Fool.com: The Road to Fooldom (Fribble) September 15, 1998

Tuesday, September 15, 1998

The Road to Fooldom
by Anne Duncan [email protected]

Well, I've been writing this Fribble in my head for a couple of weeks, and with the announcement of TMFSheard's departure and the Fool.com birthday, I decided it was time to put fingers to keyboard and let Robert, the Fool Team, and the community know how you've all helped me start to become less foolish and more Foolish.

Pre-Feb '98: Made contributions to 401(k) mutual funds and annual $2K IRA deposit. Left old IRA investment, which a broker had put me in 10 years ago. No visibility into what my "portfolio" looked like or what I really need to retire. Held stock given to me by my parents 30 years ago that I actually had made DRIP contributions to it for a while (Foolish, and I didn't even know it!). Living with the uneasy feeling and knowledge that in trying to "time" the market, I had missed the run-up of the past two years. All of this made no sense.

Feb '98: There I am, captive audience on a flight to Europe, and who should appear on the video screen but the Gardner boys. As one who rarely watches TV, and by extension, the in-flight ads, the captions under their smiling faces intrigued me. So did what they said: You know more than you think. Invest in stocks. You can beat the market. The usual Foolish stuff. I thought to myself, I should check into this... it might make sense.

April '98: After many weeks travelling, found myself in the personal finance section of my local bookseller, and, what do I see? The Motley Fool Investment Guide. Oh yeah -- those guys I saw on the plane video! Bought it. Read it in a weekend. This stuff seems to make sense!

May '98: Start getting my financial act together. Fired the high-cost broker that was neither helping my IRA make money nor offering useful info and was charging me to keep my IRA monies in the same bond fund for the past eight years (yes, I should have paid attention, but I didn't, so now I am). Got rid of the bond fund. Merged that IRA with another. Bought the Foolish 4 with the proceeds. Upped my 401(k) contribution to the max allowed so at least I'd get more into "savings" -- for me, an active way of living below my means. Started investigating what to move the mutual funds IRA into. Started reading Fool.com. This stuff really makes sense -- and lot of other people think so, too!

June '98: Paid off my not-insignificant credit card debt -- yes, I knew that it was too high and the interest was wasteful, but, as I've already said, my act wasn't together. Figured out what I'll need as income for "retirement;" started thinking about how I'll spend my time during "retirement." Sent a copy of The Guide to my newly-transitioned-from-college-to-investment-banking son and asked "Tell me why this doesn't make sense?" He couldn't.

July '98: Started reading Fool.com regularly; asked questions. Researched my 401(k) choices; moved everything to an S&P index fund. Closed various little savings accounts, and moved my "emergency cash" from my passbook savings account (at 3%) to a short term CD and a money market account. Researched discount brokers. Bought and read, in one day, Robert's The Unemotional Investor. Started feeling confident that I can ask Foolish questions and make sense.

August '98: Chose a discount broker and sent a check. Found the when-to-buy threads and wished I had read them before I bought then decided, no, it's ok, I can fix it in December. Bought software to help keep track of what I've got where. Realized that most of my portfolio is in large cap value stocks, so I subscribed to the Foolish 8 spreadsheet to start growth opportunity research. Determined how to get regular monthly investments into my brokerage account. Investigating reducing my 401(k) contribution to only what I need for company match and managing the rest myself. Finally figured out the difference between UV and UG. Spending lots of time at Fool.com and sorting out screens, portfolios, and the right choices for me. Feeling like my sense will now make lots more cents!

August 26th: After not reading Fool.com for two days, learn that Robert is leaving TMF -- and while it's great that he's off on a new adventure, it feels terrible! He makes so much sense.

So, at age 51, I'm actively paying attention to how I'll retire, I have more than I thought, and I feel confident that I can actually turn that into more cents.

My lessons learned:
1. It's never too late to start -- it'll be later if you wait.
2. I too can invest at my comfort level -- and weather the market of the last few weeks while sleeping soundly.
3. Making sense/cents can be fun. This is a great community. Thanks to all who contribute. I've learned from everyone.

[Hey Fools, why not pen a Fribble, yourself? We welcome submissions from readers. Just click here and read the "What's a Fribble?" item, pen a short masterpiece, and send it off to TMF [email protected].]