Yep, you read that correctly I bought TESLA stock way back in 2016 for under $200! I believe a lot in the future of electric cars and bought the stock to support the vision (boy was I naive back then). Two years later I sold it for $315. A sweet 57% turnaround after two years and a few hundred bucks in profit. I'm sure I used it to pay some bills or to buy some other stock. As sweet as that was, TSLA is currently trading for over $2,000 a share and is about to go through a 5-way split. Boy do I feel like a moron whenever I look at this. And yet, here you are, looking to me for personal finance advice! 

 What Selling TESLA has Taught me

As painful as it has been watching that stock climb and realizing I could have made several paychecks worth of money on it, I have actually learned a bigger lesson in the personal finance/casual investor world. There are no get rich quick options, it is a slow decades long grind. That's it, that's the secret for all of us non-day traders out there, we need to invest for the long haul. When I was first buying and selling stocks I was under the impression of buy low and sell high, then use the profits to buy your next batch of stocks etc. Yeah, that doesn't really work, not with any kind of sustainability for those of us that earn a median income. Buying and selling stocks short term turns quickly into an expensive gambling habit, and really to be successful at it you need to be paying close attention to the markets daily and to have a little bit of luck on your side. 

Buy Stable Stocks with Consistent Payouts

Here at Teachers Stacking Tens, we are clearly big fans of index funds. We seem to hit on them in every post we make about investing. They are extremely safe and the ultimate slow and steady hands off pay-out. However... They are kind of boring. Index funds make up over 90% of my portfolio for a reason, they work, but I like to have a little more diversity in my investments and I enjoy looking at the markets frequently. What made TSLA a frustrating stock for me was the fact that it never paid a dividend. It just sat in my portfolio not doing anything for years. The only way it had any real value to me was if I sold it. So I did for a profit and moved on to focus on Dividend Growth Investing. With dividend growth investing I've been able to invest in stable companies that kick out a quarterly or monthly dividend and I can reinvest that dividend back into the company giving me more shares! Using this I can set some more realistic goals for myself. Currently, I receive roughly $1,000 in dividend annually, it's easy for me to work towards increasing that number and I can get some tangible results. Sitting on stocks that don't pay out is tougher, at that point you are banking solely on their performance in the market which is much less predictable. 

Investing for Teachers is a GRIND!

Much like the grueling months of February and March, teacher's investment plans are a very dreary. You aren't going to receive a big flashy payday but consistent auto investing will begin to pay off in the long run. Heck even looking back at the past 5 years, it's unbelievable the progress I have been able to make. The professor and I were just talking about our frustrations in not being able to invest more into the market and feeling how slow it has been, only to look back and realize that all of our accounts are quite a bit positive for the year 2020, and 2020 had the biggest drop since I've been investing. Another good reminder that discipline and consistency will win out every time. Don't chase after miracle stocks like TESLA. Come up with an investment plan and stick to it. Now every time I see TESLA skyrocketing I am reminded to trust the process and keep grinding. 

So keep those monthly contributions flowing, keep slowly raising them each year, and keep socking that money away into the market in stable long terms funds.

Keep Stackin!