Invest It, Leave It Alone Story

[billisonboard]

Okay, it was neglect, not strategy. But still ...

In the early eighties I was going to college in Idaho and living off campus with girlfriend/wife/now ex-wife. The power company offered a customer investment plan with dividend reinvestment. We were poor college students but signed up and over a couple of years threw maybe a couple hundred dollars into it. Then life happened for the next 35ish years. Little while back I got contacted by the company to see if I was the person on the account and if so warned the state was going to take it I didn't contact them. Did so, then had to track down the ex who I hadn't talked to in close to thirty years to deal with this account with both our names on it. We are working to just split the account in half.

But our couple hundred dollar investment is now worth more than $10,000. Not a lot in the grander scheme of things but my half is (almost?) worth dealing with my ex. Hey at least she gave me the odd .001 share.

[kadee79]

Bills, I have a story too, but not as good as yours.  I bought 100 shares of a penny stock...and I'm thinking I paid like 0.73 per share.  Anyway, forgot about it for several years until I was contacted by some clearing house wanting to buy it at about $3 per share.  So instead of selling to them, I started following the stock & looking for articles pertaining to it.  Found out that some big company was going to buy the one whos stock I'd bought...I ended up getting over $7 per share...so a nice little surprise for me too.

Congrats on your windfall!  

[Artemis Windsong]

Mine isn't a good a story. I bought a penny stock. It went up. The person who sold it to me asked me to sell it which I didn't. He'd churn the penny stocks. I forgot about it.

Move forward many years and I have a real stock broker. I told him about it. He said it was worth $15,000. WTF. Then I sold it when he told me to. THEN, he comes back and says it had a reverse split several times and was worth just $300. He further spun it so it looked like my fault. I changed brokers.

And another. My parents bought some kind of bond when I was a child. They cashed in the coupons, which were supposed to be mine. Somehow my DD and her SO got a hold of the safe deposit box key after my mother died. They found the bond and tried to cash it. Since it was in my maiden name the company wouldn't cash it. They didn't figure it out and threw the bond in the trash in another town.

Go forward and my later brother gets a call about the bond. He didn't have it. I didn't have it and had forgotten what DD did. They wouldn't cash it out without the physical bond. Poof, $10,000 gone.

I have no idea what else was in the safe deposit box that they got away with. I'm not holding a grudge.

[billisonboard]

Update: Anyone ever have to deal with getting a Medallion Signature Guarantee? What a pain. 

[Artemis Windsong]

Time consuming.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

Jun 7, 2021 12:13:02 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Update: Anyone ever have to deal with getting a Medallion Signature Guarantee? What a pain. 

Our bank branch manager has one and he stamps papers for us for free.

[wvugurl26]

It's a definite pain in the ass.

My grandma needed one after grandpa died. Her bank had an investment group and that branch office had one and did it for free.

They are a major pain. My aunt worked for Schwab and she confirmed they suck. The stamp must reside in its own fireproof safe when not in use. Nothing else can be stored with it. A total waste of space.

[alabamagal]

When I started work for a big pharma company in 1986, they had a stock purchase plan that purchased stock as part of retirement account. They ended it that year and switched to 401k. They gave option to keep stock in account, roll over to 401k, or cash out (and pay taxes). I was not eligible for 401k (less than 6 months employment) so I cashed out. Less than 1 share, under $100. Just looked up how much it would be if I left it there $1200.