My First Share of Freedom: How a $50 Investment Changed Everything
- Silivere Bakomeza
- Aug 7
- 4 min read
Freedom Does Not Come from a Paycheck. It Comes from Ownership
It did not start with a six-figure job.
It did not come from a raise, a bonus, or a windfall.
For me, it started with one quiet decision.
A $50 buy order. One share. No applause. No fanfare.
Just me, my phone, and the moment I stopped being a consumer and became an owner.
That was the day I bought my first share of freedom.
It was more than an investment. It was an identity shift.
And it changed everything.
Ownership Begins Before You Feel Ready
I was not rich when I started.
I was a bus driver. A builder. An immigrant stacking hope on top of discipline, day after day.
Most people wait for the perfect moment to invest.
But freedom never shows up at the perfect moment. It shows up when you decide you are tired of waiting.
I stopped saying “one day” and asked myself:
What if this is the day I begin stacking my way out of the system?
That question became a strategy. That strategy became a streak.
Why I Chose Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy)
People ask, “Why not just buy Bitcoin?”
Fair question.
But Strategy gave me something Bitcoin alone did not.
Structure. Clarity. Conviction. Discipline.
Strategy is more than a tech company. It is a living thesis. A proxy for Bitcoin, yes but also a company whose CEO, Michael Saylor, redefined what it means to think in decades, not quarters.
As of today, Strategy holds more than half a million Bitcoin.
That is not a bet. That is a belief system.
And I wanted to align with that.
I Placed the Trade on Robinhood
That first order?
Executed on Robinhood because I needed something fast, simple, and automatable.
I did not try to time the market.
I did not wait for a dip.
I did not overanalyze.
I pressed Buy.
No guessing
No spreadsheets
No stress
Just one $50 action that I have repeated every market day since.
You can do the same. Start with what you have. Build with what you believe in.
What I Felt That Day
I did not feel richer.
I felt different.
Like I had crossed a line that most people never even see.
From surviving to building
From reacting to owning
From employee to investor
That $50 was not capital. It was a declaration:
This is who I am now.
And that feeling has not faded.
If anything, it is the strongest part of my portfolio.
Wealth Is Not About Income
This is the lie most people believe:
More income means more wealth
But income is short term
Wealth is built by owning assets that grow over time
Not salaries
Not hours worked
Ownership
That $50 share of MSTR was not about making money. It was about learning to think like someone who builds it.
Not someone who waits for permission.
You Do Not Need to Feel Ready
I started in my thirties.
If I had begun at 18, I would be 22 years and nearly $300,000 ahead.
But regret is not a strategy.
Conviction is.
The people who win are not the smartest or the earliest
They are the most consistent
That is why I invest 365 days a year with no exceptions
$50 every market day
$100 every Monday to cover the weekends
$50 on every holiday the markets are closed
I do not treat this like a side hustle
I treat it like oxygen
Even Spare Change Builds Wealth
Some days, $50 feels like a stretch.
Other days, I round up spare change with Acorns and invest that too.
You would be surprised what $0.27 can become when it compounds for 20 years.
Acorns helped me prove that discipline is more valuable than dollars
Most People Never Start
They wait.
For the market to cool down
For the perfect stock
For their debt to disappear
For their job to get easier
Meanwhile, years go by. Opportunities compound, but so does fear.
That is why I tell people:
Start before you are ready
Start with one share. Start with one reason. Start with $50.
Because the market does not reward brilliance. It rewards behavior.
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Final Word
I did not buy a stock that day.
I bought a new identity.
I became someone who builds. Someone who owns. Someone who shows up.
That first $50 decision was not a trade. It was a trigger.
And every share since then has been a brick in the foundation of my freedom.
This is the story I am still writing.
One share at a time.
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