When I was 19 I started working at Home Depot and a guy I worked with in his 30’s always tried to get me to sign up for the Employee Stock Purchase Program. They take a percentage from your paychecks and purchase shares for you at a discounted price. I was making 9.65 when I started there and 14.50 when I left so that seemed like a high price to pay for something I didn’t really understand. Stock was around 25 when I started there in 2009 and about 150 when I left in 2017. Based on the average stock price and my average pay throughout my time there, if I would have contributed 10% of every paycheck I would have paid roughly 15k for about 400 shares. That 15k contribution would have been worth over $126,000 today. And these are just rough numbers based off of the public stock price, not the discounted price I would have been able to purchase the stock at. It very well may be closer to 200k.
That same guy was always talking to me about Roth IRA and 401k like “you’re young if you start it now and don’t even look at it for the next 20 years, it’s going to be way more money you’ll have when you retire.” Now I’m the 30 something year old trying to convince these kids I work with to start contributing to their Roth and invest while they’re in their early 20’s rather than waiting like I did. And it’s in one ear and out of the other, just like it was with me. The circle of life.
What’s your biggest shoulda, coulda, woulda opportunity you didn’t take advantage of?
