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Three Lifelong Investing Lessons From My First Job as a Newspaper Carrier
And a lesson in risk management and karma
Any idea what the photo above is showing? (Unfair advantage if you were born before 1970.) It’s a money changer or coin dispenser. I used it during my first job, as a newspaper carrier. It’s what got me started on my finance career and what taught me three important lifelong investing lessons.
My First Job
When I was 8 years old, growing up in Northern Ontario, I shared a Sudbury Star paper route with my older brother Mark. As was common then, the Star was an afternoon paper. It was a fairly long walk to Homewood Avenue but at least it was during daylight hours. In late spring and the summer months, it was a quicker bike ride. But between November and April, due to a local bylaw and for safety reasons (because of possible snow and ice), riding bikes in Sudbury was prohibited.
A newspaper carrier, or paper boy as it was known then in the 1960s (I don’t recall any fellow girls as delivery carriers), was a sought-after job. But it wasn’t always easy. I delivered papers rain or shine, sun or snow, six days a week, for four years. After a couple of years, I took over the entire route on my own.
