At what age did you start dabbling in the share market?

[dingoNZ]

Just curious as to what age everyone started investing?

[BFG]

Started at 23 with what little money I had. Now 28 and I dare not dream of how big it will be in the next 5 years!

[Jantar]

Started with 100 shares in Waitaki/NZR at the age of 24. Built that up overthe years so that by 1987 I had bought my first brand new car, colour TV etc, then lost close to $10,000 in the october 1987 crash. Sold what few shares I had remaining about 15 years ago to buy the property we are now in.

Started buying shares once again with the Meridian IPO.

[brend]

25 - all money tied up in property by got into the market by leveraging over them.

[Latama]

22 - mid 2013. Just been working on building my portfolio since then; still early days and lots to learn.

[Antipodean]

Last year - 28 - is when I went in. Had been eyeing up/reading for about a year before that. Looking forward to the ride now I'm on board.

[robbo24]

I don't fit into your options above but as a 13 year old I bought into the Auckland Airport IPO :D:D:D:D

[baller18]

I don't fit into your options above but as a 13 year old I bought into the Auckland Airport IPO :D:D:D:D
Damn at the age of 13? When kids were still into pokemon, you were into sharesu?
Far out! Good on you!

[silu]

I was 24 and my first two purchases were Cultus Petroleum and Fletcher Paper.

[Te Whetu]

18, started in my first year out of school (2003)... Took a year off from education and then University in 2004.

First investments were 42 Below and Nuplex. Added Metlifecare, Warehouse Group and Sky City shortly after.

A few ups and downs, but overall a very good 12+ years to be in the market :)

EDIT:
Got out of WHS in 2006... that was a good decision :P
Was still in NPX when it went to the wall, so lost a bit there. However, invested heavily when it was refinancing so made a bunch on the bounce back.
FTB I did well out of (purchased ~30-35 cents), got out at ~50 cents prior to the takeover offer...
MET, out around the time of the takeover offer, albeit not in the offer itself.
SKC, out in 2006, did okay.
Initial investment into each of these companies was <$1,000 ... so defiantly started small.

[Biscuit]

Bought first shares thirty-odd years ago when still at high school (18 or less I guess). Had some money from a holiday job so went to Lawrence Milton and Howarth and introduced myself. First shares were in NZOG.

[robbo24]

Damn at the age of 13? When kids were still into pokemon, you were into sharesu?
Far out! Good on you!

When WHS had an IPO a few years prior I was amazed at how it all worked and reading in the newspaper how people made money on it.

I had my own car washing business. Every Saturday I would go and fling mud and my regular customer's cars and show up Sunday to clean it off.

[Te Whetu]

Every Saturday I would go and fling mud and my regular customer's cars and show up Sunday to clean it off.

Work Hard, Play Hard...
Or in this case, Play Hard, Work Hard :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWHNr0BrNgo

[ari]

Bought some shares in UEB in 1967 from holiday building job savings at the age of 18 and have never been able to break the habit since!

[RGR367]

Just landed in NZ and used my first month salary buying into BNZ at its IPO. And that was not so good an introduction to learn about the Market :mad ;:

[Toulouse - Luzern]

It is interesting from the poll how young most of us were when started with shares.

I was 18.

First year out of school.
In a syndicate.
Decided you needed to invest by yourself so you could enter and exit when you wanted, without meetings.

[Soolaimon]

Bought some shares in UEB in 1967 from holiday building job savings at the age of 18 and have never been able to break the habit since!

I did the same but I was 25 and I added Farmers Trading, Odlins, Dominion Breweries. Then bought when I could afford and held, collecting bonuses, splits etc. I think it was easier then as well. Lucky to unload Robt Jones at the right time to help fund a house.
Advise to younger starters..... Buy and hold for the very long term.

[stoploss]

I bought my first shares sub 10 , my brothers and I hassled dad about getting some shares .... Had to deliver a lot of newspapers to pay for them .From memory Dalhoff & King (sp?) also got some Golden Bay cement shares a few years after that .
Dad wasn't too good on picking them and sadly wasn't around to see his biggest winner come to fruition ( McCollum > Computershare ) Anyway by the time I hit college in the 80's we were all over the oil floats etc .... listening into the radio at lunchtime
to the national program for an update !! Even had a couple of teachers take a keen interest in what we were in .... Suppose the best thing was an early understanding of the market , some losses in 87-90 taught me a lot . Trading/Investing there is always something to learn , some great books out there you can learn a lot from .

[Sideshow Bob]

Debuted at 13. Was either Wilson Neil or BNZ IPO - can't remember the first. Neither were winners but remember selling BNZ at a post 87 crash peak.

University sucked up any spare money, and then the student loan. Got back into it with Sky City Receipts, thinking that a casino in Auckland must be a dead cert. Probably tripled my meagre funds.

[Stumpynuts]

I started buying trading cards and Pogs back in primary school when I was 7-8 years old.

I still have X-men Fleer ultra 95 & 96 full set of each, Oddbodz cards collected from snack chip multi-packs, Ren & Stimpy trading cards, A first edition Transformers comic released 2002/03.

Believe it or not, first generation models of technology will become extremely valuable in 20-30 years time I believe.
First generation video game consoles like Atari, Sega Master System, NES, Gameboy, as well as Apple Mac, iPod, iPhone, Donkey Kong Arcade, Pacman arcade, Street Fighter II, etc.
Even mint condition unopened boxed software such as Window 95. Take for example an E.T atari game cartridge which was deemed one of the worst games released at the time that they were dumped en mass, now 30 odd years later recently dug up in U.S commanding upwards of USD $30k - $40k

They will also have historical value worthy of placement in musuems.

[Scooter]

Age 16, out of school and into the share broking industry for a job. Still there, still investing, never had debt or mortgage, made own money from employment and investing. First investment Michael Hill, biggest gain Software of Excellence, worst investment Vending Technology.

[Okebw]

Age 20. Started university with the grand idea of studying marketing and management. Then hit the core finance paper and fell in love with finance and property. Few hit and misses as well as a few major successes over the last couple years.

[Hoop]

I'll never forget my introduction to share investing. At the age of 21, I was advised by the tutor of a share investing course to begin investing in "safe' blue chips first and then gain experience....
Yep..gained experience alright..I bought JBL and the company suddenly collapsed without warning a couple of months later...I lost the lot...

[dingoNZ]

Started with managed funds and soon realized I could get myself better gains by taking on more risk and picking stocks myself, ofcourse this comes with ups and downs but I have done significantly better than my benchmark. I'm currently using my Kiwisaver fund as my benchmark and trying to annual beat its returns, I also compare my returns to FNZ (the NZ50 passive fund). What are you chaps using as your benchmarks?

[Harvey Specter]

I also compare my returns to FNZ (the NZ50 passive fund). What are you chaps using as your benchmarks?I use the FNZ as well (and the latest upgrade of Sharesight now does this automatically for me). My goal for each year is to beat the higher of the FNZ and 0 (ie. dont lose money on bad years).

I also have a look at OZY because if I was to give up picking shares, I would probably diversify by buying 50:50 FNZ:OZY and would add in a world index at some point as well (currently only my kiwisaver takes care of my global investments so I am heavily overweight in NZ shares)