The Financial Advice I Got from a Millionaire Electrician
Decades-proven wisdom from a simple individual.
Anyone can make it big in investing.
My colleague Christian is an electrician born in a country that didn’t have public stock exchanges.
He built a portfolio worth north of 1 million EUR ($1,1 million) against all odds.
Does he know something you don’t?
How Come No Stock Exchanges?
Christian was born in 1961 in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) where “Democratic” was only a word. That was East Germany, a country ruled by the Soviet Union until 1990.
The GDR was building socialism. The state owns industries and resources and distributes wealth equitably.
Socialism abhors stock exchanges for obvious reasons. But surprise! There was a stock exchange in Berlin.
The “small” problem was that it wasn’t a public market where you could buy and sell stocks. The exchange served state-controlled enterprises to trade shares among themselves.
You couldn’t be an investor or trader or speculator.
Things changed in 1990 when Germany reunified. The stock exchanges of East and West Germany were integrated, giving everyone the opportunity to participate in a free market.
Christian’s Simple Investing Journey
Christian started working in our research center in the 1980s as an electrician. It’s not the highest-paid job.
The GDR didn’t leave him much of a choice. A rich job market is not a thing of socialism. You either went to the university and became an academician or worked for a local factory.
My colleague started investing as soon as Germany reunified. He bought government bonds and later moved to mutual funds based on German companies.
While he left part of his money in bonds, he was gaining confidence in managing his portfolio of mutual funds through dollar-cost averaging.
Christian eventually moved most of his money to a fund based on the S&P 500 toward the end of the 1990s.
My electrician colleague is a simple individual. He’s willing to share his investing wisdom if you ask the right questions.
I keep his teachings in mind:
“The market is falling? Don’t do anything. Wait. Then buy more.”
“Corrections and retracements are part of the game. The market cannot grow forever.”
“I’ll try to hold my investments for as long as I can. I’m only in my early 60s.”
If I were to panic during a correction or a crash, I’d pick up the phone and call Christian for reassurance.
It’s an honor to learn from someone who’s been through the dotcom crash, the 2007 banking debacle, and the last three years of turbulence in the financial markets.
I see Christian as a local “stock market professional”.
Here’s an interesting twist. We were dining recently when he flipped out his business card. Turns out he’s a certified financial advisor!
He doesn’t advertise this. I’ve known him for 9 years and just learned what he does part-time. He’s still an electrician. A financially savvy electrician.
3 Takeaways for Building Wealth
Part of his success is because he’s always had a place to live (a house in a village) that has saved him some cash. But I like to think it’s his investing skills that have set him free.
What did I learn from his experience?
First, investing should enhance your life, not consume it.
Christian is 62. He still works with us and enjoys what he does, although he could’ve retired years ago.
The goal is to set your own rules. That’s financial freedom. It’s not about quitting work altogether. You want to do something meaningful with your life.
For Christian, it’s designing electric circuits.
Second, “boring” investing is a reliable way to financial freedom.
Christian has invested mostly in a diversified index fund. He has never picked individual stocks.
I can understand why. It was hard work to find enough information about a public company in the 1990s when the Internet was a privilege.
Picking stocks is still hard in 2023. You find information and misinformation and end up knowing what everyone else knows. This gives you no edge.
Third, your wealth doesn’t stand in direct proportion with your wage.
Sure, the larger your wage, the more you can invest. But what if you live above your means? Then even $100,000 a month is not enough.
It’s how much you save and invest that lays the foundation for your wealth. Even a modest salary can make you wealthy.
If electricians and janitors can build million-dollar-plus portfolios, surely you can too?
Final Thoughts
Only a few people are into investing where I work. Most are afraid of the stock market.
Christian’s financial advice is so valuable. My colleague is a simple, yet wise individual who leads a fulfilling life.
His investing approach has taught me that simplicity and discipline are an easy path to wealth.
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