I acquired an odd lot of Northern Natural Gas stock worth less than $1000 in the late 1970s. Put it in dividend re-investment and pretty much forgot about it. The stock would rise and split, NNG merged with other companies and eventually became Enron, and I ended up with about $25K worth of stock. Paying for Daughter's college wasn't going to be very difficult at all. Yeah, right. I was prepared if the stock were to take a fairly big hit, but not for when it hit zero. Luckily, I had other investments and Daughter got scholarships/internships/&c, so it wasn't a disaster; but things got pretty tight a few times.
Not trying to scare anyone away from the stock market, just be aware that you can lose everything so don't keep all your eggs in one basket.
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