When i was in school i used to sit next to Phil in history class. Phil was a bit of a lad, his Dad ran a pub in the town and he had all the people skills that go with that kind of upbringing. I didnt. On the other hand, I was good at school while Phil just sort of got by.
Phil was drinking and womanising while i was still putting pictures of footballers on my wall. While i was figuring out how to get Kerry Collins to kiss me (she never did), he was having relationship difficulties and worrying about making girls pregnant. In our teenage world he was way ahead. We weren’t particularly buddies; Phil moved in a different circle to me, but i remember spending a saturday morning trying to explain to him how vectors worked. He didnt get it.
Phil is now a very wealthy man. He runs his own company and employs 42 people. He has a lovely house in a swish part of town which houses his lovely family and outside of which he parks his lovely car.
After school we went our seperate ways and i hadnt seen him until we bumped into each other a couple of years ago. Since then we hook up every few months and have a few beers. While having afew beers in the Summit Bar on Sunday he got to telling me about how he had bought out another company in England. So we got to talking about money and the stock exchange.
I know nothing about finance, but 2 years ago my Dad, my brother and me started off a share account with a view to becoming financial wizards and making our fortunes. Of course i havent lifted a finger and left everything to my brother. Naturally my brother tired of being the only active participant and the whole scheme has fallen into disuse. But we still have the account and there are still some shares in it. More importantly we are still putting money into it every month.
It struck me that Phil would be the ideal guy for a god tip so i could impress the guys with a hot share. Phils advice was this; do some research and read the business news.
Not what i was looking for at all. But here goes. Today i bought the paper and wrote out a list of the Dublin stock exchange companies. I am determined that this week i will find out what they all do. Its a start.