In 1986 I was at work and reading a magazine during lunch (I believe it was "U.S. News & World Report" or maybe "Time") and I came across this little article talking about this new company that was making an initial public offering. I had never heard of the company and had no idea what they made but just had a "gut" feeling. I called the wife and asked her if we had enough money to buy a couple of hundred shares of this new company. The name of the company was "Microsoft" and 33 years later (and several splits) the quarterly dividends we receive allows us to travel to Europe once a year and buy what ever pinball we might want (the latest is "The Beatles" Gold).