Passion to Invest - LinaLaird

How I Started Investing

Greetings from Texas! It's nice to meet you.

My name is Lina, and my passion is sharing investing basics with folks getting started.

For transparency: I am not a licensed Financial Advisor, Registered Agent or Certified Financial Planner (CFP®)

Are your savings set up to grow? If not, I invite you to explore investing fundamentals. Long-term investment in broad-based index funds can reliably grow your nest egg savings passively to build a foundation of financial security.

Save more to buy diversified, low-cost index funds at regularly intervals

Unlike single stocks, index funds and ETFs include a diversified group of stocks, helping to buffer market fluctuations and support consistent growth over time

To illustrate the power of diversification, visualize indexed or a group of stocks like a bundle of sticks tied together, making it stronger and harder to break.

📊 With variety and strength in numbers, index funds offer lower risk and require less research than individual stocks

📈 Over the long term, established large index funds are expected to deliver reliable and solid annual growth

Since starting in 2005, simple and regular passive investing has grounded and rewarded me. This experience has fueled my passion to share insights and help new investors get started.

How I got started

After college, I lived frugally on a modest corporate salary and saved money with ease. Figuring out how to grow my savings through investing was the challenge. My employer offered matching 401(k), so I started there. All the while, even in the retirement account offering limited options, I felt clueless and intimidated about what investments to pick. It felt risky to dabble in the stock market with unfamiliar financial terms and concepts.

Luckily, I was shown the ropes (what, when, who, why, and how) of buying index funds. This foundational framework of how to invest changed my financial trajectory and boosted my confidence.

💵 Knowing basic investment concepts is valuable for everyone, even if you use a financial planner or advisor

⏳ Key to start early to set up monthly auto - investment in low cost, low risk and well- diversified funds

This is what I did:

Opened 2 types of self- managed brokerage accounts to invest my savings and take control of my financial future

1. Retirement investment accounts: 401k & IRA

2. Cash basis investment account and used it as my savings account

Started cautiously with a conservative risk approach, then grew comfortable with risk as I learned more. Focused primarily on Vanguard’s S&P 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) to achieve a financial milestone in my 30s.

You can make more money, but not more time. This makes long-term, passive growth a powerful tool.

Figure out how to get your money to make more money without doing more work.

Applying a set and forget it strategy when buying Index funds is a simple, low effort way to grow your retirement nest egg, which frees you to focus on life. Which feels accelerated as I got to start a family.

Domestic mutual funds, comprised of established companies across key industries, have proven to be reliable with consistent profits. This is especially true with long- term investing where you hold what you have and buy more.

Index investing helped me, a middle class immigrant earning five-figure salary, achieve financial independence in my 30's. Inspired by this success, I now share investing basics with family, friends and my network, showing that if I can do it, so can you!

It's fun to talk with like- minded friends about the best ways to make progress towards long term financial goals. I started reading more to better answer questions that came up, and that further fed my passion to invest. These money- related experiences brought energy and focus to my life and a sense of purpose.

My dream is to empower others by sharing the basics of investing with everyone who can benefit from it.

Thank you for reading! I look forward to connecting, learning, and sharing insights with you.

Happy Investing!

Lina

The longer version: A tale of East meets Texas to find investing success

WHAT MAKES MY [INVESTING] STORY SPECIAL?

Far East roots in rural China shaped my early years before traversing the Pacific to West Texas. I learned English from the ABCs and became a naturalized American during college. While my mom pursued advanced degrees, our family lived on meager incomes but never felt lacking. This backdrop of growing up in a frugal, immigrant household guided my mindset to save money.

After college, I was clueless about what to do with my growing savings. Eventually, I learned that it is hard to save your way to wealth compared to acquiring assets that can make you money. Putting money in the US stock market is a proven retirement planning strategy. Which makes learning investing basics powerful toward financial independence.

Growing up, stocks got compared to risky gambling, viewed as unpredictable and unreliable. I had a solid early education, attended good schools to earn a Finance degree. Despite that, it was years after graduating that I learned how to open a personal cash brokerage account and invest in index funds.

As luck would have it, I invested $10,000 just before the Financial crisis of 2008. My faith in market concepts, such as dollar cost averaging and compounding interest were put to the test. I believe in the US economy and became more tolerant of risk. I not only held on to my Vanguard S&P 500 funds, but bought more to ride the climb back up. With that rocky start, or maybe because of it, I achieved a sizable nest egg by my 30's and started to feel like work can be optional as a self-made woman. That said, my money is mostly parked in retirement accounts, so I keep studying to build and preserve wealth.

I earned 5 figures for the majority of my almost 20 year career. Along the way, exceptional resourcefulness, hard work and mentor connections pulled me through work challenges. I had fallen behind my peers both in income and career growth for many years by the time my paycheck caught up to market rate. The real boost was to my confidence and mindset.

While I navigated work, the voices of doubt eased up as my investments approached and surpassed significant financial milestones. There was no side hustle or strict saving plan, not even a simple budget. Very little time and thought was spent on my portfolio's performance. I am an ordinary American, blessed to learn the fundamentals early and optimized investing. Today, I am financially independent and confident, which feels extraordinary.

In hindsight, I wish for the perspective to have appreciated the American dream I was living, with stable employment, new cars and a home. There were vacations abroad and cool experiences, then settling down to marry and start a family. So far, it has been a fruitful journey from East to Texas, and I'm excited for the next adventure.

Cheers to your financial health!

Lina

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