My First Investments

Warren Buffett, the most successful investor this world has ever known, once said: “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” The stock market has always amazed me. The whole premise is kind of mind-boggling, and it’s one of the few things I don’t think I’ll ever completely understand. For this reason, and also because I love making money, I've chosen to pursue this topic instead of selling things door-to-door.

Last week I made my first investment. I bought 400 shares of ZX (China Zenix Auto International) at $2.44 a share. I turned around and sold the next day at $2.50, making me ~$25. 

Currently, I am invested in ALGN (Align Technology Incorporated). They are the ones who invented invisalign. It hasn't been going as well as my first investment, but I believe that they will go back up so I can still sell them at a profit. I bought 19 shares at $52.42 and now their stock price is around $51. 

I am also in the process of running probability on some data I've been collecting. The results from this will hopefully help me invest smarter. I will be posting about my findings soon!

On to the Next Thing!

Going out and selling did not go too well. I have come to the realization that my business model is very flawed. Here is why:

When you go to sell things door-to-door you will run into two types of people. Some people (~21%) are very kind and will sincerely listen to what you have to say. The others (~79%) either are annoyed by your soliciting or are angry. The problem arises because the nice people genuinely like having girl scouts knock on their doors so they obviously don't want to buy a "no soliciting" sign. The mean people could possibly want a sign, but they are just too annoyed or mad to listen!

Something New
I went to 24 houses and out of the 8 that answered the door, they all said no. I will go out again because I want to sell at least one sign! However, I have begun yet another venture that I believe will be much much more successful.

About a month ago, I joined a financial club at my high school. We have an ongoing stock game online and I have been doing very well. In 30 days I have already made a 30% return on my investment and it has inspired me to actually invest. Last week I put $1000 into a brokerage account. I will begin trading next week. My goal of making $200 in revenue remains. I am even more excited about this endeavor than I was about my last one.

The Signs Have Arrived!

Well they're here! Here are my total costs so far:

Top Design	Middle Design	Bottom Design
11 units	4 units	5 units
$20.97	$5.05	$5.30

That means I need to sell 7 signs in order to pass the break-even point of $31.32 assuming I will sell each one at $5. After I sell all of the signs, I will have made a nice profit of almost $70!

I wrote up a pitch to use this morning, and I'm working on dividing neighborhoods into routes. I will go selling this evening around 4 pm when more people are home to answer the door. I will be posting again soon with my results and stories from selling! 

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