Mental Meanderings

ASX - Single Mother Turned Investor

I recently came into some shares and my family had been talking about selling them. No one in my family are stock market investors. I think my stepfather and his brothers were burned a few years back by taking some big risk without knowing enough about it. So he has the opinion that you don't make money on the stock exchange.

Obviously this isn't right because investors make money all the time. In fact some people make substantial profits investing. It takes a little know how, and a little luck. In a way it's gambling. Poker. BUT... the difference is you can count the cards. If you count the cards (do your research) you can have a fair idea what's coming up next for particular companies and make smart choices.

At least that's how I've always understood things. Today I decided to see what I could find out about the stock exchange and investing. I've got a friend who has a shares portfolio and does very well for himself. With all the talk of my family selling their shares I knew there would be a point where I had to decide what to do with mine.

I'm not going to go into details about what kind of figures we are talking here because well, it's a bit silly to tell the entire world if you've got a lot of money. Having said that let me assure you all we aren't talking great riches. I mean I had an entry a couple of weeks back about winning the lotto and this is nothing like that. But let me explain how it came about that I've got shares.

Fourteen years ago when I turned ten my mother took me and my sister into the city to open our own bank accounts with the credit union she was a member of. To join we paid $2 each for one share in the union each and this gave us a savings account with debit card. Years later in 2000 I was still a member, very pleased with our little home grown union and I opened a bank account in my daughters name to get her started in the financial world. Then again in 2004 I opened another account in Joshua's name. The cost of their shares was a little more (inflation) $10 each.

This year by concensus vote of all share holders (yep I got to have a vote) we decided to allow a merger between the union and another. As part of the merger all shareholders/members had their share paid out (to a fairly interesting profit) and were also given a collection of shares in the new union that had been formed by the merger. Because as a family we had three accounts we have three lots of both the payout and the shares which leaves a nice chunk to get started in the investment games of the Australian Stock Exchange.

I walk talking to my best friend about all this recently. He's the one who has his own portfolio and when I told him how I'd come into the shares (and told him what they were worth) he said: "You are friggen awesome! You need to keep investing! You will make a fortune!" Apparently my fluke shows that I have some luck with money. He later added, "You are one sharp cookie! You intuitively understand some key points about investing. You should research and then invest. You impress me already. You understand the concepts and now you gotta decide the path you want to go. But yes, invest it."

I have been looking into it. I checked out the ASX and there are some free courses there that can teach me a little more about how it all works. I also had a look at exactly what the index says about the shares I have and exactly how much they're worth to me today. I also learnt that they do pay a quarterly dividend so it sounds like I ended up with a fairly nice starter portfolio and from an investment of $22.

Now it's a case of learning all I can so that I can see what I can do with this money. To me it's a case of money that isn't really mine. It's something I can invest without feeling like I'm risking my own money. It's figures on a page not real cash and I'd prefer to keep thinking of it that way. My family would try to convince me that it IS real money, but because I didn't earn it, because it kinda just fell into my lap because of a lucky 'investment' in the past I feel like I could use it and not be afraid that if I make a bad choice and lose it all I've sunk myself financially. But the truth is I could really make some money if I learn how to use it.

So, I'm a single mother turned investor. *grins* If anyone knows anything about investing finances I'm interested in picking your brain to learn more about how it all works. Currently I'm only paying attention to the Australian Stock Exchange since I feel safer sticking close to home for the moment but who knows, maybe as I gain experience I'll go global.

I'm "one sharp cookie" and I figure that this is exactly the sort of thing to interest me. I was interested in it for years but to get started needed to invest thousands of dollars so it wasn't something I could take a chance doing. Now I think I'm ready and I want to give it a go. Somehow I think I'll probably be pretty good at it too. Even with my aversion to numbers I've found that it just makes sense to me. I can see the flows and trends and I'll learn in time how world affairs effect things. I love research and I know how to find out information. I'm already exhilirated by the idea. *chuckles*