AustinAg's stories are great! I wasn't aware there was a statute of limitations on a financial trade being disclosed? That's interesting.
This is a great thread with great people. We absolutely have to have a get together. We all come from different walks of life and have different professions now, and I certainly can't speak for all, but it seems the common theme here of people on this thread is that everyone has pretty much had to work super hard to get where they are. Not a lot of silver spoons in mouths here.
That's certainly my case. My dad shared a bed with 2 brothers. 8 people, 1 roof, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath in middle of nowhere West Virginia. He did not go to college early on but taught himself programming and early computer concepts in the early 70s. He later got a college degree going to night school in the 80s. In those years, he worked for the Fed in Dallas. He worked for a number of companies in DFW after that, slowly improving his position but never "getting ahead". He and my mom (who is not formally educated and mostly cleaned houses while me and my brother were growing up) spent all their extra money to send us to a private school not super expensive school but quality education. They have to this date very few investments. My dad was forced to retire when his Parkinson's Dz became more severe about 5 yrs ago. He's now 71.
My story is basically a "head down, ass up" and plow the field kind of story. Just work super hard. Always did well academically and better than avg athletically (not anymore, now I'm fat :-( ). Became obsessed with neurosurgery after I got to work with a Peds Neurosurgeon while in Med school in Houston (he's an Aggie and one of the best dudes I've ever met). We don't talk much now but every time we do, I still feel in awe. It's like one of the gods has shined down and wants to talk to you I hope I have that effect on people some day, if not already!
Anyway….my first investments ever were last year. Bought AAPL in March and sold in Sept before it dropped. Should've bought back in! Bought ABBV at $106 and rode it to $120. It then fell back to $106. I got scared and sold. Tough lesson. Most of this year has been tough lessons (small caps are small for a reason they're ****ty companies usually).
We have to do a golf outing or a get together at some point. I'm in Arlington but would meet anywhere in DFW.
Last story. OA posted something on TWTR this morning and it made me remember something. Money was always tight when I was a resident. I had a few unfortunate and cruel things happen to me in residency and I ended up in detroit (which I loved, btw!). I started in Little Rock. When I moved, we couldn't sell our house and ended up renting it out (for a loss unfortunately). Money became more tight. My wife was taking care of our young daughters and I got a little extra money taking some call at an inner city hospital in detroit. But in my chief year, we had a couple unexpected bills one month, and our account was down to $0.08. Credit cards were fairly loaded and payday was still 9 days away. My wife and I scrounged and ate whatever was in the cabinets and we managed to get by! We went 9 days on $0.08, and then our auto insurance came out 1 min before my paycheck got sent over and I got hit with a $25 overdraft fee hahaha! We laugh now cause I'm blessed and making 10-15x what I made as a resident, but I will never forget what it means to be practically poor and barely get by! After finishing in Detroit, I was blessed to get to do a spine fellowship with Paul Park at University of Michigan he's one of the premier spine surgeons in the world and truly informed the way I take care of spine patients. Others intended to try and sabotage me in Little Rock things felt hopeless. God is GOOD, and what was intended to destroy me led me to one of the best experiences anyone could ever have and now I get to be on panels, publish spine papers, and have opportunity to give talks and moderate at major spine meetings. My oral
Board certification is 4 weeks from today.
Thanks Ags for starting this thread. My Baylor friends on our website don't seem so interested when I tried to generate something over there. Remember…Ags and Bears are generally cut from the same cloth. One is public and one is private. Our on the field battles over the years spilled into angst one toward the other, but y'all are some good dudes.
My story about having no money for 9 days also was reminded when 30K shared his story about cutting his teeth to get out of debt kudos to him for that and cheers to him for sharing his expertise now to grow more young traders. I got out of fellowship with $335K in loans/debt. I'm proud to be down to $60K now (in 2.5 yrs) with all remaining loans 2.75% or better!
I hope this thread goes to 10,000 pages. I intend to be there for it!!
