I'm 21 years old as I write this, on the verge of becoming a true adult. I am coming to the end of my degree in Chemical and Process Engineering, with only 9 months, 2 projects and 4 subjects left to complete. My personality that led me to be here, taking engineering, is very much the reason why I have also gotten into investing.
One could say that it started just after I was born and my parents and family members opened and started to contribute to a savings account in my name. However, I never really had any idea about money for a long time after that.
It could also be said that it started when I received a letter in the post, stating I had won $20 in Bonus Bonds. I remember asking my mother about them and finding out that my grandmother had bought me some bonus bonds and what they were. They sounded amazing, like a lotto ticket that you only had to purchase once. I thought they were a great investment, not that I even knew that word at the time.
But it truly started on my 19th birthday. My mother offered to transfer me 319 shares in Steel and Tube (STU), which had been my great-grandfathers, from when he had worked there. This started me down the long path that has led to today. While I did not have much of an interest in shares for a while after receiving STU, another letter came in the post a year later.
This time, instead of receiving money, the letter was from STU. They were performing a "Capital Raise", whatever that meant and were asking for money. In my nativity, I thought this must be a good thing and took up my full entitlement under the rights offer and then some, putting in a total of about $500 (a lot of money to me at the time) without consulting anyone or doing any research. That investment performed very well... for a few months. As at 06/03/2020, I have lost over $100 in that investment.
From the moment I sent the money away, I began researching what shares were, how they worked and everything about them. I watched videos, subscribed to the Financial Times, read articles, looked at investment advisors, everything. In doing so, I came across the site "Sharesies", a brand new startup in my home town of Wellington. I decided to give it a go and so whacked in $50 and bought some random funds that sounded good. Those investments went up, then went down, then up, down, up, flat, down and up again. I had no idea what was going on but was keen to find out. So I kept researching and putting in more money, trying out different funds and different buying strategies.
After I had given it a go myself and had achieved some moderate success, I also convinced my good friend Henry to give it a go. I got him to invest $20 (he's a bit more conservative than me), but he didn't really enjoy it and gave up after a little while. I, on the other hand, poured over every bit of information I could find and sunk hundreds of hours into it.
Next in my journey, I was on a flight from Wellington back to Christchurch. I was bored, so I read the magazine the airline provided. I remember seeing an ad for Craig's Investment Partners where you could start investing professionally from $100 a month. It took me a little while to decide that it was worth a try. This time, I started with $1,000 straight into the Craig's funds, although this time I did so with a lot more knowledge about what my goals were and how was best to achieve them.
At the moment, my investments have grown from the 319 STU shares to over $12,000 worth of investments and I am adding more all the time.
In case you were wondering, I have sold all my Bonus Bonds. Turns out they weren't the great investment I thought they were.
Daniel
