After I retired from teaching after forty years, I desperately needed something to occupy my time. I tried golf and tennis but it’s difficult and frustrating starting a new sport in your sixties. Later I tried out some hobbies, but building model airplanes and ships in bottles was just not for me. I needed to find something a little more interesting and exciting. That’s when I decided to learn to trade in the stock market. My wife and I had a small portfolio we rarely looked at and never changed. And, like most people, our little assemblage of stocks and bonds had been hammered into the ground during the recent economic crisis.
After a few weeks of research, I called my broker—I couldn’t even remember his name—and told him I wanted to learn to trade. He informed me that he could give me a few tips about how to adjust our portfolio, but I said I wanted to learn to trade myself. Though he strongly advised me against it, he ended up giving me valuable advice. To begin with, he told me that managing a portfolio was very hard work that required patience and a whole lot of research. He also said if I was going to learn to trade stocks, I had to decide on a level of risk I was comfortable with. As retirees, my wife and I relied on the fixed income we received from interest on bonds as well as dividends from equities. Therefore, my broker instructed me to create a risk adverse portfolio.
I thanked him for his time and went about creating an online account with a company that had been recommended to me by a friend. Before I did anything, I made sure my wife approved every stock I was interested in. In the coming weeks, I went about acquiring stocks and bonds as well as a few commodities. I believed I had created a diversified portfolio that would provide us with the fixed income we would depend on in the future. I am grateful to my former broker for helping me learn to trade online, but I don’t regret leaving him. I have saved a good deal of money on commission charges and I also have more control over our portfolio. I’m glad I made the decision to take control of our finances and invest on my own.
