What started you investing in Tesla (@Jackl1956 thread)

[ZeApelido]

While I had known of Elon Musk since PayPal and had dabbled in the periphery of Elon's world I had not really focussed on TSLA, despite having lots of interest in the Roadster, not least because I had been deeply enamored of the Lotus Elan that I drive, and the Lotus Cortina that nearly drove mad. The nation of electric cars had intrigued me since I had seen and driven in a 1909 Baker Electric as a teenager. In roughly early 2013 I was at a charity investor convention in South San Francisco when I was given the opportunity to drive a Model S for the duration fo the four day convention.

Those four days changed my life. From an investment perspective I had been involved with consumer payments and related fields so PayPal was a Big Deal for me, but not a deeply-satisfying, world-altering, life-changing experience. In fact I had been very involved in the charity precisely because the work side was so unfulfilling emotionally.
So the Model S appeared and was boded up with fellow charitable conventioneers. We all wanted a Tesla NOW!

With a history of observing Elon invent interactive mapping, consumer payments then devoting himself ridiculously to rocketry with obviously ridiculous goals I was intrigued but skeptical. Then came the Model S.

I went away from San Francisco and immediately began to shift investments to TSLA over the universal objections of everyone except my spouse. She reminded me that things worked well for us when we followed our dreams, not so when we tried to be rational. [aside: she left Rio de Janeiro to live with me in Yemen, so one could argue she had some degree of wanderlust]. Anyway we could not buy a Tesla because there was no way to get one in Brazil, so we just invested.

In mid-2014 the P85D was announced. Then I lost all control. I placed an order for Florida delivery where we had a mailbox and a legal address but no dwelling. After ordering the car we decided to buy somewhere to keep the car. After some searching we found a suitable place and closed on it. A few days later I was offered a P85D just as I wanted it which was used as a demonstrator in Georgia.

From that time on we kept adding to TSLA holdings every time something matured or we had some available new funds. We kept our other longer term holdings but TSLA ended out as nearly half our new money. We also sold our island and invested those proceeds mostly in TSLA. The rest is history.

I can honestly say that TSLA and prior exposure to Elon Musk has changed my life for the better. While we had used solar power when nearly everyone said not to we had also done some fairly outrageous things. Once TSLA appeared we ended out selling our aircraft, investing the proceeds in TSLA, switched to renewable wherever we could and so on. The side effects of all this have been quite amazing.

After a lifetime of constant career changes, academic efforts that ended out with a bizarre collection of major subjects and degrees and living in more than a dozen countries I actually ended out concentrating my interests on TSLA, SpaceX etc. In the process I ended out living in the same house for more than 15 years, Before TSLA I had never even lived in the same country for that long.

Thus, TSLA has brought great new stability to my life. How many people can claim that? FWIW, Elon Musk is unquestionably the longest tenured major auto chief in the world today, so one could argue TSLA has brought him stability too. OK, I admit it, this paragraph might be just a trifle 'tongue in cheek'.

But do you personally know Chico Buarque? If you do, then I'm really going to be jealous!

 

[Zero CO2]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

For me it started with the Election of Trump in 2016 ... I have to thank Trump for that ... I was chatting with some friends just after he was elected and i was bemoaning the fact that Trump was going to remove environmental rules and allow polluters to run amok ... during this lively debate with friends I realized I did not really understand the details about global warming/climate change ... so nursing my hangover the next day I decided that i was going to learn all i could on climate change ... i spent the better part of late 2016/ and 2017 consuming as much information on climate change as possible. By March 2017 I had been convinced that electric vehicles were the future and I could longer support fossil fuel industry ... ordered my Model S and took delivery in May 2017.... after driving the Model S I realized this was the future of transport ...

I have been an investor for many years and I have had one 10+ bagger AAPL ... my mistake with AAPL was i sold 3/4 of my shares too soon ... i did not understand just how big a game changer AAPL would end up being .. my early departure from AAPL would now be worth $1.35M.. I felt TSLA was a similar story to AAPL ... actually with even greater overall potential in the long run ...

I started accumulating shares in late 2018 ... and i just added up my share count I am at 419 shares ... need one more share

 

[FrANce]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I have never been interested in cars, tech, or finance.

However, in 2017 a friend showed me the Model 3 presentation video and I was blown away… I remember thinking “Wow, finally a CEO who is a good guy and wants to make the world a better place!” Elon’s sincerity, dedication, and determination were so alluring and inspirational.

Halfway through the presentation, I made my mind up to buy a Tesla (my previous, and most expensive car to date, was a Mercedes A-class). Since the Model 3 wasn’t going to come to Europe for a few years, I ordered a Model S instead. I also bought a couple of shares, to commemorate the event, and installed solar panels to provide “fuel” for the wondrous new car to come.

After having realized so quickly that my previous perception of Elon (billionaire playboy who builds expensive cars for his rich friends) has been completely wrong, I wanted to know as much as possible about Tesla, the mission, etc. I stumbled upon Rob Maurer’s “Tesla Daily” podcast (still my favorite podcast) shortly afterward. The episode where he interviewed Dave T was a real eyeopener and made me think about investing. This is how I found TMC and this thread.

I learned so much here, for which I’ll be forever grateful. The knowledge that all of you share so freely and generously has enabled me to make an investment plan and to deploy funds into TSLA that have been idling in cash, just because I couldn’t bring myself to let my bank manager decide what’s “best”. I am so grateful to you all. In the bad times, your analysis gave me the courage and conviction to hold, and in the run-ups this forum has prevented me from any notion to “lock in gains”.

The recent, colossal run-up made my head spin, but luckily I recovered from the shock. I love my work and don’t dream of retirement, but it is wonderful to see my personal wealth building up beyond my wildest imagination.

 

[Causalien]

Thanks. I have no idea. It was probably wanderlust, inherited from family members who never stayed too long in the same place. Genealogies on both sides of my family show a pattern of constant movement since long, long ago. A handful of them did some fascinating things. I was just rebellious. I actually was denied a degree after earning it due to my stubbornness. When later I gave the true explanation while applying to the graduate school of my dreams the admissions person laughed and accepted me. Some rebellions work better than others.

It seems to me we have very many interesting stories among those of us who frequent this forum. Perhaps early adopters of any technology must be, by definition, outliers.

Haha, I have the same wonderlust.


Over the years as I probe into more ppl's mind. I realized that there's a fundamental difference in how our brain works. While we get excited when facing a new thing and analyze most of them with logic. Fear and prejudice overwhelms most ppl's mind when faced with something new.

 

[jbcarioca]

But do you personally know Chico Buarque? If you do, then I'm really going to be jealous!

No I don't know him beyond nodding as we pass each other in our favorite pizzeria, Capriccioso. Most of my spouse's friends know him pretty well. The Leblon well educated population is quite small.

 

[StealthP3D]

But you're right. I do not need a car, since I live in the city. I have an old car that I keep mostly because of inertia and for road trips. Uber/Lyft cars are ubiquitous.

OK, so you do have a driver's license.

I want you to do something for me (really for yourself). Please keep an eye out for any opportunity to drive a Tesla (preferably one of the last two models or a Raven) for market research purposes. Yes, I understand you already "get it" and have invested, but as a lifelong investor I'm a big fan of doing more "research" than is maybe required to be successful. I have bought three new cars without test driving them first (I tried to buy a fourth, had the money and a price but the salesman basically wouldn't let me close the deal without driving it??). My point is, I can tell how a car drives just by doing research on the Internet, there are very few surprises when I get behind the wheel for the first time because I have researched it and have numerous informed opinions to draw upon and compare to the many hundreds of cars I have first hand experience with. But the Model 3 was a huge exception and was so much better than I thought I was blown away.

Also, post the city you live in, I bet you will get an offer from a fellow TMC member. You cannot fully understand without driving one. The future is uncertain so this knowledge could help you in unknown ways. Just do it, it should be fun and easy.

 

[clmason]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

It was the batteries for me. At least it was the fact the new laptops, Ipods, and the at the time, the brand new Iphone, seemed to last forever. Just like magic! Then somebody strung up a bunch of those batteries and powered a car. That car had some amazing performance specs! Then the secret master plan blog post. I test drove a Roadster but it was way too small, felt hand built with questionable QC, and too pricey... but I was sold hook, line, and sinker on Tesla's technology and mission.

I then went deep on Elon, JB, batteries, & EV's. I was smitten. Actually went out of my way to find Tesla's in the wild. See photo below from EV Day in San Diego where I took photos of my son with the "Big Gay Model S". Told my Stock Broker I wanted to buy at the IPO. He was skeptical and recommended to wait for the price to settle. Eventually did make my first buy at $18 per share on a dip. Kept following the progress and adding more on other dips. Lesson learned here, buying on dips is pretty much pointless in a company poised for massive growth.

Then Model S made a profit and the shares spiked $90. I succumbed to what a lot of folks here thought was a short squeeze and sold those $18 shares at $90. Oops, glad I had acquired other shares a $22, $24, $26, $28.... you get the idea. Still holding these today!

However, the one thing that really got me to buy was that I felt I missed the boat on Apple and didn't want to let that happen again. Can you image that? Missed the boat on Apple in 2010?

 

[StealthP3D]

Bought at $170, $305, $805.
Every time I bought it dropped 30%-50% after I invested and people were laughing at me.

Key takeaway:

People laughing at you is a strong buy signal. Always buy more when they are laughing the loudest.

 

[LTC_RRR]

At a 4th of July party in 2016, a friend told me about Fiat e500 leases that practically made it free. Come home and discovered I left the freezer drawer open, thawing about a weeks worth of breast milk. Wife makes me take day off work the next day to cycle/use the milk while pumping at the same time. "hey let's check out that fiat deal" while we're home. Leased a Nissan leaf that day (just as good lease but 4 doors for kids). Queue 80's montage: Solar City panels on house, Model 3, TSLA, TMC forums...

I can safely bring up the breast milk incident now whenever I talk about our stock.

Of course, now that you have all that stock, you need to stay on this site all the time to keep abreast of developments!

 

[vikings123]

OK, so you do have a driver's license.

I want you to do something for me (really for yourself). Please keep an eye out for any opportunity to drive a Tesla (preferably one of the last two models or a Raven) for market research purposes. Yes, I understand you already "get it" and have invested, but as a lifelong investor I'm a big fan of doing more "research" than is maybe required to be successful. I have bought three new cars without test driving them first (I tried to buy a fourth, had the money and a price but the salesman basically wouldn't let me close the deal without driving it??). My point is, I can tell how a car drives just by doing research on the Internet, there are very few surprises when I get behind the wheel for the first time because I have researched it and have numerous informed opinions to draw upon and compare to the many hundreds of cars I have first hand experience with. But the Model 3 was a huge exception and was so much better than I thought I was blown away.

Also, post the city you live in, I bet you will get an offer from a fellow TMC member. You cannot fully understand without driving one. The future is uncertain so this knowledge could help you in unknown ways. Just do it, it should be fun and easy.

I couldn't agree more. I made this mistake of not experiencing the product. I was always in awe of Teslas and up until May 2019 I had never driven a Tesla in my life. I bought it without a test drive. Up until then I had only invested a small amount(compared to how much I ended up investing).

Once I experienced the product I almost had that Iphone moment. It was a completely different experience that blew me away and I could see this really change things in the future. And then I spent time researching the company even more. I pretty much emptied all my ESPP, consolidated IRA accounts, and kept accumulating. Q4 2019 earnings I thought was the inflection point for Tesla. So I continued to buy more and now I have 35X the shares I had before experiencing the product.

 

[Stretch2727]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

My story goes back to the 70's. I was a newspaper boy and managed to get some extra newspapers and starting selling them in the long gas lines during one on the oil embargoes. Made some extra money, but just trying to understand what was going on gave me a strong interest in the geopolitics around oil.

I added a small computer to my first car in the late 70's that would calculate in instantaneous/average MPG. It had a pickup on the drive shaft and a flow meter on the gas line to the carburetor to do the calculations. This is how obsessed I was with efficiency.

In college I took Energy and the Environment as a minor. Came away with the perception there was likely no sustainable solution in my lifetime.

I worked for Ford as an engineer for 10 years. (1989-1999) My impression of the auto industry was one where most of the real engineering was done at the suppliers. A learning that told me they could easily be disrupted by new technology.

I leased a Ford Focus Electric in 2013 for $199/month. With the money I saved on gas it pretty much paid for the lease.

I kept reading about the competitive advantages of Tesla and found my way to this forum in 2015. First invested in TSLA in 2015. I averaged in over 2-3 years at an average cost of $220. A large percentage of my portfolio that no financial manager would ever recommend. I have only owned 3 individual stocks in my life. Intel in the 90's, TSLA now, and currently a small amount of NIO.

To me it was fairly obvious that Tesla is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you know cars and a bit about energy it becomes obvious. How can a product (EV's) that reduces the amount of energy used over the existing products by 70% not be obvious. Most product struggle for 2-5% efficiency improvements. On the maintenance side it is similar and obvious, little heat generated and fewer moving parts will always win. Tesla has all the pieces to make this disruptive product a reality, from the best in class efficiency and range, direct selling, superchargers, and now the scale needed in the automotive industry to be competitive.

2 Model 3 reservations in 2016, both delivered in 2018.

I am still amazed with the Model 3 especially on road trips. To think it can go 300 miles in one sitting with the power from my solar panels is just not something I though I would ever see. To me it is a technical marvel way beyond any other product I have seen in my lifetime including the phone in my pocket.

So Tesla has developed a sustainable solution/environment for transportation, it is just a matter of execution not invention. I don't think we can imagine the positive changes this will bring about in our the world over the next 10-20 years.










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[Skryll]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

2014 drove a friends 2013 GM Volt for the first time, blown away that it could actually drive at speed without gas engine kicking in. A childhood dream of no stink no noise transportation now suddenly seemed to be possible.

After the vacation, test drove 2015 GM Volt, couldnt do it because of meagre acceleration compared to our gas cars, and also only 4 seats.
Started looking closer at Tesla but price wise seemed way out of range for what I would be willing or able to pay for a car. Intrigued for
first time.

Beginning of 2015 brought VW Jetta in for service, for fun test drove VW eGolf, loved the acceleration and handling. 75 mile range seemed meagre, but since this is our secondary family car, the other being a Honda Odyssey. Traded Jetta for 2015 VW eGolf.

My wife always insisted on driving the more wasteful larger Honda Odyssey for her longer commute because she liked the size, handling was good for a minivan etc, and only now that I was driving the eGolf, she discovered her love for saving money by driving the smaller car.
So a few months into 2015, I ended up driving the Honda Odyssey while she was driving the eGolf.

After months of not driving a gas car, I was shocked as to how this fairly new car was shuddering, smelling bad, unevenly accelerating. and how much I hated it. I brought it in for service because I seriously and honestly thought something was wrong with it. Turns out, no, thats all as it was when we bought it.

At this point I realized how disruptive electric driving is compared to what we are used to, and how quick our normal changes. I test drove a Model S and was blown away, bought stock and worked on convincing my wife over time, also by renting a Model S P90D on Turo and doing a family vacation with the car over a long weekend.

2015 also got a 10kW solar system for our home, which further demonstrated to me how sustainable transporation could work, more than absorbing the rise in electrical cost from PG&E in exchange for no longer feeding the polluting legacy industry at the pump, oil change and smog check appointments. Felt good about having redirected my cashflows towards solar and EV.

Solar is the natural consequence of electric driving. Invested into TSLA, SEDG, VSLR, CSIQ, NEE.

Following the stock movements and the FUD, and then Model X announcement blowing my mind, we ordered the Model X and took delivery in 2016, also thinking to verify the investment thesis by making the switch to an EV only family. Financing as much as possible and bought more stock with the rest of the cash.

Listening to the Model 3 reveal absolutely blew my mind again with the promised price/performance points, and having experienced Model X to become real against all odds, I trusted it would become real as well, and put in a reservation the night of the reveal. 2017 found somebody who had early access and test drove it and it blew my mind that it could do that for half the cost of a Model S actually.

Funny though, it broke down on the test drive.

Should maybe have been an early warning for what was to come, bought LEAPS that expired
worthlessly, fighting FUD on facebook left and right, deep in margin while tesla was struggling with the ramp and getting close to Teslas existence failure was nerve wrecking. Volunteered at the delivery center at the Q4 end of quarter push, which was an exhilarating
experience, spreading the word and teaching the customers what sales staff had no time to talk about.

Having test driven the Model 3 had convinced me that whatever happened, tesla would live on in some shape or form even if this was going to become an out of cash issue.

Kept accumulating shares, stayed in margin, responded to margin calls twice, a very hard time but sticking to the guns. Sold other stock to keep TSLA.

2018 finally replaced the VW eGolf after 3 years of ownership with a Model 3 LR RWD which again confirmed that the cheaper car does actually materialize and obsoletes the competition.

I had so much fun with it, that I ended up driving around for an hour before work each day and eventually signed up for Lyft and gave 180 rides in 2018 until my insurance started asked questions about if I am perhaps doing ridesharing which wouldnt be covered by the existing policy. People loved it, great experience, so many stories.

Checked out the eTron in person, and found a lot of Meh items, then hitting up the Audi guy that was showing it to me, if he would like to test drive my Model 3 in his lunch break. He did. And he was blown away, including autopark, and after a while got real quiet, wondering what the future holds for the legacy car companies.

2019 as we started climbing finally gradually reduced margin to 0 raking in solid gains, and stayed out of it since. While this seems like a mistake today, it allowed me to sleep better and weather the covid and job disruptions much better, and I don't really complain about the 300% paper gains of my portfolio today.

Also no longer mad at TSLAQ, after all, buying whenever the FUD storms suppressed the stock and shorting is what financed both my model 3 and model X and an addition of three powerwalls to accumulating more TSLA stock than I could have afforded on my own.

Still looking forward to the launch of virtual energy logistics with the million mile battery enabling vehicle to grid and homes with solar, home battery and EV being able to drastically reduce reliance
on legacy electricity producers. This is to me the next disruption front. Maybe with FSD your car even being able to go and get more energy when needed, tesla with an AI that orchestrates energy production/storage/consumption logistics allowing us to completely shut down coal plants and even gas peaker plants.

I see the tesla semi truck as the Trojan horse to sell energy solutions to large energy consumers like say Coca Cola. Show them the savings on peak shaving solar and mega packs at their charging locations for them to fully understand how this applies for all their energy needs.

I see a big future and hypergrowth for tesla for the next 5-10 years.

 

[ggr]

Actually went out of my way to find Tesla's in the wild. See photo below from EV Day in San Diego where I took photos of my son with the "Big Gay Model S".
View attachment 573183

Ha, I remember talking to you! The car was only a few days old, and the driver's side door handle failed while at that show... I had a friend drive the Roadster over too.

 

[CorneliusXX]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I grew up on a fairly large farm in outback Australia. I worked there through my childhood and while doing a couple of degrees in Sydney (electrical engineering & finance). One of the things I loathed about working on the farm was the utter waste of time ICE vehicles were to maintain (we had around 50 or so ranging from new vehicles used for critical purposes down to 30yo beaters used to shift livestock or run some particular equipment. (we even had an old tractor from the 1930's still coughing away that solely ran the post hole digger). For the older vehicles there was always something wrong - clean the radiator, tighten the hose clamps, grease this or that part, springs are broken, etc. etc.

I left in my late 20s to start a career in finance and about the same time stumbled across discussion of Tesla in c.2012 on reddit, that lead to the familiar deep dive watching everything on youtube about Elon and Tesla - I was totally convinced EVs were the future when I saw the skateboard and realised that ICE vehicles were just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen in terms of complexity. I started buying via CFD's in 2013 as it was still quite tricky to buy US stocks in Australia at the time. I rode the wave but was new to the CFD product and got stopped out on leverage. Since then I have been accumulating on low leverage. I didn't really care about the price as it was and is clear to me that everything is going electric.

The other reason I was so convinced was due to watching Elon talk - He can take a universe of considerations and boil it down the the few key considerations needed to make a decision. His comments on fuel cells are an excellent example. While I think i'm not stupid compared to many of my friends, it was at that point that I realised just how stupid I was compared to some other humans. How could I not invest in a company run by someone that clever with an amazing work ethic and had a phenomenal product.

Of the CFD's I've not been stopped out of, I've been continually buying from $150 up to $1,500. I earned my second comma early this year and am a decent way to my retirement number in my 30's because of Tesla. Tesla needs to get to about $3k/share in the next couple of years for me to comfortably retire at 40.

On a side note, one of my direct contributions to Tesla was that I worked on the small team that provided the white label fiance for Tesla when they launched in Australia - so if you financed through their website in the early Australia launch years you were using a product I helped design.

 

[Krugerrand]

Um, like the way we laugh at people buying NKLA?

No, that’s a totally different laugh; it’s a knowing laugh. Everyone was ridicule laughing at Tesla. Different.

 

[Thumper]

My Tesla story. Always been techy, first computer 1980 after reading Byte magazine for 2 years. Always subscribed to Scientific American so I knew about global warming problems since 70s or 80s. Career teaching auto mechanics, machine shop and welding plus work/study program in Chicago suburb. Visited many industries and talked with management over the years as part of my student supervision. Wrenched a formula 5000 car, built lots of different things over the years like the 16" Cassegrain in my avatar. Owned mostly Volvos and Mercedes which I could afford by buying good rollers with blown engines and rebuilding.
Started researching a replacement for our Passat wagon in 2010. Realized that Tesla could be something special and was attracted to the mission. Placed a reservation in April 2011 and joined TMC. Bought first 1000 shares in Aug 2011 at $23.80. Might not have had confidence to buy if not for Mercedes and Toyota being invested. Attended the Model S launch party at the factory in Oct 2011. Took delivery of Model S Jan 2 2013. No supercharger support when I bought. Figured I might need to rent sometimes but never did. Drove 6 years then a Model 3 dual motor, FSD. Bought more shares over the years and never sold any. TMC member Julian Cox first explained what Tesla could become. Friends implored me to " lock in profits" many times. I always ask myself, how much will I get after taxes, do I need the money right now, and what will I do with the money that is better than leaving it where it is? My most expensive shares are at $424 from the Solar City conversion. I'm 74 and just hope we can achieve enough economic justice and environmental sustainability for my children and grandchildren to enjoy the wealth I've managed to luck into. I am willing to pay more taxes to achieve better social outcomes, I just don't want to be the only chump doing so. Thanks to all of you who helped educate me about Tesla and investing in general.

 

[Joe F]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

This is NOT a joke.

Same for me, after finding TMC.

Was contracting with Samsung 1991-1995, and was thinking about BEV's and how they might be a better alternative to ICE, and spoke about regen to my EE colleagues, all of which shot the BEV idea down, stating the grid would melt down. I didn't have the ability to take it any further, but held on to the idea, wishing someone else would produce a viable BEV..

Fast forward to watching the IPO on CNBC, but thought Tesla was not going to amount to much, I mostly forgot about Tesla. I know, foolish for not investigating further. Live and learn.

Then I found TMC. I started following Tesla more closely, FUD and all, and when there were fires and battery punctures, I saw a rapid response by Tesla when they designed the titanium shield, and announced it would be made available as a retrofit for any existing owners who wanted it. I was hooked, especially after knowing what Chevy did with their ignition switch spring nightmare. I saw Tesla as a shining example of what a real company which cares about their customers should be.

Although I wasn't in a position to need a new car, and in fact lost my job in 2008 and decided it was time to retire, I rolled over a 401K and started investing through the 2008-2009 crash. My mistake was going with an advisor who was with a firm which charged $35/trade per 1000 shares. They made more money off me than I made, or so it seemed. Fired the advisor, switched to Fidelity and went out on my own.

Made a lot of rookie swing trading mistakes, including having sold most of my AAPL after hours when Jobs passed (my basis was about $80 before the 7-1 split .) Disney at $18.80 anyone? Yeah sold that all off too, knowing it would come back down again, just like it had been doing (HINT to all those who are holding off investing further in TSLA, waiting for sub $1K again? Don't.)

Things changed when I dragged my bride to a mall gallery in 2015, and sat in an S. I was hooked again. When the refreshed S was announced, and the FSD video was released, I put in my order. I'm approaching 70 in a few months, and the thought of AP taking the fatigue out of long distance driving was all it took.

While I still haden't invested in TSLA, that changed in March 2018. Still kicking myself for not recognizing Tesla for its importance back when it IPO'd, better later than never. Stupid not having pulled the trigger after buying the S, which BTW was the first time driving or riding in a Tesla. Had a blast driving home!

I almost feel sorry for the shorts who to this day think Tesla is a zero. Almost, but not quite.

 

[clmason]

Ha, I remember talking to you! The car was only a few days old, and the driver's side door handle failed while at that show... I had a friend drive the Roadster over too.

Awesome. Great memory! I have pics of your Green Roadster too from that same day. There was another Blue Roadster there as well as a Signature Red Model S. Date stamp on my photo is 9/23/2012. Time flies when you're having fun!

 

[Off Shore]

No, please share those personal stories.

With the mod's approval then, and thanks @Jackl1956 for asking, I was replacing the lead-acid batteries in my 2007 Zenn NEV with 72 volts-worth of lithium pouch cells, and my vendor friend was talking about Tesla using laptop batteries in their new sedan. We had a good laugh about that. In 2015 the Zenn gave up the ghost. I had heard enough about the Leaf to know I wasn't interested, so over the course of a few weeks I convinced my sweetie to go for a test drive at the Tesla store. I'm no fool, so I insisted she drive it first. Six weeks later our 70D arrived, and within two months we had driven across the country and back.

I'm a motor head. I have a 28-cylinder vehicle tattooed on my back. I knew that era was over when I got the Zenn, but I didn't realize until after some time with the 70D that what a profound evolutionary change Tesla is.

I've never actively invested, just held some shares from work. Largely encouraged by what I learned here, I took almost a year to transfer the contents of my 401k (almost all of the trades badly-timed).

At the beginning of this year we sold my work stock and bought ~21 acres of pasture land on the slopes of our volcano. Over the next few years we're planning on using some of our gains from Tesla stock for infrastructure for an agroforestry school and model farm on the land.

 

[capster]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I’ve always been into Nature. My increasing worry about climate change dates from graduate school in the early ’90’s when I was working with some modeling using numerical integration that involved phase changes in dynamical systems. Since then I believe that without intervention Earth’s climate system will exhibit an abrupt change from the stable oscillatory regime that humans have enjoyed for the last 10,000 years sooner rather than later.

Not too long after graduate school, I found myself in R&D at a legacy German automaker’s lab in Silicon Valley. I had hoped to work on autonomous vehicles and to nudge them towards greener technology. Eventually I found myself running a technology forecasting newsletter for executives and the C-suite. In that role and in the ’05-’09 timeframe, I essentially drew them a map of the future of the car (electric, autonomous, connected — I missed ride sharing). I wrote also about Tesla which I think helped both them and Tesla.

I was laid off in ’09 as the music stopped during the economic downturn and only my German colleagues, it seemed, knew where the chairs were. Dispirited and wanting nothing to do with Automotive and wanting more hands-on work, I went into app development.

I didn’t invest in Tesla early because I knew the dismal track record of companies trying to break into automotive.

However, I recognized by early 2015 that Tesla might actually stand a chance, but that they needed to people to buy and hold the shares as well as to buy the cars. So I started to buy shares in earnest and with conviction. I kept buying through what was essentially a long plateau. Although my first purchase was ~$190, my lowest <$150 and my last was last year in the mid $180’s, much of my larger purchasing was in the $200's and $300’s (and many of those shares spent most of a couple of years underwater). I also bought some shares for my son and took him to one of annual shareholder meetings.

They say you shouldn’t invest more than you can afford to lose. I did because I knew the score and I was in fact willing to lose it all (Ha! Don’t play chicken with me you lousy shorts!), though the FUD and the SP drops were a strain at times — I have no idea how Elon or the folks at Tesla handled it all so well.

I didn’t buy the roadster because it was too expensive for me. I didn’t buy the Model S because I didn’t find it comfortable (I’d had back surgery many years before and felt the cabin height might be a problem for me on long trips).

App development, on the whole, didn’t work out all that great for me though I had a number of good years. After a handful of those years I ordered an X. I was able to take my son to the X reveal which was fun. Unfortunately, the company I was at was struggling because growth in their market segment had stalled and because of management errors. So, my job went to several engineers in India. I cancelled the order for the X and decided to focus on an app of my own. That app was well received but not an earner.

Though I'd had an X on order at the time, I stood in line for the Model 3 as much for solidarity as anything else. In 2018, I bought a 3 with the white interior so I’d had to wait till mid-summer for that interior to be available. I didn’t actually benefit from standing in line, but it was fun to have been in line.

TSLA at $1,500 means I can be retired, though I aim to continue to be useful. It also means my recent divorce isn’t as financially life changing as it might otherwise have been.

Looking to the future, I have a plaid Cybertruck on order. I also encouraged my son to put in orders relatively early for a handful of Cybertrucks with which to start a ride sharing business when FSD is realized.