Compounding Snowballs

Rose Blumkin (Mrs.B), there are so many things to say. Rose Blumkin was the founder of Nebraska Furniture Mart. She founded Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937. Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.B) acquired the company in 1983, making Mrs. B the first and only (at the time) female manager at Berkshire. Before all that started she was a Russian immigrant with a talent for business. At the time women were to earn a living for their family, while the men studied. Luckily, her mom had a knack for business. She learned the ways of business from her mother, and at age thirteen got tired of watching her mother strain to make money. Mrs. B took it into her own hands, walking 18 miles to another city in Russia to find a well-paying job out of town. She was persistent and stubborn even as a child, stopping at every door to look for a place to sleep. She finally came across a store owner who said, “You’re a kid.” To that, she said, “I’m not a beggar… Tomorrow I will go to work.” The shop owner c...

Money management is an incredibly important life skill. I believe putting your money into a bank can help with the ability to manage your spending. As a minor, you have a few options as to what type of account you want to keep your money in. I am going to talk about each one to explore your options. Keep in mind, this is not financial advice. Everyone’s financial situation is different. I am not a financial professional. Always do your own research! Banking and Savings Accounts As a minor, the first account I got was a savings account. Savings accounts are simple, you put your money into a savings account at a bank and your money slowly gains interest. This is the easiest way, in my opinion, to start out with a bank account. Savings accounts are very safe, considering you leave your money in one place to grow, but it doesn’t grow all that much. At the time of this writing, the average savings account has an annual interest of about 0.6%, it’s not that much. If you put in $100 tod...

I recently talked to David Gardner, one of the founders of The Motley Fool . In 1993, he started an investment newsletter geared toward families in an effort to get more people, of all ages, to invest. David Gardner is an intelligent, Foolish and an out of the box thinker. His approach to investing is light and fun, as it is shown in The Motley Fool’s mission, “ To Educate, To Amuse and To Enrich .” As Gardner says, “It’s that middle phrase that is surprising to people.” Most people don’t think of a financial publishing company as an entertainment center, but there is more to investing than putting money into a stock and waiting.I have a few main takeaways I would like to share with you from our talk. Investing Mentality I’ve said it, David Gardner has said it, investing is a mentality. When you become a part owner, you become engulfed in the company. Investing is about much more than money, David Gardner says, “The word invest comes from the Latin word investire which means ...

David Kretzmann is a living, breathing example of a curious teenager that started small and now has a successful career as a full-time compounder. David was born and raised in a meditation and yoga community in California. David started investing in stocks at the ripe old age of 12 years old. David graduated from Berea College with a degree in marketing and is a graduate of The Motley Fool's Analyst Development Program. Today he serves as an investment analyst and portfolio manager for the Fool’s Rule Breakers and Supernova services. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and is an avid runner, traveler, and loves playing and watching basketball. How did you start investing? When I was 12 years old, I started looking over my dad’s shoulder as he read copies of Stock Advisor and Hidden Gems -- stock recommendation newsletters from The Motley Fool. I kept asking him questions about what a stock is, how you can own a piece of a company, and what it means to invest. I was espe...