Stock Ownership is Company Ownership, Millionaire Next Door Attributes, T-Shirts plus Community Wins | FI Weekly

Stock Ownership is Company Ownership

I included this in a newsletter last year and wanted to come back to it with an update:

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports posted a ridiculous tweet that got over 3 million views where he said:

My problem with the stock market is it’s just one big casino where the people in charge rig it to (expletive) over the little guy and make all the money for themselves.

My response to this kind of emotional outburst is simple:

Owning a share of stock means you are a part owner of that company.

A company like Ford broke ownership of their company into 4 billion little pieces, each one represented as one share of their stock.

There’s no gambling involved in long-term ownership of companies.

The only people who think the stock market is gambling are people treating the stock market like a casino.

If you don’t ‘believe’ in stock market investing at all, that means there is literally no publicly traded company in the United States that you want to be an owner of.

That’s impossible.

So, let’s be clear, investing in the stock market isn’t gambling and it isn’t some nebulous unknown. You are buying small ownership stakes in companies.

In the case of a total stock market index fund, you are buying an ownership stake in over 4,000 companies.

This is not gambling, it’s investing.

Tim, one of our community members, responded to my newsletter with this thoughtful reply:

I disagree a bit. Stocks are very disconnected from the companies they represent. The company receives money once initially at IPO, and maybe if they sell more shares later. But I don't really feel like ownership is the right way to put it. It's technically true, yes, but I have no influence on the company, nor do I help them by buying the stock - there's no relationship. I can go to their investor meetings and have a microscopic vote (in some cases), but anyone can get that information. The stock market to me is a bunch of pieces of paper, with different company names written on them. "This one says Ford! Would you give me $12 for it?

My response to Tim:

I fundamentally disagree on it not being ownership as that is precisely what it is. Very simply: If you own 1 out of 4 billion shares of Ford, sure it doesn't feel like much with your voting and share of income. But play that to its logical extreme: What if you kept buying shares until you owned all 4 billion shares. Do you own the company then? You bet! Or take a small business like ChooseFI. I think we have 200 shares that Jonathan and I each own 50% of. If I sold you one of them personally, you damn well own 0.5% of this company. Just because the numbers are small doesn't mean the logic doesn't hold for publicly traded companies!

Reminder: ChooseFI T-Shirt Shop Closing Friday

Here’s a quick reminder that if you want to purchase a ChooseFI T-shirt, the store closes this Friday June 13th.

If you missed it in last week’s newsletter, here’s a copy & paste of what I wrote:

We're bringing back ChooseFI t-shirts for a limited time—now available twice a year! The store is open through Friday, June 13, and shirts will be printed and shipped after it closes.

I've partnered with a great company that handles everything— they open a temporary store, collect all orders during that time, and only start printing and shipping once a minimum number of shirts have been sold.

This round includes fun new light blue options along with both our original and current logos. I’ve chosen high-quality shirts and lowered the price to keep it near break-even—this is about community, not profit.

👉 Shop the ChooseFI T-Shirt Store (via Forever Fierce)

A few notes:

• Shipping and processing is going to be roughly ~$9— I lowered the price of the actual shirt as much as possible, which is the part within my control.
• Orders will only process and ship after June 13 due to the batching process, so expect them to take a few weeks from the time you order.

Millionaire Next Door Attributes

I read an article from Ben Carlson on the habits and attributes of ‘The Millionaire Next Door’ and it reminded me how well that book aligns with the FI Community.

Here’s my summary list of Ben’s article plus some other habits I gleaned from the book.

The 'Millionaire Next Door':

• Lives below their means
• Prioritizes saving over spending
• Avoids frivolous spending (instead emphasizing value)
• Budgets their money
• Thinks long-term
• Saves and invests a significant portion of their income
• Avoids debt
• Works hard, is disciplined with their money and is entrepreneurially minded
• Believes that Financial Independence is more important than displaying wealth

ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week

My 1% better this week was buying an electric car. My husband and I were pushed over the edge to finally do it after listening to episode 530 with Chris Terrell. We were in need of a new car but kept putting it off. After listening to the episode we ran the numbers and it just made sense for us. We ended up buying a 2025 Chevy Equinox EV for $27,000 after all of the credits! We will charge the car on off-peak electricity so it will end up being roughly $4 for a full charge. Living in MN, we will continue having a gas car as well but have found that the electric car is more fun to drive! Not only does it accelerate quicker, but it is just fun knowing it is much cheaper driving it than the gas car.

• Betsy

My 1% better was calling my security alarm company to ask about the recent price increase each month. I have been with them since 2016 and have been very happy with the service. After talking to the first rep they mentioned they are not able to do anything in reference to the price increasing. I asked to be transferred to the supervisor and once transferred I had success. She issued a credit for the normal amount I pay each month plus a 60% discount for the next year. It's the little things.

• Chris

I'm helping my 21-year old son prepare for his undergrad graduation from a flagship state university in early May. He's graduating just three years out of high school, debt-free thanks to an early middle college program. He started college classes his junior year of high school and stayed an extra year at community college to earn his associate's degree, all on the state's dime. We were then able to pay for his last two years in full between his 529 and cash flowing. I'm so grateful we all had the foresight to have him apply for that competitive program when he was a high school sophomore. He has a full-tuition scholarship to another flagship university for law school (he focused on financial strategy in applications rather than "dream school"). He'll have to take out some federal loans for living expenses, as he's an adult now and it's time to come off the family payroll so we can refocus on our own FI goals. He's nervous about even that small amount of debt, so we've been talking about "good debt" and smart, aggressive repayment strategies. A few days after graduation, we are headed to Europe together on his graduation trip. I'm doing the final travel planning for our time in Lisbon, Madrid and Athens (his eclectic choice of dream locations). The trip is paid for with points and miles or with Airbnb gift cards bought with a 5x card. I'm thanking the FI community and mindset so much right now, all around.

• Jessica

I recently had my job title reduced because of a "title leveling exercise" HR performed. I decided to accelerate my plans to hire a career/resume coach (spending $3,000), and within 2 months of the title reduction, I've landed a new role making $25,000 more a year. I already max out my 401K and IRA; this additional income will allow me to max out our HSA contributions and to double what we're saving for my daughter's college tuition. I'm glad I believed in the value I bring to the table, and that I had the money available for the career coach. My 1% better ended up actually being 12% better income!

• MJ

After months of asking, I finally convinced my husband to cancel his Netflix account, which we've hardly used over the past year since having our first child. I reassured him that Netflix will always be happy to take our money if we choose to re-subscribe. I'm so happy to no longer be paying for that monthly charge.

• A

I have been working on optimizing my finances over the past year or so. After I got a large tax refund back this year, I found out I was withholding way too much. I had my accountant help me figure out how much I should have withheld so I don't have a large refund next year. The extra money that comes through on my paycheck is now going toward investing. I will be maxing out my retirement accounts for the second year in a row and even contributing more than I ever have toward my taxable brokerage account! Next, I need to figure out how much cash is too much when it could be put to use with investing. It's hard to not want to save for a bunch of future expenses, but at some point enough is enough and funds can be reallocated as needed. Lastly, this is a very privileged and a lucky "problem", each year my financial situation gets better, but it also gets more complicated. No matter how much I try to simplify or automate. It is a mindset shift I still need to make - going from saver to investor, broke to wealthy.

• Riley