What's your most unique or unusual EC?

[freak7]

No spoilers. Haven't seen.

Frodo kills Obi Wan

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[sullen-burger]

Frodo kills Obi Wan

This is why I don't watch trailers.
Or do drugs.

Stop what you're doing and drive to a theatre near you. 5/5 would buy on dvd (and i don't own a dvd player).

Will that work on my VCR?

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

Woodworking! I love making nightstands/chairs/etc and selling them at my family's garage sales!

 

[PatchA]

Batman? Magneto? Is that you?

dr. strange?

Did Dr. Strange, Batman, and Magneto also, unbeknownst to themselves, harbor a piece of their enemy's soul for a while? If so, our lives are strikingly similar. We should start a club.

 

[Saifa]

That's similar to one of mine. Starting since I got my provisional license (17) I've been doing HPDE's (track days) at various tracks in the northeast and midwest area. Aside from kart racers, I'm one of the youngest I know that has delved deep into this hobby, considering 16 is the bare minimum age you can do DEs (in a FULL sized car and not a go-kart). Thankfully my family's situation affords me the opportunity to waste money on this hobby, but it's definitely taught me a few lessons that can be applied to real life and not just cars.

I really really wanted to be able to talk about participating in 24 hours of LeMons on my application, I even had a team and a car ready, that s*** is just too expensive though.

 

[wanderingorion]

Founded an investment club that manages several thousand dollars as a bio major with no official financial experience or education

Toured the east coast drumming for a popular reggae band.

Any tips for newbie investors?

 

[Swoleserratus]

I actually got into making soap early in my college career thanks to a coworker who showed me the process, and I actually sell some small amounts of my soap at our local farmer's market during the summer.

According to Mr. Durden, this doesn't make you unique at all.

 

[sullen-burger]

Any tips for newbie investors?

The most basic unit of investment avail able to private US citizens, who don't otherwise have access to the inner workings of Wall Street, is the stock.

A stock is often referred to as being a piece of pie of a company. The value of your piece of the company or stock, depends on how the company performs. Investing in stocks is essentially investing in the success/failure of a company.

Once you hold a part of a companies stock, you are considered a "share-holder." By owning a share, you have basically paid that company $ for the privilege of owning x amount of their business. They take your $ and then re-invest it into literally whatever they want (more reasons mentioned below). And you, even if it's just one stock out of millions, you now technically own a piece of the business.

There are different types of "shares" or stocks called outstanding shares or voting shares. If you control >50% plus one share of either then you are a "controlling member" of that company and you get to make decisions that affect the company. Think shark tank when they haggle over the percentage of stake or ownership they will get.

Most of us are not controlling members. And most companies start out private, meaning most public members of the stock exchange never get in on new companies that just started issuing shares. However, once a business goes "public", that means they have gone through a bunch of regulation and registration to get the privilege of opening their stocks for purchase by any and everyone. This is a privilege because there are many benefits to "going public."

1) Owners and venture capitalists get the ability to sell some of their share for a profit. Mark Z. got about $1 billion dollars once Facebook went public AND still retained his controlling member status because he had so many shares.
2) Going public generates capital, which is just another word for resources; in this case mo'money. With mo'money, a company can take the stocks that the public buys and do a bunch of things: pay their debts, pay their venture capitalists when they "exit" or sell their % of shares (think shark tank, when Mark Cuban buys a percent of a company at value 1million, he then gets to sell his percent for a profit once that company is then worth say, ten million).
3) Increasing value of company; more shares in a company means that the market thinks that Sullen-burger Inc, is highly valuable...as long as we say it is. When people buy a stock for a high value, that increases the companies value. When they think it's worthless, then they "exit" and start short-selling or selling their shares at a much lower value.


Now to answer your question more directly:

There are many forms of trading, and for beginners I recommend finding an online broker for stocking investing that specifically caters to the average newbie like us. There's a lot of them,

E*trade
Fidelity
Ameritrade
Charles schwab

and more: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/best-online-brokers-for-stock-trading/

These are great for beginners because they have
A) Low to zero start-up costs...some require a starting account minimum and some don't. This is personal preference.
B) Promotions where, if you match a first-time deposit amount, you qualify for a bonus. As in: start an account with us with 500$ and we will give you $500...now you have $1000..I would take advantage of these.
C) Low or no commision costs, which is just a term for the fees for every buy or sell order you give an order. You want these to be low.

Now to trading.

Stocks. Your most basic unit of investment is usually the simplest. Buy and trade n number of stocks of a company and sit on them. Wait minutes or days (day trading) before you sell them, or wait months and years (the average person). Remember though, nothing is for free, so whatever you divest is usually subject to a capital gains tax. Stocks can be low/high risk, low/high reward. They become less risky and more valuable the more you know about the sector of the market you're investing in, the company you bought into, and external financial factors..to name a few.

Day trading, while it is high reward, is extremely time consuming and unlikely to be the easiest way to introduce yourself to investing. It also costs you every time you "order" a trade, so you need to be extremely careful that you're not paying out more than your trades will actualy get you.

Index trading....this is where you purchase a piece of a market. A market just means, the sector of economy where businesses are all doing the same thing, like manufacturing or sales or electronics. Think of the Dow Jones Index. When you trade share of an index, that represents hundreds if not thousands of companies. This is low risk and low reward, because the aggregate successes and failures of those thousands of companies is the value of your index, and not on an individual basis.

ETFs...these are stocks of an index. It's basically buying the piece of a pie OF a piece of a market. Investing gets even more meta than this. Low risk, variable return.

Mutual Funds, you buy into a pool of money that one person or one brokerage is then responsible for investing. You don't really get to choose much of what they buy after you've bought into it. These are usually pretty secure and often used by employers for their employee's retirement income plan.


Bonds, Treasury bills, 401ks, IRAs, Roth IRAs, and many many other things also exist. There's honestly so much more that I can't list because I don't understand about investing, so I will say if you're really serious about investing; Google. Just start googling and reading. It's one of those things where, the more you learn about it, the more you realize you don't know.

But it is a fun hobby and you're bound to make more than keeping savings in a bank with %0.01 interest. PM me if you'd like more info.


My source for most things in the post: http://www.investopedia.com/

....and here's some cool investing show/movies for fun:

Shark Tank - Great show. they don't talk as much about the stock investment aspect as they do the business aspect, but it's still giving you some insight into how investment works.
The Big Short - GREAT movie. Everyone should watch. I feel like if we don't understand what caused the collapse then we'll be doomed to repeat it. Think Wells Fargo and their shenanigans.
Forbes- I don't read this site too often, but every now and again they have some great articles explaining current events or difficult financial concepts
Runescape- this RPG game has an in-game mock-exchange where players can buy and sell almost anything. Great way to practice without losing real money.

 

[wanderingorion]

The most basic unit of investment avail able to private US citizens, who don't otherwise have access to the inner workings of Wall Street, is the stock..

Thanks for the info. I'm about to invest for retirement in a mutual fund, but was thinking about dabbling a bit in stocks sometime soon.

 

[Orthosurg1]

Grew up on a dairy farm. Came up in every single interview so far!

 

[Lost in Translation]

I really really wanted to be able to talk about participating in 24 hours of LeMons on my application, I even had a team and a car ready, that s*** is just too expensive though.

LeMons is supposed to be cheap though.

 

[Saifa]

LeMons is supposed to be cheap though.

Once you've spent $500 to register your car and even more than that to get your driving team in and insured (plus almost $1000 for safety gear not including the cage you need to get professionally built) that $500 car isn't so cheap anymore.

 

[BombsAway]

Any tips for newbie investors?

You will never be smarter than the dudes working 18 hour days at goldman sachs whom have access to unlimited algorithms and other resources, so don't day trade. Just put your money in a low-cost index fund and watch compound interest do its thing.

Obviously if you have a company you really dig on its own/feel good about, you can invest in that on the side. For me it was Keurig/green mountain (HQ in my home town, they treated employees well. stated investing at 5 bucks a share, they sold out at 90,-cha ching). I also really dig what tesla is doing, so i throw some money their way when I can and don't care how it fluctuates.

That being said, easiest thing ever: find some 4 or 5 star Morningstar rated index funds and press play. Look at the annual statements if you want, but mostly just see what happens in 10 years.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Once you've spent $500 to register your car and even more than that to get your driving team in and insured (plus almost $1000 for safety gear not including the cage you need to get professionally built) that $500 car isn't so cheap anymore.

For wheel to wheel racing it's the cheapest for sure. I mean, your teams should help you with the cost? Teams are 4-6 so even with just 4 that should be no more than like $700 per person (split the $500 registration fee, and then the safety equipment shouldn't cost more than $2000 total). Then split cost of brakes and tires, and it's still cheaper than 2 HPDE days.

 

[DonChaKnow]

Well, my parents died when I was young, so I grew up with relatives, but right before middle school started, I got accepted to this school for people with special talents. I had to face a lot of hardships there, but those all paled in comparison to the time when my mentor died, because we had become very close. Then I had to battle this evil wiz--I mean man, this bad man, and, I don't want to brag, but I saved the world.

Batman? Magneto? Is that you?

dr. strange?

mfw no one here apparently knows Harry Potter.

 

[Endoxifen]

I actually love this thread. I'm going to give it a shot!

I'm a classical/ Brazilian guitar player. I also once punched a donkey in the face (not a euphemism)

 

[Geo16]

*cough* I ate 50 mccnuggets in one sitting.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I actually love this thread. I'm going to give it a shot!

I'm a classical/ Brazilian guitar player. I also once punched a donkey in the face (not a euphemism)

Nice (about the guitar). I was a session musician for a few years playing guitar and bass (occasionally drums and other stuff). Do you still play?

 

[Boogy'sChick15]

I already mentioned mine earlier in this thread, but I will share a new one.
I recently picked up wood burning and I am debating whether or not I should open an etsy shop and sell my art pieces.
It may not be my most unique EC but it is definitely interesting for me and I am super excited about it!

 

[Endoxifen]

Nice (about the guitar). I was a session musician for a few years playing guitar and bass (occasionally drums and other stuff). Do you still play?

I took a break for a little bit (too worried about bringing a nice guitar to school), but I'm back at it now.

It's awesome that you played professionally! How did that factor into your military service?

 

[freak7]

*cough* I ate 50 mccnuggets in one sitting.

There was a group of guys at my junior high who went and ordered 1000 mcnuggets. I think they cleared ~400 and gave up.

I already mentioned mine earlier in this thread, but I will share a new one.
I recently picked up wood burning and I am debating whether or not I should open an etsy shop and sell my art pieces.
It may not be my most unique EC but it is definitely interesting for me and I am super excited about it!

NICE! I have a piece of woodburning art that I got had my friend do for me. It's one of my favorite parts of my household.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I took a break for a little bit (too worried about bringing a nice guitar to school), but I'm back at it now.

It's awesome that you played professionally! How did that factor into your military service?

I briefly considered trying out for the Navy Band, but they never deploy or really do any kind of real service. I didn't want to join the military just to play at fleet week. I did play the drums in the marching band at boot camp though. That was fun.

Other than that, I brought a ukulele on deployment that I played pretty much daily.

 

[Boogy'sChick15]

NICE! I have a piece of woodburning art that I got had my friend do for me. It's one of my favorite parts of my household.

That's awesome!
So far I have only worked on a couple pieces, one being my bf's favorite land art from MTG. I'm hoping to try and attempt finishing one piece each weekend so I can start building a large enough collection for the shop.

 

[cellsaver]

People after my own heart. I was a hardcore hiker and climber (before there were rock gyms) from HS thru my early 50s.

is it White Water Rafting Season yet? Those were the days and I'd love to do that again....East of the Mississippi here.

 

[Foodology]

I write books, both fiction and nonfiction!

 

[freak7]

That's awesome!
So far I have only worked on a couple pieces, one being my bf's favorite land art from MTG. I'm hoping to try and attempt finishing one piece each weekend so I can start building a large enough collection for the shop.

If anyone's curious, I had my friend make a replica of this for me via woodburning:

 

[Boogy'sChick15]

If anyone's curious, I had my friend make a replica of this for me via woodburning:

I love it lol This is the kind of stuff I will most likely be selling. People spend an outrageous amount of money on handmade wood burned signs.
I want to include actual wood burned images in my pieces and sell them too, but the money is in personalized signs like these.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I write books, both fiction and nonfiction!

Awesome! I have written a lot of stuff. Sold a bunch of short fiction and non-fiction. Glad to see another writer here.

 

[MareNostrummm]

Worked commercial fishing for about 6 months total, only white English speaker there.

Also a military sniper. Definitely talked about that a lot.

But aren't you supposed to be a healer, not a vehicle of death?

 

[Endoxifen]

Here's the real question: can I put my primary hobby has sushi eating? It's a formative event for me every time and I feel that my ability to each sushi properly, correlates with my potential success as a surgeon.

 

[Geo16]

There was a group of guys at my junior high who went and ordered 1000 mcnuggets. I think they cleared ~400 and gave up.

Damn. So much $$$. Also, 400 is still impressive.
I want to order like 10 dollar worth of fries and eat that now

 

[IndigoLeft]

Well I don't know how unique it is (it's not) but I'm a painter. I have sold my paintings around my home state and been in quite a few exhibitions. I also had a small period of time when I did fashion design.

 

[Lawpy]

Sky surfing

 

[littledoctor1992]

I was a VIP manager for one of the most well known luxury hotel chains in the world(shares a name with a cracker), portrayed a few famous characters at the worlds largest theme park, and started a nonprofit which includes food pantries, patient visits, and homeless health screenings for veterans! I hope to talk about all of those extensively in interviews


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[Nietzsche's Barber]

Mine was giving crispy fades. Topic of conversation at all of my interviews.

 

[CAFFEINE!]

My unique EC/hobby is photography. Here is a photo of my new puppy:

 

[Nietzsche's Barber]

My unique EC/hobby is photography. Here is a photo of my new puppy:

Beautiful best friend you have there. Also, stick with photography, it is a great hobby!

 

[jesie]

I'm a skydiving coach and it has been an awesome conversation starter in interviews

 

[Astra]

my most unique EC is getting into meds school

 

[Aerus]

Smelling patients

 

[habitualgreatness]

Coolest EC is- I designed a life skills workshop, and give it to disadvantaged youth. Amongst a ton of mentoring youth.


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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

my most unique EC is getting into meds school

Is meds school pharmacy school?

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Beekeeping

 

[DameJulie]

Seasonal flight attendant. Don't think it's common around here.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

Pastoral volunteering at the local hospitals and jails whenever they had any pagans in there who needed someone to talk to.

 

[Joemm426]

Providing caregiver services to a paraplegic lawyer

 

[Dagrimsta1]

Professional blunt wrapping.

 

[Groggs]

Significant experience in remodeling/construction work. Not sure if I'll include it in my app though.

 

[Runner500]

Beekeeping

Did you know bees hate the smell of Kerosene?

 

[Endoxifen]

Doing Dr. Bees proud.

Beekeeping