George Schneider

I imbibed knowledge of investing and the markets from a very early age at my father's knee. He taught me to let my winners run and cut my losses short. This was after I lost my entire investment ($200) in Transogram, the toy maker. Without knowing anything about Peter Lynch at the time, it seems I was investing like him. I invested in companies that made things that I liked and was familiar with. As things went from bad to worse for Transogram, my dad counseled me to cut my losses by selling my shares. Stubbornly, I refused the advice, week after week, until my investment cratered precipitously until it finally crashed and flamed out into bankruptcy.

At the time, more than 50 years ago, it was a large sum of ...More money to me. But I learned an invaluable lesson which has served me well since then. Don't allow pride to keep you from admitting a mistake; take your losses early and you'll have seed corn left to plant again into another, more promising investment.

I am a former clinical psychologist, and retired administrator of a rehabilitation clinic we founded 40 years ago. Today, I spend my time managing our investments accumulated over our careers. I have learned to monetize our portfolio to throw off regular dividend payments. These dividends are continually re-invested very opportunistically.

I'd like to share this success with others who wish to learn.