Why Invest in Stocks

Why do I do what I do? I started in 1998 buying stock in what one of my buddies suggested. I did not do very well and would have quit but I began to go to meetings where I worked. They had an investment committee and met many investment leaders from some very good investment firms in California, New York, St. Louis and Oklahoma City just to name a few. I studied and listened and read the slick books they presented. I was a sponge.

In 1998 I was the interim pastor of a great church in central Oklahoma and three men in that church heard of my interest in investing. So they asked me to fill an empty spot on the Central Oklahoma Investment Club of Chickasha, they limit it to 15 members. I attended and then joined the club. My caveat was that I wanted to invest to a certain limit but wanted to use the club as a vehicle for making charitable gifts. They understood and I got involved. I did not want to just pile up money but to invest for ministry. The remainder in the club I plan to use to fund increase a DAF (donor advised fund) that my children can use to fund ministry after my death. I plan to set up the DAF in the near future with appreciated assets from a personal account.

Since that time, I have reached the limit and went beyond four times. The earnings in stock appreciation the club transferred at my request to The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma to make gifts to Falls Creek for the Sake of the Call, a youth camp in southern Oklahoma, to Church Renewal International for mission ministries in India and the Philippines and gifts to the building fund of Snow Hill Baptist Church in Tuttle, Oklahoma, the endowment at South Lindsay Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and to an endowment fund at First Baptist Church in Minco, Oklahoma. Those gifts I perceive as coming 1. from God 2. but using the knowledge learned at the Investment club and 3. willing to take risks. God does not promise to make investments grow and will not protect the portfolio from going down just because one plans to give to ministry. However, I believe with proper study, trusting the combined wisdom of investment partners and making routine small deposits, usually $100 per month to the pool that I have found my vehicle for giving beyond the tithe for the last 20 years.

I grew up in South Oklahoma City. Spent most of my time on 29th street on car row and worked at a grocery store on the south side for 9 years. I did not know anyone who did stocks much less think I would ever be doing anything like this. No one in my family ever did this and many of them see it as gambling. That is possible. I call it taking measured risks based on information. I have lost at times but usually when I have departed from the discipline I know through Better Investing, the tool of investment clubs nation wide.

This can become an obsession so I try to temper it with lots of engagement with people as a volunteer now that I am retired. That balance makes me a person with a mission statement but allows  me to slow down to meet my age energy level. I also cook for my wife who is still working and try to be a good house husband. That is my number one mission. She is awesome.

So my vehicle is found here: www.betterinvesting.org. You can use this tool as well. That is the basis of these blog studies. Nothing new under the sun.