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Researching Computershare Direct Stock Purchase Plans and Gaining Empowerment in Financial Investing and in Life
I have recently spent some time researching the currently-~1000-or-so companies behind the listings on computershare.com ( https://www-us.computershare.com/investor/3x/plans/planslist.asp?stype=all ). If I understand right, these companies offer Direct Stock Purchase Plans (DSPPs) where individuals can buy stock directly from the company.
Over many days, maybe a dozen per day, I have bing-searched hundreds of the companies to learn an overview of what each company does.
One thing I find is that it is empowering to see the diversity of the companies. Searching a dozen of the companies per day, and reading one paragraph about what each company does, I feel connected to the world.
Furthermore, since these companies offer direct stock purchase plans, I feel empowered that if I want, I can become involved-- if I want, and if I have the self-discipline to focus my resources and save up enough money to buy the minimum initial investment (usually between ~$50 and ~$500), then I can direct-purchase stock shares from any of the thousand companies.
I can feel that it is really diverse and really a financial door to the entire world because the companies range anywhere from banks, bond companies, lending companies, real estate companies, mining companies, industrial manufacturing companies, retail companies, service companies, pharmaceutical companies, utilities, and more.
The descriptions of some of the companies indicate the company is all about leveraging money to make money, like some of the banks and funds companies. However the descriptions of some of the companies don't mention investing at all. They summarize their company as having a mission to do, or produce, or serve, or to reach some other specific goal.
I feel like I couldn't possibly in my lifetime even understand, let alone invest in, all of the companies. But its empowering because this list is an enormous, special, financial, view of the world.
Learning about investing by researching DSPPs is empowering me and is strengthening my knowledge of investing and my knowledge of the world.
Tags: #investing
Note: This post was pre-published on November 17, 2016.
[2019 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2016/... .html.]