Grandpa's Fools

By Dan Dickinson (danield3@home.com)

After watching my Wise broker churn my inherited portfolio for several years, I noticed the Fool's column one day and proceeded to find a discount broker and try managing my own money.

I'll admit it: I first bought 300 shares of America Online because the Fools had it. I now have many other investments, which I bought using Foolish methods. But AOL kept splitting, and pretty soon I had 2400 shares.

Last Christmas I gave 100 of them to each of my grandchildren. One of the four has become a real Fool, following his stock as it split and split again. The other kids aren't really old enough to understand it, but I'm sure they will someday. That little gift to the grandkids is now worth $33,000 to each of them -- more than twice what my original investment was. I'm hoping it will help them with a college education.

Meanwhile, I'm left with 8,000 shares, which really gave me something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.