. For free.
so unless you can leverage that power i suggest trying something else.
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Be inventive and find out something that you can make that people want. Then figure out how to make it at a low cost and efficiently. Market your idea through various mediums and start selling online or brick-and-mortar. Congrats, I just made you a millionaire. Feel free to repay me with some shares.
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On May 22 2013 01:39 Caller wrote:
warren buffett made his money by basically using his obscene power to force companies into giving him lots of covenants and terms at extreme rates. like when he put money into bank of america last year, he did so after they included a provision to give him the right to buy a fuckton amount of shares at a huge discount, which was worth like 60% of his investment. For free.
so unless you can leverage that power i suggest trying something else.
I think the op was more interested in buffets early years as a very young entrepreneur. All you can do imo is look for good business opportunities and work to make the most of them. They aren't all going to work out though and having a safety net in the form of a solid job or skills or even just wealthy family are really important.
At least his mind is on business. I really didn't think about anything to do with career or finance until i was like 27 years old, everything that happened up until then was just like "Cool I can make some more money and not use it wisely"
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Isn't it impossible to have "perfect" credit score without substantial debt history or major account activity? I mean you can avoid debt entirely and never take out a loan and you'll be sitting on a nice 700 or 750, but that's not really a "perfect" score. Even my credit reports say "not enough debt history."
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So whilst I don't completely understand the direction of this blog. I will bring up a few points to think about when comparing yourself to buffett.
Buffett made his riches (high %age returns) during a time when markets and business was not efficient. Spotting an abnormality in risk vs reward was far easier than today when most accounting is done electronically, share prices are efficient and majority shares require so much red tape to successfully purchase.
Comparing by %age, buffett made alot more back then than he does now.
On the other hand, buffett is one of the most intelligent investors in the world. He uses things to his advantage such as the media and rumour mill. Recently he took a bet that the RBA would drop interest rates, so he bet 1 billion against the AUD (not so much for FX markets) his positions didnt move the market, however, the rumor came out from the people executing the deals and that drove the market down 3%. He made a quit 90 mill? something like that on a trade that ordinarily wouldnt have happened until the announcement.
What he did with BOA was pretty much the same. Used his power to make a good deal. If he wasn't warren buffett that deal wouldnt have happened.
George Soros is another very smart investor. Got rich from some good risk bets in inefficient markets. Now uses safety and lower risk to maintain his name, power and wealth.
But, becareful what you wish for. As hollywood (prime example) shows us, sometimes being rich isn't the life for you. It doesn't make life easier it just makes life different.
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On May 22 2013 01:39 Caller wrote:
warren buffett made his money by basically using his obscene power to force companies into giving him lots of covenants and terms at extreme rates. like when he put money into bank of america last year, he did so after they included a provision to give him the right to buy a fuckton amount of shares at a huge discount, which was worth like 60% of his investment. For free.
so unless you can leverage that power i suggest trying something else.
Also, he started with ~90K in today's dollars (9800 in 1955, and not including the disputed grandmother inheritance), and at a time where markets were inefficient, and data was not instantaneous and open to everyone. It is much more difficult today with traders (both big and small) ready to play the market with their machines and models ready to go.
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If you're interested in making money, check out Quantopian. It's a simulated high-frequency trading environment where people write their own algorithms for practice/fun.
The reason I recommend it is that first of all, you can learn how to code, and if you want to get a good job without getting a degree, learning how to code is a great way to do it. You can teach yourself fairly easily, and software engineering is one of the highest-paid professions out there. It's not easy to get your foot in the door without a degree, but it isn't going to be easy to get an entry-level job anywhere without a degree.
Second, it'll show you what the world of stock trading is like now. HFT algorithms rule the world. Experts have estimated that between 60-70% of all trades are totally automated nowadays. They trade in much higher volume than you, they make decisions faster than you, and they don't need to worry about getting a good payoff as much as you. Investing is a completely different ballgame from what you might be expecting.
edit:
Also, there's nothing saying you can't get a job and go to community college at the same time. Many (most?) CC students have jobs. You don't want to end up regretting not having gone to college. A college degree is the best investment you can make, despite what people who got a degree and are now unemployed will tell you. Get a degree in something that is practical (CS, engineering, etc.), and you will get a job.
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Osaka27128 Posts
On May 21 2013 22:47 Race is Terran wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2013 22:43 Kalingingsong wrote:
how did u get expelled from college?... can you try a different college? I don't want to get too into it but it basically involved a couple ounces of marijuana..really my only other choice now is going to a community college for 2 years and then transferring to another school for another 2 years if I want to finish my education
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the 2/2 split is what you should have aimed for anyway, including the dope.
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You are what's wrong with America.
A person who supports low taxes for the wealthy because one day you'll 'make it', when in reality you'll find someone you love, get a job to support a fledgling family and then, instead of paying for your kids to go to a top tier college, feed them platitudes referring to their ability to "do anything".
If you actually pursue this i'll respect you, but i'm willing to bet your current net worth at 10:1 odds you won't.
Don't get me wrong, you can become anything you want, including the next mr. Buffet, but none of the decisions you've made so far have helped you on your way.
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lol @ how greedy our generation is.
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On May 22 2013 22:18 Manifesto7 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2013 22:47 Race is Terran wrote:On May 21 2013 22:43 Kalingingsong wrote:
how did u get expelled from college?... can you try a different college? I don't want to get too into it but it basically involved a couple ounces of marijuana..really my only other choice now is going to a community college for 2 years and then transferring to another school for another 2 years if I want to finish my education Not to put too fine a point on it, but the 2/2 split is what you should have aimed for anyway, including the dope.
Ive made it a big point to get AWAY from the dope, it's what caused the demise of my college career in the first place and I need to be fully clean of it before I attempt to go back to school or start up a part time job really. I get urges to toke up every day still, but I deleted everyones numbers that I could score anything from and also gotten rid of all my smoking devices as well.
I don't want to run into a situation where I get a part time job, and then I start having extra money lying around and start to get tempted to buy dope again and repeat a serious err of my life again.
On May 22 2013 22:09 corpuscle wrote:If you're interested in making money, check out Quantopian. It's a simulated high-frequency trading environment where people write their own algorithms for practice/fun. The reason I recommend it is that first of all, you can learn how to code, and if you want to get a good job without getting a degree, learning how to code is a great way to do it. You can teach yourself fairly easily, and software engineering is one of the highest-paid professions out there. It's not easy to get your foot in the door without a degree, but it isn't going to be easy to get an entry-level job anywhere without a degree. Second, it'll show you what the world of stock trading is like now. HFT algorithms rule the world. Experts have estimated that between 60-70% of all trades are totally automated nowadays. They trade in much higher volume than you, they make decisions faster than you, and they don't need to worry about getting a good payoff as much as you. Investing is a completely different ballgame from what you might be expecting. edit: Also, there's nothing saying you can't get a job and go to community college at the same time. Many (most?) CC students have jobs. You don't want to end up regretting not having gone to college. A college degree is the best investment you can make, despite what people who got a degree and are now unemployed will tell you. Get a degree in something that is practical (CS, engineering, etc.), and you will get a job.
I don't think it would be too difficult to LEARN how to code, but to pursue it as a career, I can't really see myself doing that or having any sort of passion for it and I don't want to get stuck into having a job simply for the money because then I'll most likely end up like what Thrill says below
On May 22 2013 22:33 Thrill wrote:
You are what's wrong with America.
A person who supports low taxes for the wealthy because one day you'll 'make it', when in reality you'll find someone you love, get a job to support a fledgling family and then, instead of paying for your kids to go to a top tier college, feed them platitudes referring to their ability to "do anything".
If you actually pursue this i'll respect you, but i'm willing to bet your current net worth at 10:1 odds you won't.
Don't get me wrong, you can become anything you want, including the next mr. Buffet, but none of the decisions you've made so far have helped you on your way.
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Have fun living a boring life 
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Personally, I'd care more about being R1CH.
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On May 22 2013 23:17 Doodsmack wrote:
lol @ how greedy our generation is.
You think this is limited to our generation?
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I have a get rich plan as well:
1. Study physics and/or math get masters, PhD if I enjoy it enough
2. Teach myself programming on the side
3. Make money?
If you want to get rich you need to start a bussiness.
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Independent stock portfolios are pretty much useless unless you recognize it as a hobby, and not a way to get rich quick. Unless you are basically a professional investor yourself, it's much better to put your money in long term funds, assets, bonds, etc. unless you really need your money to be liquid. If I were you I'd stop focusing on the stock market, because you will likely never make it without getting extremely lucky (and if you do get rich, it will be 99% luck) or without having solid credentials, like a degree from a target school for banking.
If you want to make money, just think about what the "big thing" is right now. It has to be something that, at least at the moment, doesn't require a ton of starting capital. Oil about 100 years ago was sort of like this. During the ~Renaissance it was trading (though owning a ship was a big boon). About 40 years ago it was the beginnings of software development. Now, it should be obvious that it's the web.
Now, lots of people are trying to make it in the web. You can't just make a blog or some shitty conspiracy web page and expect to make money. What you really need to make a lot of money would be something that would fill a niche that is currently empty or inadequately filled. This could be social networking, but soon I think people are going to realize how over-hyped the monetary potential of it actually is (Facebook was overvalued at its IPO and might even be overvalued today). It probably WON'T be the sale of tangible goods, unless they are really niche and really expensive, like very high-performance computer parts/ car parts. Amazon is already doing pretty well and it can take substantial money to store all your stuff.
I'm not going to figure out for you what the next big thing is, because if I knew I sure as hell wouldn't tell some random on the internet. I will tell you that if you can find it, you could easily be the next ZUCKERBURG. I don't think anyone will become the next Buffet without a very complicated and mathematically heavy trading algorithm. We live in a different age, and since you presumably have little knowledge of mathematics, economics, and finance (being a 1st yr college dropout) I will assume that this is, at the moment, quite beyond your ability.
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I don't think it would be too difficult to LEARN how to code, but to pursue it as a career, I can't really see myself doing that or having any sort of passion for it and I don't want to get stuck into having a job simply for the money because then I'll most likely end up like what Thrill says below
Well, you can either do something you like, or you can make money. If you're one of the lucky few that's genuinely interested in learning skills that are profitable, great, but most people aren't. You sure as hell aren't going to make good money in the stock market, unless you have unbelievable amounts of luck.
You said that you admire Buffet because he made a lot of smart and safe investments (paraphrasing, of course). The smart and safe investments to make in your life are investing in school and marketable skills, not looking towards the stock market. On average, a college graduate earns $1 million more in their lifetime than a high school graduate (look it up). For 4-5 years of your life and ~$50-100k, you cannot beat that kind of return on investment.
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On May 23 2013 05:01 Chocolate wrote:
Independent stock portfolios are pretty much useless unless you recognize it as a hobby, and not a way to get rich quick. Unless you are basically a professional investor yourself, it's much better to put your money in long term funds, assets, bonds, etc. unless you really need your money to be liquid. If I were you I'd stop focusing on the stock market, because you will likely never make it without getting extremely lucky (and if you do get rich, it will be 99% luck) or without having solid credentials, like a degree from a target school for banking.
If you want to make money, just think about what the "big thing" is right now. It has to be something that, at least at the moment, doesn't require a ton of starting capital. Oil about 100 years ago was sort of like this. During the ~Renaissance it was trading (though owning a ship was a big boon). About 40 years ago it was the beginnings of software development. Now, it should be obvious that it's the web.
Now, lots of people are trying to make it in the web. You can't just make a blog or some shitty conspiracy web page and expect to make money. What you really need to make a lot of money would be something that would fill a niche that is currently empty or inadequately filled. This could be social networking, but soon I think people are going to realize how over-hyped the monetary potential of it actually is (Facebook was overvalued at its IPO and might even be overvalued today). It probably WON'T be the sale of tangible goods, unless they are really niche and really expensive, like very high-performance computer parts/ car parts. Amazon is already doing pretty well and it can take substantial money to store all your stuff.
I'm not going to figure out for you what the next big thing is, because if I knew I sure as hell wouldn't tell some random on the internet. I will tell you that if you can find it, you could easily be the next ZUCKERBURG. I don't think anyone will become the next Buffet without a very complicated and mathematically heavy trading algorithm. We live in a different age, and since you presumably have little knowledge of mathematics, economics, and finance (being a 1st yr college dropout) I will assume that this is, at the moment, quite beyond your ability.
The only reason I put so much emphasis on my stocks is that it is basically one of my two hobbies and therefore takes up a pretty significant portion of my day keeping up to date with staying current with CEOs, acquisitions, and business failures spanning 2 continents.
I don't expect to make it on wall street, but I do expect to maintain my long term savings in my stock portfolio because lets face it, at the almost 0% interest you accumulate in a savings account and the ~2% inflation, if you keep your savings sedentary in a savings account, it becomes devalued over time and it doesn't bode well with me by just having my money in a savings account, slowly becoming worth less as the year goes by.
The only area I see that can still have tangible success really is in food, but I'm more of a eater of food rather than a maker of food. And I believe 100% facebook is still pretty overvalued even at ~25$ a share. Facebook's IPO gets a lot of hate especially because it was a highly anticipated IPO that was supposed to set the bar of technology/internet IPO success.
But Zuckerberg made the right decision. As long as he can stand the mostly negative press (public company now), Facebooks market cap is still 50+ billion, which is great for HIM and the company (get ready for some awesome R&D), but not great for the investors who are supplying the money. If he kept the company private, finding private funding for that much money would be near impossible and he would have had to accept something less than compared what the IPO brought in.
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It sounds to me like you're just kind of lost and trying to figure out your life. Which, I know very well, is pretty damn difficult. But thankfully you realize that you have time on your side for things to change, and hopefully supportive parents who are understanding of the predicament our generation is in after graduating high school or college.
Find books about things you're interested in and read. That's my suggestion. I wish I had done that before I got my degree, because I've found a wide range of things I'm interested in that do not remotely use what I learned in school. Look up some books, go to your library and pick them up. They also have audio books there which are awesome.
When you know what you want to do, just market yourself and don't be afraid of failure.
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EPT
