How Teslas Pulled Me Into Investing

Back in 2019, I landed my first post-college office job at a web hosting company in Wilsonville, Oregon. I started in the spring, adjusting to a new commute and figuring out what “office life” actually meant.

Then, sometime that fall, I noticed something I couldn’t unsee: Teslas—everywhere.

Up to that point, Tesla had felt almost abstract to me. It was a company I knew through headlines, articles, and online discourse, but not something I had ever really encountered. Then suddenly it was part of my daily environment. I’d see one parked outside a coffee shop, another quietly moving through traffic. It felt like the idea of Tesla had crossed over from the internet into reality.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I was paying attention.

Fast forward to early 2020. Just days before COVID shut everything down, I moved into a small studio apartment in Lake Oswego, Oregon, just down the road from work. I found myself alone a lot more than I was used to—no boss hovering, no coworkers to talk to. In that space, I started spending my time differently.

I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and began teaching myself about investing.

That’s where I found creators like Meet Kevin, who not only owned a Tesla but spoke often about Cathie Wood and her early conviction in Tesla as part of ARK Invest. I started following her work closely, especially her weekly market commentary. What stood out wasn’t just the returns people talked about—it was the way she framed the future before it showed up in the numbers.

Then came the stimulus checks.

Like many others in 2020, I suddenly had $1,200 in my account that I hadn’t planned on. I saw it as an opportunity—not just to invest, but to learn by doing.

At first, I told myself I had already missed Tesla. The stock had run too far, too fast. So I looked elsewhere. I bought Fiverr, which did well for me, and then started allocating into ARK ETFs.

Like a lot of new investors, I also fell into the “next Tesla” trap. That led me to NIO, the Chinese EV company. But while researching it, I came across Steven Mark Ryan’s Solving the Money Problem channel. His argument was simple, but it stuck with me: no other EV company was even close to Tesla.

What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time—but do now—is how much my surroundings were reinforcing that lesson.

Lake Oswego is one of the wealthiest communities in Oregon, and as pandemic restrictions eased, Teslas were everywhere. Not as exotic or rare, but as everyday transportation. On a short 15-minute drive to Subway, I once counted sixteen of them. It wasn’t a headline or a chart that made it real—it was that repetition in a place where adoption typically shows up early and clearly.

In hindsight, that was a powerful signal. Wealthy individuals weren’t treating Tesla as a novelty or a statement—they were using it as a default choice.

That’s when it clicked for me: this wasn’t a fad. It was normalization.

By April 2021, I finally acted. I bought my first fractional shares of Tesla at $724 per share (about $241 post-split). Since then, I’ve continued dollar-cost averaging, adding consistently over time.

Looking back now, I feel a sense of pride—not just in the outcome, but in the process. I didn’t stumble into Tesla because of luck or hype. I paid attention, I researched, and I let real-world observation inform what I was learning online.

And importantly, I’ve never sold a share.

What I understand more clearly now is that this wasn’t just about picking a stock. It was about learning how to notice change as it’s happening—especially when it’s quietly becoming normal right in front of you—and having the conviction to act when it finally does.