Investing Forever by Bryan

Investing Forever by Bryan - September 2018 Scholarship Essay

Gazing out over Wall Street from the 40th floor of the Goldman Sachs building in New York City, I reflected on the exciting new world I had been introduced to that day--the world of investing. My oldest brother James worked for Goldman Sachs and had been investing for years. After seeing the trading floor, James saw how intrigued I was in investing and encouraged me to learn more, offering his help to start. Over the next 25 years, I will continue my learning by reading books and having real-world experiences.
Eager to learn as much as I could, I began reading about investing. With each new book, I became more intrigued by this new world. To date, I have read more than 25 investment-related books, and the book that provided me with the most strategic and specific information has been The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. In his book, Graham outlines investment strategies for a wide variety of financial situations applicable to all types of investors. Once I determined my investment strategy, I knew I needed to learn how to understand corporate financial statements to identify companies that aligned with my strategy. To do that, I used a handful of tools, including watching my brother’s BYU online Accounting 200 lectures.
After setting up a trading account, I bought my first stock--then my real-world learning began. After some initial mistakes, I now do in-depth research on potential stocks, using financials, market history, and forecasts to make investment decisions. I’ve been investing for five years and am currently beating the S&P 500 market average return by 24%. Investing captivates me because I am learning how businesses perform and how to best predict the market despite uncertainty. Through these real-life experiences, I will continue to grow and learn.