A Period of Stupidity Remembered

Tweet

I often talk about my love of money, and the importance of saving and investing. But I am often reminded that I have not always used my noggin for all its worth over the years, and it has cost me dearly. For a period of about three years (maybe it was more like 5), I became involved in penny stock investing. My aim was to speed up the process a bit and make more money. It did not quite work out that way. Penny stocks tore my butt up! I lost $20,000 in a Chinese telecommunications company I bought. I lost $6,000 in a Mexican craft beer company. I lost $8,000 in a bank deal. I lost about $10,000 in a Chinese fish farm in Hainan, China. I lost about $6,000 in a health drink company. I lost about $1000 in a company that was supposed to overtake Dolby. Those are some I remember. Ouch. Luckily my senses on more tried and true companies is much better, and so I have been able to make up for it. My main point here is to remind people (including myself) that yes. There is always risk in investing. But through the process you keep learning. You learn from your mistakes, and certainly you learn from your losses. But you keep at it. You hunker down and figure out what works and what does not, and stop doing what doesn't work and focus in on what does work. You win some, you lose some. But that should never keep someone away from the process of getting ahead. Because despite my losses and some poor decisions and some bad investments... I am still much farther ahead than if I had done nothing at all. It's sort of like riding a bike. The first time I tried to ride one I fell on my butt. Had I given up I'd never have figured out how to stay upright. AND, I also realize that even once I have figured out how to stay upright... I will still fall on my butt from time to time and that's okay. I'll still keep riding. And if I do it right, I will fall on my butt less often than I will stay upright.