FROM WHEAT FIELDS TO WALL STREET

I was fortunate enough to grow up on our family wheat farm in the SE corner of Washington state, an area The National Geographic affectionately labeled “A Paradise called the Palouse.” As a teenager, I spent my summers making $4 an hour driving a dusty, dirty combine across the farm. 

In 1980, after accumulating a small bank balance, I headed east and began trading in the wheat pit at the Chicago Board of Trade. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. After trading ended for the day, I would catch afternoon Cub games at Wrigley Field. That sure beat driving a dusty old combine on the farm. 

While working in the pits of Chicago, I set out to take my meager farm earnings and get rich trading wheat futures at the Board of Trade, but that’s not how things turned out. Within a week, I lost everything, but gained a valuable lesson. I realized early on that I hated to lose money more than I wanted to get rich – a lifelong lesson that has served me well.  

To this day, I have never purchased an individual stock or commodity, opting instead to stick with broad, diversified investments in stocks and bonds. 

A BETTER WAY TO INVEST

Early on, I believed there was an enormous opportunity to share an investment philosophy that was starting to capture the attention of investors – that the smart way to invest in the stock market was through low-cost index funds. This belief led me to develop The Coffeehouse Investor and build a career helping investors ignore Wall Street and get on with their lives. 

While working with Coffeehouse Investors from all walks of life, I have found that the real benefit to this investment philosophy is that it allows us to focus on what we can control, not the markets.  

My mission in creating The Coffeehouse Investor is to share the three Coffeehouse principles with everyone who accepts financial responsibility for their retirement. I can’t accomplish this mission alone, but working together, we can.

One investor at a time.    

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