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sarabee1995 · 26-30, FVIP
A lot. But I got it covered.
I bought a few investment condos when I was on active duty (and living on pennies) and I sold them when I bought my current home so the mortgage is less than most of my neighbors (it's a townhouse in a condo complex). I think I'm the "poorest" person living here (by income).
I bought a few investment condos when I was on active duty (and living on pennies) and I sold them when I bought my current home so the mortgage is less than most of my neighbors (it's a townhouse in a condo complex). I think I'm the "poorest" person living here (by income).
sarabee1995 · 26-30, FVIP
@swirlie Interesting. Didn't know that. My grandfather came here as a kid from Ireland. His family had nothing to start with. He built a property business slowly adding properties every year. I worked with him all through high school and most of college. He didn't trust the stock market and put every penny he had into properties. I've picked up his preferences.
@sarabee1995
Your grandfather was wise about his investment choice. The stock market is a shell-game, no different than all mutual funds are pyramid schemes.
I remember reading a biography about Henry Ford and how his innovative ways fine-tuned the concept of the automobile assembly line, an invention he learned about and then witnessed in operation on a visit to Germany back in his day.
Henry Ford in the 1920's was deeply involved in the stock market of the day, but he went on to say that the stock market was a very closed society of high rollers somewhat like himself, all of whom had money, old family money ..and money they simply didn't know what to do with, so the stock market became a 'good `ol boy's' Friday night poker game as he described it.
Basically he said, big American money was controlling the stock market outcome each day, simply because everyone at the table talked to each other and everyone sort of knew everyone's poker hand so to speak!
Then one day when he got onto his Executive elevator in his office building when he showed up for work in the morning, there inside the elevator was a member of his building's cleaning staff who was polishing the elevator's interior when Henry showed up.
Henry pressed his office floor button which I presume wasn't the basement and rode with the cleaning guy and his cleaning-supply cart to his floor where they both got off the elevator and continued their daily routine.
During that elevator ride Henry recalled, the cleaning guy said to Henry that he bought a bunch of stock from a Stock Broker and was now offering Henry some inside information, a hot stock tip, that he got from the guy up the street who sells bagels from a sidewalk confections stand.
Henry thanked him for his 'hot tip', then immediately went into his office and called his stock broker and told him to sell EVERYTHING he has in the stock market, which his Broker immediately did.
Henry said in his biography that when the day came that a common person who cleans floors and takes garbage out of my building is trading stocks alongside him on the stock exchange through a Broker, it will be the day that he would no longer be invested in the stock market.
That was 1928 when he had that experience, at which point Henry apparently told all his poker buddies of his experience in his office elevator that day!
Your grandfather was wise about his investment choice. The stock market is a shell-game, no different than all mutual funds are pyramid schemes.
I remember reading a biography about Henry Ford and how his innovative ways fine-tuned the concept of the automobile assembly line, an invention he learned about and then witnessed in operation on a visit to Germany back in his day.
Henry Ford in the 1920's was deeply involved in the stock market of the day, but he went on to say that the stock market was a very closed society of high rollers somewhat like himself, all of whom had money, old family money ..and money they simply didn't know what to do with, so the stock market became a 'good `ol boy's' Friday night poker game as he described it.
Basically he said, big American money was controlling the stock market outcome each day, simply because everyone at the table talked to each other and everyone sort of knew everyone's poker hand so to speak!
Then one day when he got onto his Executive elevator in his office building when he showed up for work in the morning, there inside the elevator was a member of his building's cleaning staff who was polishing the elevator's interior when Henry showed up.
Henry pressed his office floor button which I presume wasn't the basement and rode with the cleaning guy and his cleaning-supply cart to his floor where they both got off the elevator and continued their daily routine.
During that elevator ride Henry recalled, the cleaning guy said to Henry that he bought a bunch of stock from a Stock Broker and was now offering Henry some inside information, a hot stock tip, that he got from the guy up the street who sells bagels from a sidewalk confections stand.
Henry thanked him for his 'hot tip', then immediately went into his office and called his stock broker and told him to sell EVERYTHING he has in the stock market, which his Broker immediately did.
Henry said in his biography that when the day came that a common person who cleans floors and takes garbage out of my building is trading stocks alongside him on the stock exchange through a Broker, it will be the day that he would no longer be invested in the stock market.
That was 1928 when he had that experience, at which point Henry apparently told all his poker buddies of his experience in his office elevator that day!
Heartlander · 80-89, M
@swirlie Henry was one of my childhood favorites, along with Captain Eddie … Rickenbacker.
Didn’t Ford start with an assembly line for pocket watches? And wasn’t his big gamble was on whether the automobile was patent protected?
As a kid reading their stories the inspiring parts were in the logic behind why they did things, why they picked A rather than B. Captain Eddie did a lot of that in his autobiography. His venture into auto making was so insightful. His car company, the Rickenbacker, was the first with 4 wheel braking. A feature heavily criticized as dangerous by competitors and echoed by the media. 5 years later, all car makers had 4 wheel brakes.
Didn’t Ford start with an assembly line for pocket watches? And wasn’t his big gamble was on whether the automobile was patent protected?
As a kid reading their stories the inspiring parts were in the logic behind why they did things, why they picked A rather than B. Captain Eddie did a lot of that in his autobiography. His venture into auto making was so insightful. His car company, the Rickenbacker, was the first with 4 wheel braking. A feature heavily criticized as dangerous by competitors and echoed by the media. 5 years later, all car makers had 4 wheel brakes.
@Heartlander
Didn’t Ford start with an assembly line for pocket watches? And wasn’t his big gamble was on whether the automobile was patent protected?
Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, it was already in production in Europe long before Henry got into the act.
Henry Ford did not invent the assembly line either; it was already in place in Germany before Henry was old enough to drive.
The only thing that Henry did was fine-tune the German assembly line to suit his own needs in America plus supply the demand for automobiles in North America which worked well, provided the customer only wanted a black car because that was the only color they came in for a long time.
Didn’t Ford start with an assembly line for pocket watches? And wasn’t his big gamble was on whether the automobile was patent protected?
Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, it was already in production in Europe long before Henry got into the act.
Henry Ford did not invent the assembly line either; it was already in place in Germany before Henry was old enough to drive.
The only thing that Henry did was fine-tune the German assembly line to suit his own needs in America plus supply the demand for automobiles in North America which worked well, provided the customer only wanted a black car because that was the only color they came in for a long time.
Heartlander · 80-89, M
@swirlie
: ) I didn’t want to imply that Henery invented either the auto or the assembly line process. As you said , he adopted what others were doing and very impressively applied to auto manufacturing. I read his book when I was like 10, and my sometimes flawed memory (but not always) says he applied the assembly line process to making watches prior to diving into the auto manufacturing.
Also, as I think I recall, his issue with the pattern office wasn’t about him gaining a pattern for inventing the automobile but of him challenging others who were filing for pattern rights and challenging the US government on the right of anyone to proclaim that they invented the auto. At the time the entire future of Ford was based on the decision that no one invented the automobile, and that it was but another step in the evolution of travel.
: ) I didn’t want to imply that Henery invented either the auto or the assembly line process. As you said , he adopted what others were doing and very impressively applied to auto manufacturing. I read his book when I was like 10, and my sometimes flawed memory (but not always) says he applied the assembly line process to making watches prior to diving into the auto manufacturing.
Also, as I think I recall, his issue with the pattern office wasn’t about him gaining a pattern for inventing the automobile but of him challenging others who were filing for pattern rights and challenging the US government on the right of anyone to proclaim that they invented the auto. At the time the entire future of Ford was based on the decision that no one invented the automobile, and that it was but another step in the evolution of travel.