Asklemmy

Nearly 30 years ago, I worked for a tiny li'l anti-virus software company that got acquired by one of the big boys, and everyone's performance-based options they were holding were suddenly worth a lot. Being hungry for career growth at the time, I'd left the company and forfeited those options. Less than 6 months later, they announced the sale of the company.

My options woulda been worth a few million at the time, maybe double that in today's money. Importantly, it would've set me up with a nice house, car, etc, without any debt, in my early 20s.

Not rich, but certainly comfortable.

I wanted to buy $100 of bitcoin in HS and couldn't figure out how. Would have been like $60,000,000 :ccc

My finger was hovering over the "buy" button for $10000 worth of Bitcoin when one Bitcoin cost $50.

I bought some GameStop when it was $10 but chickened out and sold it a few days before it went to like $420 a share cuz I thought I was being baited by wallstreetbetters. I only later found out a close friend of mine who is a generally responsible investor was heavily in that and sold at like $200~ to pay off all his medical debt. He's not rich either, but financially better off than before that happened.

I don't mess with stocks now.

I was ready to drop $2,000 on AMD stock when it was $3 a share. Someone talked me out of it.

While it wouldn't have made me "rich", I'd be much better off than I am now.

Back in 1988 I had a school project with a few people, one of whom came from a wealthy family. The project was regarding the stock market, and each team was given a certain amount of imaginary money to invest, to see who would win out at the end of the semester. My friend with the wealthy family came back with a recommendation from his father, of course, and we won the contest easily.

The recommendation? Put all our funds into Berkshire Hathaway.

I had the golden goose egg right in front of me and never invested a dime.

Didn't get "rich" per se, but I got in on dogecoin when it was at a penny, missed the peak, and ended up selling in the 30 cent range. I also picked up a ton of oil stocks in March 2020 when it bottomed out that I later sold for more than 15x their original value.

The irony is that I invested in dogecoin because Robbing Hood locked down investments into Gamestop. I didn't realize that would be such a lucky development at the time.

Those investments paid off my student loans and got me a down payment on a condo. I still have five-figures in my investment account that I'm growing into early retirement. My current focus is gambling stocks, in large part because every election year it seems like there's a smattering of states legalizing online sports betting. (MO and NE have it on the ballot for this year.)

Not fuck you money or 'rich', but life-changing.

Idk how well this would actually sell but years ago in my early 20s, I came up with the idea for a beer coozie for 40oz bottles.

40s are great if you are poor and want just enough of a buzz but unless you chug them, they get warm halfway through. Which is also why 12oz cans/bottles are probably also more appealing.

Just a big ass coozie to keep your Bud Ice cold in a Sunday afternoon of porch drinking.

One parent had a growing business when I was super young, they brought home well into the 6 figures. However two things happened 1: the internet started getting bigger so that started to hurt their business and 2: the 2008 housing crash happened and for a business that worked with banks on mortgages (I was too young to fully understand what the business did) it was fatal. Then we were dirt poor! The family never really recovered but after many years we did manage to get on our feet, then a parent died and shit went down hill again lmao.

I could've grown up a rich kid, instead I grew up with a family oats pot for meals. Though I'm probably a healthier grounded human for it.

Had the ability to buy in on Google right after they went public - passed on it

Had the ability to buy in on Apple in the mid 1990s -passed

Had the ability to buy bitcoin at $5 a coin, could have put in $5k at the time -passed

Had the ability to buy in on Amazon shortly after they went public -passed

Ebay -passed

Starting to see a trend?

I sold about $200 in Bitcoin I mined back in the early days, like 2009 and 10. Missed out on over $80 million.