Learning to invest and build for the future!
Good afternoon everyone, this is Rob, Marketing Intern at Vertex, Inc. Over the course of this internship there are many things I have learned about myself, the business/corporate world, as well as grasping in depth marketing concepts. However, none of these things to me outweigh what I have learned about setting myself up properly for my future life ahead of me. The biggest contributing factor to this is familiarizing myself with the power of investing at a young age and building a money making portfolio before I ever hit the working world. The person that introduced this lesson to me is my current boss and supervisor, Dick Epplemen. Mr. Epplemen from day one sat myself and another intern down and showed us the power and the importance of investing while we are young so our money and investments can compound.
These teachings are something that I personally don’t feel students at Temple don’t truly get educated on enough. I have taken business classes through the Fox school that do lay a foundation on how to invest and start a portfolio, however, the importance is not stressed sufficiently. Coming into this job I never understood the importance of things like starting a 401k at a young age. I certainly never considered setting up a retirement plan at the age of 22. This internship and particularly Mr. Epplemen demonstrated how vital it is to start planning for these things now. There are huge dividends to solidifying a 401k now! Why? The main reason is compound interest. By paying into a 401k at this point in my life I can more than double my net worth as well as my retirement funds. It’s amazing the difference between starting at 20 as opposed to starting at thirty.
Mr. Epplemen not only taught me the ins and outs of the investment process, he also encouraged me to start my own 401k and start paying in to it with my summer earnings. This is something I would have never entertained doing without his encouragement. I seriously feel like I have taken a giant step forward in the planning of my future. Leaving this position this summer I take with me all my experiences as well as a portfolio that will jump start me towards healthy saving habits. In a sense, Mr. Epplemen has served as much more than a boss to me; he has become a teacher and mentor. I encourage all Temple University students to start reading up and educating themselves on these methods of saving/investing. In the words of Albert Einstein “The only force more powerful than splitting the atom, is compound interest!” So be smart, and start building towards a prosperous future by investing today!
