Investing Comes Naturally to Me and That Makes It All the More Complicated

I also think this is why it is so hard for me to sometimes believe, investing, is something that has the ability to create financial security.

Growing up, financial matters were a thing, money was often talked about, because there wasn’t enough of it. People who didn’t work would take from others. In my own childhood home for example, one parent worked, another was stay at home, but when the working parent became sick, money matters became even tighter.

Siblings of mine were known for stealing. I too became a product of my environment, even when I knew it wasn’t right. Eventually it became a way to survive. There were times when food was so scarce that I would rummage through the pantries in the home, finding anything to eat. I would steal Poptarts and snacks from a friend’s house, their pantry was well stocked and food over there often went to waste.

I remember when I found a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom, with some bread and butter. That ended up being the meal I made and I gave it to my parents after I found out they hadn’t eaten. Times were hard. When I couldn’t find food in the home, I resorted to taking food. I wasn’t proud of stealing, still, I often shared it with some of the people in the home.

In my later years, earning money was thought of having to be back breaking. It had to be hard. Tough. A struggle. All these words and negative connotations surrounded money. But even then I always wondered how one became rich. I once asked Santa for a box of eggnog and a million dollars. Years later I found out that my parents had kept the letter.

I chuckle looking back at it now. I would have been content with that. I imagine my 8 year old self sitting on a pile of money while drinking a carton of eggnog, happy as can be. When I was a teenager I remember trying to learn about stocks but it sounded so silly. No one around me encouraged it. Teachers, parents, and everyone around me either…

A) Weren’t interested in the world of investing.

or

B) Thought the stock market was a scam.

It was’t until my adult years that I became really interested in learning as much as I could about successful people, reading every finance and business book I could get my hands on. From Rich Dad Poor Dad, Midas Touch, Think and Grow Rich, etc. Decent books to create the mindset, but deep down they didn’t resonate with me and I knew something was missing.

I couldn’t relate to these men and the books felt disaligned with my personality. I couldn’t put my finger on it then, but now I know its because I relate more to intellectual written works that truly provide value to the average reader looking to create financial security from an average lifestyle. So works like, The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mindset, One Up On Wall Street, speak to me more than the previous books mentioned ever did.

It wasn’t until I watched the Pursuit of Happyness, that for the first time I knew I wanted to work in the world of finance and business in some shape of form regardless of what other people around me said or what my environment showed other wise. The book is just as good, I read it over twice and plan on doing a third read this year.

Fast forward to now, as an investor and lover of stocks, good quality businesses, I still see the same struggle and mindset of money around me. Even people who have good incomes, still struggle with the concept of financial wellbeing and this has been a problem well before the pandemic and the ugly roaring head of inflation.

Being low income myself, it was a bit of a wake up call when I found out that just saving a minimum of $5 to put back into a stock could start turning the tide in my favor. I was seeing my money work for me for the first time and I fell in love. This was what I had been seeking my entire life and I just didn’t know it.

Bits and pieces were here and there, the interest in stocks at a young age, the enamoured feeling I would get when watching Christmas movies set against the backdrop of New York City, Chicago or Minneapolis. Men and women in winter coats, brief cases in hand, presents in others. Money not being a single concern.

Often the plots were around family matters, martial problems or business endeavors, but never money. The latter was what I was interested in the most and I wanted to know how I could make money a non issue in my world.

As an investor in present day I am still building my financial wealth but for the first time I see a road map ahead me that wasn’t there before.

Even if I were to lose it all and had to start over, I now know that there is an easier way to become financially free and this has been discombulating for me as someone who has come from an environment where people became their worst versions of themselves over small sums of money.

This goes against everything I have been taught or subconsciously picked up on from the environment in which I grew up in. Making money shouldn’t be this easy!

No, it is only for the wealthy, the rest of us are suppose to either struggle to get it or worse, have just enough of it where we are comfortable but continue to work in jobs and careers that we hate to maintain the level of comfort.

Investing and making money work for me was not given as a third option. Furthermore, I grew up without guidance. Things were so messed up in the home, that going to college wasn’t even a mention nor learning how to drive a car at the age of sixteen.

This all leads back to why oftentimes when I find something comes naturally and I am able to achieve results, I think I am doing something wrong or missing a puzzle piece, because it just shouldn’t be this easy.

Things shouldn’t be this easy, not from what I have been taught or been shown.

But yet investing and other endeavors have shown me the complete opposite that life doesn’t have to be the kind of hard that I grew up with.

Don’t get me wrong, life in itself is hard, but to me, there is natural hard, like the death of parents, a family pet, trying to start a business and then there is abnormal hard, like having to steal food, surviving an abusive environment, or the murder of your bestfriend.

Yet, investing comes so naturally to me that it makes me feel at home and when I am not investing, reading financial articles or contributing to this side of my life, I feel lost at times, like it is a piece of my life’s puzzle, that is so important that it has to be put into place.

Sure, we all have missing puzzle pieces to our life, but just like actual puzzles, there are pieces that can be lost and the picture is still clear, but then there are pieces that make or break the entire puzzle if missing.

As I venture further into my journey of being an investor and starting my private investment fund, I believe one day I will grow comfortable with the dollar amounts growing and the ease of investing.

That is not to say investing itself is easy, but the process comes naturally and there is something homey about it.