Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Great Reset
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin and Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity and Vanguard Since 1971

How Long Have You Been in the Investment Business?

February 9, 2023 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By Number1411 @ Shutterstock.com

“How long have you been in the investment business?” he asked.

Life Comes at You Fast. Slow It Down with My Friday Email. It’s Free.

“Most of my adult life,” I said.

“Did you know when you were my age (18) what you wanted to do?”

“Not really. I went to business school at Babson College, worked at Fidelity Investments, and I’ve been here for 25 years.”

“That’s cool,” he said. “My grandpa and grandma tell me all about you guys.”

…………

Here’s the longer version.

Growing up, we always talked about business at home. But it wasn’t about money. My dad would talk about interactions with customers he’d had that day, and because this was pre-internet, he had all kinds of tidbits about what was going on at the local level.

My dad was an incredible salesman because no one ever viewed him as one.

He learned the people business by scooping ice cream, pumping gas, going door to door as a Fuller Brush Man, selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners, and Dictaphones when living in Boston.

Then he worked at Acushnet Co. (maker of Titleist golf balls), where he wasn’t in sales, and when cuts came around, it was LIFO (last in, first out). A lifelong lesson we talk about to this day.

After he and his dad talked, it was clear he needed to be in front of the customer, not behind closed doors.

With a young family to support, necessity put a sign on our front yard saying he was open for business. He wanted to help you sell your home. Over the years, he bought an office overlooking beautiful Mattapoisett harbor, working on the first floor and renting out the second. It’s where he and my mom live today.

Everyone in town knew my dad. They liked doing business with him. He worked all the time. Not just Saturdays, every day. That’s the nature of working for yourself. But what I’ll never forget is he was always around for us.

Now my mom, she always had CNBC tuned in on our little tv in the kitchen. She was passionate about stocks. She just loved the business of investing and seeing the markets work. This was during an exciting time for the markets. But that’s not the biggest impact my mom had on me.

My mom, as a sixth-grade teacher, would have a stock market contest every year for her kids. She would teach them how to read stock quotes in the newspaper. And here’s the kicker. For me as a third grader, I would hang on to every word she told about the big kids on the playground. I’d hear about who was in the band, on what hockey team they played, and who was the lead in the play—the stock game was a way for me to learn more about the big kids. That was fun.

Business was about a beautiful Porsche under a cover in a customer’s garage, or a soda machine that had sarsaparilla and cream soda that he brought home, or a chocolate almond crescent from a baker friend, or a box of Dorothy Cox candies because he was in Fairhaven, or peanuts for my mom from the corner store in New Bedford that were still warm.

Action Line: I want to hear your stories. When you’re ready to talk, let me know.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. 

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • A Guaranteed Investment
  • My 2018 Investment Perspective
  • Good to See Paris Is Open for Business
  • Dragon Tours Open for Business
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998.

E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention.

E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris.

Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com

Click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)
  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball - September 29, 2023
  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While” - September 29, 2023
  • “Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone” - September 28, 2023

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Who Wants to Depopulate the Earth?
  • The Masters of the Universe Align Themselves with CHINA Using YOUR Money?
  • Victor Davis Hanson: How to Bust DC’s Stronghold
  • You Need to Seek Some Shelter for When Things Get Ugly
  • Florida: Enjoy Certain Freedoms and Individual Liberties
  • Mises and Rothbard Finally Get Their Due
  • What Do You Know About Rho-Kinase?
  • The Claremont Institute: Protecting the American Way of Life
  • Meet Me at Freddy’s June 2022
  • Your Odds with Statins: 500 to 1?

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Skyrocketing Costs of Building a Green Grid Are Starting
  • The Government Attack on Americans' Independence
  • Wellington and Wellesley Funds Not Managed by Vanguard
  • Fighting Russian Power with a Hill of Crosses
  • Your Survival Guy Fishing with Dolphins
  • “You Didn’t Eat That Again, Did You?”
  • Speaking of Bad Ideas …
  • The Constitutional Case Against CBDCs
  • The Single Worst Market Timing Event in History
  • "But What Happened to Eggs?"

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • “Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”
  • India Choose to Promote Coastal Trade. The US Should Too
  • “No Way I’m Spending That Much on Those”
  • The War Machine’s Manpower Problem
  • Profits Becoming Elusive in China
  • “You Didn’t Eat That Again, Did You?”
  • Your Survival Guy Fishing with Dolphins
  • The Single Worst Market Timing Event in History
  • Government Intervention Begets More Intervention

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball
  • Your Survival Guy: “Life on Main Street Hasn’t Been This Hard in a While”
  • Your Retirement Life: Striped Bass Fishing off Block Island
  • “Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”
  • How Joe Biden Raised Oil Prices
  • Is the Philadelphia Looting Spree the Wake-up Call America Needs?
  • “No Way I’m Spending That Much on Those”
  • What Trade Policy Serves America’s National Interest Best?
  • California Wants to Make the 2nd Amendment Unaffordable
  • “You Didn’t Eat That Again, Did You?”

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

Five Year Treasury Yield

Bidenomics: Distrust of Public Officials and Institutions

Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy: #10 Powerball

“The Goal Is to Break Down the Individual”

Blackwater Founder Erik Prince a Hillsdale College Graduate

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives