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MidReal Story
Fortune's Rollercoaster: A Tale of Investments
Scenario:Write a story of the middle class boy, where he had big dreams as usual but later on in his life he understand the importance of investments. This investment will bring lots of ups and down in his life.
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I grew up in a modest, middle-class family with big dreams and aspirations.
My father, a hardworking man in his mid-40s, was a construction worker, while my mother dedicated her time to caring for us and managing the household.
Despite their efforts, we often struggled financially, living paycheck to paycheck.
My room was a small space shared with my younger brother, cluttered with our belongings.
I dreamt of success and a life beyond our current means, aspiring to be wealthy and provide for my family.
My ambitions were met with skepticism from my siblings and friends, who saw my dreams as unrealistic given our background.
However, I remained determined, believing that one day I would achieve my goals and lift my family out of financial hardship.
As I grew older, the reality of our situation weighed heavily on me, but it never deterred me from pursuing my dreams.
I grew up in a middle-class family.
I have four siblings; two brothers and two sisters.
Our father is a construction worker and mother is housewife.
We used to struggle financially but still managed to survive.
My father was hardworking man in his mid-40s and used to work on construction sites for 8–10 hours daily in the harsh weather.
My mother was the one who used to take care of the house and kids while my father was out there earning for us.
We were living paycheck to paycheck and used to live in rented house as we couldn’t afford to buy one.
My room was small space shared by me and my younger brother.
It was barely enough for two people since it was full of clutter as we used to store our things in that room.
We shared the bed as well which we used to think of as spacious when we were kids but as we grew older, we started feeling the need of having our separate rooms.
When I shared my dreams and aspirations with someone they used to say that I am out of my mind.
They used to say that how can you think of such thing when you are not even able to afford your own room?
How can you think of buying a car when you come from a background where people usually ride motorcycles?
I knew that these things were not affordable by people like us but I didn’t lose hope.
I have always been an ambitious person.
When other kids used to play, I used to think about achieving something big.
I wanted to be rich so that I could easily take care of my loved ones without having to worry about money running out from my pocket.
Some people also said that I am living in my own bubble world because they knew that our financial condition wasn’t good enough for me to have such big dreams but I never lost hope till now.
I often used to think about our financial struggles and how could we make it better.
I used to think that he is already working for 8–10 hours daily then why he is still struggling so much.
If he worked on his own then he could have earned more than what he is earning right now working for someone else.
But he was a man of principles.
He used to say that he doesn’t want his kids to struggle in their life for money.
He wanted his kids to earn money through education and not by working with him in the construction sites.
I used to think that okay that’s his way of thinking but at the end of the day, he needs to have enough money in his bank account so that all his kids can go to best schools and colleges.
But that didn’t happen.
As I said before, we were living paycheck to paycheck even when my father was working for 8–10 hours daily.
When I was in my high school, my father’s income wasn’t enough for us.
There was pressure on me and my siblings to perform good in our studies because my parents thought that they could earn some extra money if their kids score good grades in their high school.
That’s how it works in our country.
Some people even used to say that instead of telling your kids to study, tell him/her to do some part-time job so that they can earn some extra pocket money.
But my parents were old school type of people.
They believed in the power of education.
My elder brother was already working part-time and used to earn some extra money which he spent on his own expenses.
I started working part-time during the weekends so that I could earn some extra money.
It was very hard for me at that time because working for 5 days at school and then working during the weekends was very difficult for me.
But my father needed extra help from us so I did it.
My sibling started working part-time so that they could earn some extra money as well.
We were doing everything we could so that our parents didn’t have to worry about our expenses but nothing was working out.
We were still living paycheck to paycheck.
My mother also had a job but she left it so that she could take care of us.
She thought that if she gives us more time then we could do better in our studies.
I used to think about these problems every day while going to school.
I used to think about how could we solve these problems so that nobody has to worry about them anymore.
I knew that we were not financially stable enough for me to think about such things but still they used to come into my mind.
I never lose hope; instead, it made me think about these problems even more.
I used to think about how could I make enough money so that my family will not have to worry about their expenses anymore.
I used to think about how could I live a life where I don’t have to wait for the end of the month so that I could get my salary credited into my account.
These thoughts never left my mind especially when you see your family struggling financially in front of your own eyes.
Even when you are doing everything you can do, you still feel like there is something more you could have done.
Because of all this thinking, some of my friends started calling me “The Dreamer”.
It was not only my friends who used to say this.
One of my sister also used to call me this.
Even my younger brother also used to call me “The Dreamer”.
My siblings used to think that my thinking is very futuristic.
They thought that I used to think about things which cannot be possible in real life.
But I never lost hope because I knew one day, I will prove them wrong.
One day I will achieve what I have always dreamt of.
At times, when I used to see my family struggling financially, I used to talk about how could I solve this problem.
When I used to ask such questions, then everybody used to start laughing at me.
My elder brother and my father used to say why are you thinking about these problems right now when you are young?
You should not think about money when you are young.
You should enjoy your life and have fun.
But I never listened to their advice.
My friends and my brothers used to make fun of me and they used to say that whatever you are thinking about is impossible.
What you are thinking about is only possible in movies.
My siblings started calling me “The Dreamer” because they thought that I would never be able to achieve my goals in real life.
But no matter what people said, I never listened.
I knew it was not going be easy for me but I was ready for the challenge.
Some people even used to say that this is real life not a movie so stop thinking like a movie hero.
When people used to say such things, then it made me more determined than before.
I knew that it was going be tough for me but I didn’t care about it because I knew that one day I will prove all these people wrong.
When people are making fun of you, then it becomes very difficult for you stop thinking about your dreams.
As I grew older, then pressure from my family also started increasing a lot.
Then I decided that I will study well so that I could get into a good college which will give me a good job.
Even when I started talking about a good job, then everybody started making fun of me again.
Then I decided to keep quiet and let my work speak for itself.
And then I met Michael Brown.
He was a tall man with grey hair.
He was around 50 years old.
He was a father figure to me.
He was a successful investor who made money through wise investments.
He was living with his family in our neighbor.
One day, I was going for a walk and then I saw him talking about stock markets with his friend.
I found it very interesting and then I went to him and talked about stock markets.
Then he started telling me everything about stock markets and then he told me how can I make money by investing in them.
Then I started asking him more questions and then he answered all of them very calmly.
I spent almost 2 hours with him and then he told me to come and meet him so that we could talk more about stocks.
Then I came back home and then I thought about everything he said to me.
Then I got to know that if I want to make money then I have to invest my money in the right place.
I knew I was at a critical juncture: The moment when you realize you are fighting the same battle as your ancestors and are losing badly.
I worked two jobs and saved every penny, but somehow I could barely make ends meet—just like my father had done for decades before me.
I was no longer sure what else to do to break the cycle of poverty, hardship, and limited opportunities.
My dream was to break out of this cycle, but the reality is that after paying all the bills and rent for the month, all I had left were a few dollars to buy food for the next few days.
I didn’t know how long I would be able to maintain this status quo.
The money left in the bank would only last for another week before it was gone.
I needed more than just a job or another job; I needed a way to make serious money if I wanted to avoid repeating the same mistakes as my father had made before me.
The stock market seemed promising and many people had made fortunes there before.
The problem was that I didn’t have any money to invest.
The little I had left would only last for a week and after that I didn’t know where I would get more.
Unless I did something drastic and fast, my future would look just like my father’s.
One morning while serving coffee to the usual crowd of struggling artists and dreamers who frequented the café where I worked, I saw a man sitting alone at a corner table.
He had ordered his regular black coffee and now sat there sipping it slowly.
He looked like a successful man.
He was tall with grey hair and looked confident.
He was wearing a suit which was a rarity among our customers.
Most of our customers were struggling artists and dreamers who were trying to make their dreams come true but had no resources to achieve them.
Most of our customers thought that by sitting in a café and ordering a $5 coffee they would become famous overnight.
I went over to him and asked if he wanted a refill.
He looked up at me and said, “Thank you very much.” His voice was deep and assured.
“May I ask you something?”
I asked as I poured him some more coffee.
“Yes, go ahead,” he said.
“What do you do?”
“I work at an investment firm not far from here,” he replied.
“And what about you?”
“I work here as a waiter but I am also studying at university,” I said.
“What are you studying?”
“I am studying business and finance,” I said.
“You want to be an investor?”
“Yes,” I said with excitement.
“I have always wanted to be an investor but never got the chance to become one.”
The man stood up and smiled at me.
“Well, it seems like today is your lucky day,” he said as he extended his hand toward me.
