I first started to follow the stock market and learned about individual investing while working full-time in my career as an information systems manager for a public water utility. I have a pension coming after I retire, and I contribute to a 401k plan. But I also decided that I needed to take control of my own investment choices for additional capital outside of my 401k so that I could understand the stock and bond markets, learn about various investment vehicles outside of mutual funds, and be prepared for an independent financial future.

This became painfully obvious to me after I received an unexpected inheritance from an uncle who passed away far too young. I had a financial advisor at the time, in late 2007, who recommended that I put all of it in mutual funds. Then in 2008 the market began to crash and in 2009 when I had to pay my share of estate taxes, I was forced to sell a portion of my inheritance at a loss of about 30%.

After that experience, I decided to become much better educated about the workings of the stock market, bond markets, closed end funds (CEFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), MLPs (Master Limited Partnerships), BDCs (Business Development Companies), and other investment vehicles such as Treasuries (e.g., I-bonds - inflation-adjusted treasury bonds, TIPS).