Thursday, May 14, 1998

Birth of a Fool
By Anthony Ragan ([email protected])

Well, I finally did it. After a year of reading the Motley Fool on America Online, on the web, and in print (still gotta finish the Workbook), I made my first purchases this morning. It was only two Keystone stocks, but it's a start -- and I'll be adding money regularly. Debt's going down and, most importantly, I feel I have some control over my life for the first time in a long time. (I ain't kidding.)

Back when I was still in grad school (circa 1982), I mentioned to an acquaintance that I was thinking of investing in stocks; even then I knew it was the best place for my long-term money. Well, he was in business school and training to be one of the Wise. He laughed and, in a roundabout way, told me I was out of my depth, throwing all sorts of jargon at me. I was convinced -- my specialty was Brazilian History, not the stock market. This "expert" had to be right.

So, I gave up any idea of investing in the stock market, even though it was always in the back of my mind that I had been right and he, wrong. But I didn't do anything about it and let my money languish in a savings account and watched the credit cards eat away at my future.

One day, about a year ago, I finally clicked on that Jester icon that kept popping up on my welcome screen. The first thing I read was one of Robert Sheard's nightly Workshop columns. I don't even recall what it was about, but I remember that it struck me for its simplicity and common-sense -- and the assertion that I could competently make my own decisions about my own danged money!

Well, I was hooked. I read all the portfolio reports, several message boards, started reading www.fool.com while at work, and even bought the Fool books! I studied the strategies and the stocks I was interested in, decided how aggressive I wanted to be, saved my pennies, and got my debts in order. Last night, to paraphrase Lord John Whorfin in Buckaroo Banzai, "History would-a be made at night!"

So I bought some America Online and Dell Computer, with the plan to buy more Keystone stocks as I saved the money. Yes, I know they're volatile and what soars like Icarus can also crash, but the key is that I made my own choices for reasons I understood and could defend. And when that stupid commercial next comes on (the one with the guy playing with his kids who says its time to grow up and let someone else manage your money), I'll just laugh out loud.

And that's the thing that's more important than even buying the stocks themselves. For someone like me, whose life has been in a rut for fifteen years and who felt increasingly powerless to do anything about it (and I bet I'm not the only one among the readers here who's felt that way), the Motley Fool has actually given me back some of my self-confidence and sense of direction. And that's more important to me than the price of any stock.

Thanks, Fools.

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