During my senior year in high school, my economics teacher thought it would be a neat little exercise to have us students learn about the world of investments. So she had a couple of local stock brokers come in and give us a couple of presentations. Mutual funds, the stock market, penny stocks, treasury bonds, junk bonds, the works. The number of choices were mind boggling! All with different risk and reward potentials.
All this had a purpose however. Our teacher then gave us an assignment to put together an investment portfolio with an imaginary $10,000, along with the reasons why. With a couple of weeks to go, I started looking at various choices and finally settled for the balanced investment approach; some in mutual funds, some in money market accounts, and some in stocks. Of the stocks, I selected three stocks; one being a blue chip that returned steady dividends, one that I thought one would turn over periodically, and one that was a long shot that I thought a patient investor might, just might (!?) make money at.
Well, my paper got a B-, so it probably wasn't such a great investment strategy! Its short term earnings potential was moderate, and it proposed an unknown earnings possibility with the 'long shot' investment. So what! At least I got a B-.
Got through college without much fanfare; graduating in computer sciences. At that time, it was still pretty much wide open as to where the industry was going. But I figured that technology would be one of the significant drivers of our lives in the future so stuck with the curriculum. Glad that I did.
Anyway, I seemed to take to computer technology and infrastructure design and did well in school. At least well enough to land a fairly decent job upon graduation. I became a technology designer for a hardware manufacturer located in Silicon Valley. Yep, a technology designer working in 'Chip City'!
What's a technology designer you ask? Good question! I asked the same question when I was hired. But since I was looking at a reasonably good starting paycheck, I wasn't going to question it too much. As it turns out, technology design really interested me!
What it is, is the art of taking advancements in technology and seeing if they can be melded together in such a manner so as to address a future market need. That's how laptop computers, PDA's, routers, digital cameras and other stuff came about. And I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
So there I was, with a dream job, making more than a few bucks in the process, but working my butt off six or seven days a week. And the travel! I had to be able to pick up and go at any moment. It wasn't uncommon to be called to New York or Chicago at any given moment! Video conferencing was still in its infancy development stage at that time. But that did eventually make it into the real world, didn't it!
When I was around 25 or so, I was doing my tax returns before the annual deadlines caught me unprepared again! My investment income was horrible. I decided that I really needed to take my liquidity and invest it into things that would give me a suitable return. So I dusted off my old high school investment paper and gave it a quick look see.
Well, I still didn't see anything wrong with it so I went to see a broker the next day over my lunch hour. He gave me a couple of mutual funds to take a look at along with their cash management account details. He also gave me a couple of stocks that he considered long shots, if I wanted to take the risk.
I took a look at the stuff that night and decided to plunk down most of my cash into a mutual fund, a lesser amount in their cash management account, and enough in stocks to buy 1,000 shares in a small computer manufacturer that seemed to have potential. It was listed at 9-3/8 on the broker's informational sheet so I figured that it was cheap enough that it made the risk affordable. We all know this company as it really went big time later!
After the paperwork was done and the money transferred, I promptly went back to work and forgot all about the investments that I had made. Good thing the mutual funds were managed by someone else! Anyway, the funds and the cash management account returns were ok. And I lost track of what the stock was doing but I figured that I would keep it for a rainy day anyway.
Anyway, the hustle and bustle of the job was exciting in the beginning however it became tiring after 10 years or so. Plus, with me on the road so much, and not knowing where I was going to be from week to week, it was hard to establish a meaningful relationship with someone of the opposite sex. Something that I regretted.
It wasn't so much that I wasn't getting any. But the occasional one night stands and casual link ups left me empty afterwards. The sex was great! The babes tended to be younger with lots of energy. But relationships were generally not high on their agendas. So after a night of great sex, I would usually feel unsatisfied and disappointed. I guess we were just using each other to get off! So I lost interest in one night hook ups.
Back to the here and now........
So here I was at age 44. Spent 21 years with the company that I started with. They had been good to me but the bubble was about to pop. At least I could see it coming. We had attracted too much attention with our success and we were about to be acquired by a larger company. Actually, it was that same company that I had invested in years ago.
They wanted the patent rights and trade registrations to a couple of our products that had turned golden! What better way to acquire them then to acquire the company that owned them. Not only do you get access to the patents and trade registrations, but you also get access to the company's earnings and cash flow! Well the acquisition was history before anyone had an idea of what was going on.
With the acquisition unfortunately came the layoffs. The redundant departments were the first to be let go. Then those of us who were high on the salary matrixes were next. And with my 21 years, I was really high in the salary matrix. So I had become another nameless statistic in the world of M&A's; that's mergers and acquisitions to those of us who haven't been 'touched' yet!
They wanted me to stay however at a much reduced compensation level. I felt that was a lot of bull! I didn't give my all to the company to now be treated like chattel. So I applied for and received full retirement even though I lacked the age. At least I met the years of service plus age requirement to qualify for retirement. Although I had to wait until age 60 to begin receiving benefits, my monthly income would be about $5,000 per month, not including social security benefits, assuming that it wouldn't be broke before I started drawing my retirement.
On my last day of work, I was asked to report to Human Resources where I was met by some personnel flunky who must have been all of 22 years of age. And he had the gall to remind me that I had signed a non-compete agreement when I was first hired by my original employer.
I promptly told him to stuff it up his ass and walked out. On the way out I informed him that if the company chose to enforce that archaic agreement against me, that he could expect to be talking with my attorney. No smart ass was going to tell me what to do! The hell with him and the hell with this company! I guess I caused quite a scene as I departed! Everyone was looking at me as I strode down the hallway and into the next available elevator!
I was so pissed I decided on the spot to cash out all of my company stock that I had purchased years ago! Perhaps it was going to be more symbolic than anything else! After all, the sale of 1,000 shares of stock wasn't going to set the world on its edge! Well, at least I would get my satisfaction; well at least some satisfaction.
