What started you investing in Tesla (@Jackl1956 thread)

[Jack6591]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

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

 

[UCF3]

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

When I read @anthonyj say that the TSLA stonk was a ten bagger I was sold. After that the island talk really solidified my decision

 

[ninpb]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

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

I assume you recently sold 10 shares to buy that handbag for your smart girlfriend?

 

[M|S|M MYP]

I assume you recently sold 10 shares to buy that handbag for your smart girlfriend?

With the wealth of knowledge that Jack provides...i think he has multiple girlfriends

 

[Oveeus]

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

I've always seen Tesla as an interesting company. I remember when it was low 100s in 2014 or so, my in-law asked me about opinion on TSLA as I was the family geek. I told him that I believe it has the potential to grow, but I was in other ventures so I didn't buy any.

Then it all changed by mid-2019. I was in the market for a new commuter car, Canada and BC both had rebates to go EV. That 10k CAD made me look hard into Tesla. After doing a lot of homework, I was convinced. And I'm always the kind of guy who's a tad ahead of curve in my family.

I was the family first person with Amazon Prime... first person with iPhone (the original), and really... just about anything tech. One thing I regret through the years, is that I never put money (at least not enough other than some spare change play) into their stocks even though I feel they have a terrific product that I use on a daily basis.

This time, I wasn't going to let it slide. I put all the money I had for the car to buy TSLA and financed my Model 3 instead of buying it outright. Got about 250 shares at $188. Got some more after 19Q2 financial report at low 2xx... because I was really impressed with the Model 3 and feel that the drop would just be temporary. Sold some after 19Q3 to buy FSD, then thought it was a mistake looking back at AMZN/AAPL... so bought back in, luckily only a few dollar difference.

What was originally budgeted for a Model 3 and FSD turned into enough for S3XY CAR...

 

[loquitur]

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

One of my (now adult) children has the middle birthname Tesla, born before the company.

As I was pre-disposed anyway to be in the cult (as a techie grad from a Big U),
I bought at IPO (back when Schwab allocated IPOs for retail), then sold the shares in the kids'
ESA/Coverdell accounts for a 7-bagger to help pay for their college education.

Checked out for some years thereafter, then rebought shares at a (not hugely) higher price,
now holding, and happy driving a Model 3 as both a late and early bloomer.

P.S. (Aside) There are many Nikola Tesla references and memes to witness throughout the ages, from the
Tesla coil at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, on display since 1937, to the (execrable, methinks)
rock band from 1981. But, I highly recommend the 2006 film "The Prestige" featuring David Bowie
as Tesla.

 

[cricketman]

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

I loved cars as a kid, but I lost touch with what was going on when I when to university, and then worked in London and Barcelona where we didn't need a car. We didn't even ride in cars so I had no idea. When my first child came along, my wife and I decided to buy a new car. I assumed new cars would be full of technology with integrated iPads and other cool stuff, so when we looked around the dealerships, I couldn't believe how old fashioned they were.

I had heard about Tesla from the Top Gear Roadster episode and I was super impressed. I googled and saw they had a Model S around 2014-5 but it was very expensive and I would have to drive to Tilberg and pay import taxes etc. In 2016 when the Model 3 launched, I knew I had to have one. For me, it was more about the tech than being electric, although I was always existentially worried about climate change. For me, Tesla was (and still is) the symbol of a brighter future.

Around the same time, I started buying shares, initially from Banco Santander because as part of their banking app, they let you trade their shares for free. So I played around with that for a year, made no money at all, and learned that I should be investing in a company I believe in. So a few months before the Model 3 reveal I bought a few TSLA shares, and after the reveal I knew they were on to something. I starting coming onto the forums and dialling into the investment calls trying to learn everything I could about Tesla to justify me investing more and more into it.

5 years later, I have my Model 3, a Model Y reservation and thousands of Tesla shares. I became obsessed about Tesla. I couldn't see how Tesla could fail, or if it did fail then that meant there was something severely wrong with the world. so I wouldn't care about becoming a poor counter-culture loser anyway I put every spare bit of cash into Tesla as my business was growing and producing profits. In the past 5 years, my business has grown at a similar rate to Tesla (as I also used Tesla and Elon for inspiration). It is now 10 times bigger than 5 years ago, and my Tesla shares are worth ten times more than those initial shares I bought in early 2016.

So right now, everything is very good, a little too much work, but if I can resolve that, my still young family has a bright future

 

[SpaceCash]

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

As I've moved through life, the number one lesson that keeps being reinstilled in me is that I am ALWAYS right, and would-be authority figures are ALWAYS wrong.

This is the singular repeated lesson in my life; to have faith in myself above anyone else. My choices have always been the right ones and nobody else has a damn clue what's good for me.

As a kid I always loved cars but noticed that they weren't getting any better. It was obvious to me that nobody was innovating, cars were plastics and recycled engines and stale reruns. One of my first non-minimum-wage jobs was as a salesman for a Dodge dealership right when the Challenger came out (re-released, I guess). That product was so ultra hyped; we only got one in per month and they were marked up to 70 Grand per vehicle. I did think they looked awesome back then.

Anyway in 2012 I finally got wind of what Tesla was doing and for a good few years I was a fan just based on what I was reading online, without ever driving one. I also noticed the ridiculously overblown hate campaign against them. As I am gifted with basic discernment and common sense, it was obvious to me that the sheer mass and coordination of the negative talk was an anomaly. A conspiracy. Something to be played and profited off of. If people were going to be led astray by a bunch of leeching liars and morons then I might as well profit from it (but not quietly). Then I finally test drove some S's and realized that it was the next multi-trillion dollar corporation, with a product at least 4 times superior to any existing gas car, and I've been 100% TSLA concentrated ever since then, which has pulled me from total poverty to legitimate wealth over just the last 12 months. I went from "man if I just had another hundred bucks this week I could actually eat well" to "dude, that benjamin in your wallet is literally meaningless now... Cool, lol".

Everybody's an idiot except me and I can prove it with numbers

 

[Lessmog]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

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

I first missed exposure to Tesla in Dec 2012, visiting relatives near Palo Alto. Never saw one, had no clue.

Feb 2013, internet security guru Bruce Schneier published some thoughts on the implications of a car sending use data to its home base, after Elon's rebuttal of NYT's hit article. Hang on, I figured, that is one hoopy frood who knows where his towel is! Started reading more about Tesla and Elon's five-part trilogy leading up to the revelation that the company was actually not losing actual cash any more (at the moment). Just before Q1 earnings I managed to buy some shares around $50 (late April). Then it took off like youknowwhat. Not being a seasoned investor, I took the safe road and sold around 185 (Sept), to get my own money back and sleep better. That seemed to work.

After that I set up a better trading account and did some dip-buying/peak-selling for a while, but it got complicated keeping track of tax events. Later, the new bank offered template-taxed ISK accounts removing that headache (except for those old shares). So at one of all those crazy dips I sold most of the old ones (for minimal tax) and bought a similar amount in the ISK. Kept slowly accumulating.

Suddenly, this year TSLA started to really pop, and I noticed that I was paying too much for the depot at the traditional bank, and also that those TSLAs had gained more than 4x, qualifying for a simlified gains tax where one may deduct 20% instead of actual cost, in that this method had become more favorable. Sold those, paid off the part of my mortgage that the car had cost while stashing enough for tax next year and investing the rest.

It took me 7½ years to become a Teslanaire! Slow as a Boring Machine, but here I am.

Oh, that was more than you asked for.
Tl;dr Thanks, Scheier and Broder, for the tip-off about Elon Musk, the incredible driving force for humanity.

 

[Tslynk67]

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

Like many others, I bought the car, became obsessed with the company, and finally put all I could into it - and considering I haven't really invested or played in the stock-market before (just a teeny, weensy bit), from a total investment of around $100 over the last 4 years, to now have around $1.3m, well it's a pretty good experience I would say, although requires a strong constitution at times.

Perhaps more interesting is how I came to buy a Tesla. This all originated with a friend, Geert, who used to work in one of my teams as a COBOL developer. Geert was a smart lad and clearly wanted to grow himself, so I started delegating stuff to him outside of his comfort zone, eventually allowing him to manage small projects and the like. As a result of his personal development, he quit his permanent job and became a freelance IT project manager, and could then indulge his passion for cars, he bought a Panamera at the time (2011 I think it was).

We used to meet from time to time for lunch and Geert told me he was worried for the environment and was going to trade his Porsche for this new thing called a Fisker Karma. I looked at it and liked the concept, plus the looks, but said it was no good for me with three kids. A few months later, Geert sent me a link to some company called Tesla showing the original reveal of the Model X. I was intrigued by the idea, but it was still years from production and I promptly forgot about it and the company.

Jump to August 6th 2013 (7 years today - it's a sign!!) and I was out walking during my lunch hour on the fanciest shopping-street in Brussels - Toisson d'Or - and I serendipitously stumble across this Tesla Gallery - seems it had been there a week, and inside that gallery was one of the most beautiful cars I'd ever seen in my life, a pearl-white Model S. My jaw hit the floor, don't think I'd even seen one on the web before. I looked at the car, aside being very sexy, it was clearly practical and, I figured, would work with three pre-teen kids.

Of course a test-drive came next, September 2013 It think it was, and then it was inevitable, once you've drive, a Tesla, you have to have one. I became obsessed. Ordered my P85 on December 13th and took delivery March 28th 2014. The most amazing car ever. The rest followed after that, 8 shares in 2015 to feel part of it. 417 shares in Feb 2016 when we got a windfall lump-sum.

So in reality, this all came bout because I helped someone with their career and to grow, karma, perhaps? And talking of Fisker (what a seque!!), Geert did buy the Fisker, but it spent a LOT of time in the garage. Was a nice looking car I thought, but forever breaking down. He eventually managed to trade it, at a massive loss, and went back to Porsche, he currently has the Panamera PHEV and is one of the first customers in Belgium to be on the list for a Taycan. He likes his Porsches...

 

[Yoona]

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

The experiences after the purchase of MS !

I was at a stop sign near a school and a Grade 4 (?) kid pointed to my car and asked her mother - 'Is that a Tesla?'. I heard him from 20 feet away with my windows closed.

I was at a parking lot and a van full of highschoolers passed by and yelled to me - 'Nice car!!!'

About 4 times while I was on a highway, the driver in front or the driver on my side kept on looking at my car instead of looking at their road.

My neighbours don't talk to me and we generally ignore each other. THREE neighbours approached me to ask about the car.

About 5 times when I was giving carpool rides to teenagers, they all said 'I am saving for this car' or 'This is the first car I'm buying'.

Those experiences, plus the constant stupid grin on my face while driving, made me think - this car is getting a LOT of attention, I should read more about the company...

 

[Opus BC fan]

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

I'm a car guy and a tree hugger. By 2010 I was driving a Lexus I had converted to a battery assist hybrid. I was getting crap from the local dealership that I couldn't do that to their car. I had read about the Tesla roadster. One day I wandered into a Tesla store and heard about the Model S. When I put my deposit down in 2011, I could order a signature for a 20k deposit or a production S for a 5k deposit. I wanted deep blue, so I put 5k in the deposit and 10k in the stock. I knew I would never be going back after my SP was delivered.

Then I wandered here to this forum...

 

[haid]

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

A Concentrated Portfolio

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

And talking of Fisker (what a seque!!), Geert did buy the Fisker, but it spent a LOT of time in the garage. Was a nice looking car I thought, but forever breaking down. He eventually managed to trade it, at a massive loss, and went back to Porsche, he currently has the Panamera PHEV and is one of the first customers in Belgium to be on the list for a Taycan. He likes his Porsches...

Insert my name instead of Geert and it could have been my story. Drove a Fisker Karma for a year. A beauty, but it spent more time in the service center than on the road and I also traded it in with a big loss. But no Porsche for me. By that time Tesla had appeared on my radar and I jumped the queue by ordering a Signature P85

Pfff, got that post out just in time before market open. Don’t want to interrupt all the talk about TSLA being in the doldrums with personal anecdotes... No, please share those personal stories. Very enlightening. Much more so than complaints about the stock not moving.

 

[Rarity]

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

I come from the space side. I have been following SpaceX very closely since late 2003/early 2004 and watched how Musk was slowly transforming the static, dying space industry. When Musk became more involved in Tesla, I also followed Tesla. Went to the small Manhattan gallery on ~22nd when that opened. It must have been only the second or third retail location. They didn't even have a Roadster on display at that point for whatever reason. But I was digging the clean, minimalist, tech vibe.

Like space, I thought that manufacturing of any sort wasn't a good business to be in and wondered whether Musk had imprinted his vision into the company enough to make it a good investment. Because of this caution, it wasn't until about 2015 that I first invested in the company. My conviction in adding to my position was solidified by the long lines at the local Tesla store for putting down a deposit on the Model 3. That was a revelation! The local store was in a very urban area and normally wasn't busy at all. More like a high-end boutique. But... man... everybody came out of the woodwork for that one. A movement.

To this day, I haven't actually driven or ridden in a Tesla. Not needed.

 

[lafrisbee]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

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

So you had an unfair advantage?
Do not think I am attacking you. let me explain.
I have a very difficult time with how unfair life is. Especially religion. Consider my soul will burn in hell for infinity, and yet if my soul would have been in one of the fishers on The Sea of Galilee When Jesus walked up to them, and told them they could be fishers of men my soul would never have such a fate. Why if Jesus just came down right now and stood in the middle of my living room as I type this I'd sell all my TSLA and join him. He isn't here now. Let me give him a second....? ....? ....? nope. Not here. Nor did Elon stop by my house selling TSLA out of his Roadster ten years ago.
The world is not fair. Supreme all-loving deities should be... and yet here I sit having bought TSLA in January because Elon did not expose himself to me until the Cybertruck reveal, and then the Stockholders on the Cybertruck Owner Forum did not show me the one true way until January... So here I sit, waiting to be elevated to my island...praise be unto all things Elon.
At least I didn't end up like this:
A look at the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide on its 20th anniversary
But then again maybe they are all driving Teslas in heaven..on the other side of Mars?

 

[jbcarioca]

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

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'.

 

[Sancho]

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

Somewhere around 2005 I was wandering around the Internet and came across the Tesla blog. At that point that’s all the company was to the public: a techy blog co-written by this small group of guys trying to build an electric car. Every few days Eberhard or someone else from the team would post a new proposed spec or design issue. Musk didn’t post much, but in 2006 he posted the Master Plan.

I was hooked just watching these guys think through the hundreds of issues relating to designing a new complex product. The comments on the blog were even more fascinating than the posts: random people from all over the world would provide advice to the team on all sorts of engineering and design minutia.

I invested right after the IPO. I was among the first 1000 people to reserve the Model S. I waited three years for delivery. What was delivered exceeded my expectations in every way.

So I have spent nearly every day for fifteen years experiencing the saga of Tesla unfold, and it never, never ceases to amaze.

 

[Nocturnal]

The market must like our investor stories. (for now)

Short version - always liked EVs and thought Tesla was cool. Long time car guy. Modified Trans Am, BMW335i etc. Small time investing in TSLA back in 2015-17, did very well and then got out to buy a house. Splurged on a post divorce (midlife crisis? lol) car and received my P3 August 12 2018. Next day bought in more than triple my original investment. Kept buying into the next summer wondering if i was going to lose it all. Hodored. /fin

 

[Andy O]

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

I used to dislike or be intimidated by combustion engines -- lawnmowers, boat motors, car engines -- and wanted an electric car for a long time. I looked into Teslas but felt I couldn't afford an S or X. Finally the 3 launched and I looked into it more thoroughly. I really wanted one but was afraid of the cost, so I said to myself that if I can't afford the car, I'll at least buy some shares, so I began investigating the company. Among other sources I found this forum which persuaded me that the shares were safe enough. I also found TeslaQ and they helped too by showing me that the preeminent source of Tesla concerns was largely loaded with illogical dishonest haters. So I bought some shares.

I kept looking to see a real in-the-flesh Tesla car. There are very few where I live, and the nearest showroom is 400 miles away. Finally I found a premium used car dealer who had a model S performance for sale on consignment, and the dealer gave me a test ride. It blew me away! I visited the showroom, cashed in my shares and bought my Model 3. It was a hard decision for me. I had to face the reality that
I probably wouldn't live long enough to need all my savings.

I didn't buy more Tesla shares right away. I felt that owning the car and shares would be putting too much of my assets in one company but I kept reading about the company and became convinced that stock analysts were idiots and the company was tremendously undervalued, so I bought shares again. By now I have more than recovered all the savings I spent buying the car.