So since that first experience with my grandma, over the next few years I started to save my own money and begin to invest it by myself. Honestly, it did not go that well. Because I was making so little, I didn't have a ton to invest. And because of this, the commission taken by the brokers for each trade I would make was a huge percentage of what I had. As a result, as time passed I ended up not really making any money and not really losing any money either. Eventually I just decided to get out of the market because I wasn't able to do much. Instead I just continually saved my money until I had enough to actually make some ground.

Fast forward a few years, to just a couple years ago actually, and I finally had what I thought would be enough to actually make some passive money. I did some research and decided to put some money into a mutual fund so that I didn't have to pay much attention to it. That was a few years ago now, and my money is still there. I have made a bit of money, but as I talked about before, the recent down turn has hurt me as well. I continue to pay attention to how the market is doing on a weekly basis, but I'm not overly concerned because the money I have invested is money that I don't need to rely on in the near future.

So next week I will go off this topic a bit and talk a bit about my recent visit to China and what I learned while I was there.