Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: Understanding stock splits. 

For my 10th birthday, my dad bought me 1 share of Disney stock as a way to try to get me interested in the stock market. Well, it didn’t have the intended impact - at least not right away. He didn’t just buy me 1 share of stock in a brokerage account, he made sure to get the physical certificate, which for Disney stock is pretty cool. 

The stock certificate had all of the classic disney characters on it and it’s something cool to frame and put on the wall. Unfortunately, Disney no longer offers these physical stock certificates, but the stock price around my 10th birthday was $18/share. 27 years later when I turned 37 earlier this year, the stock price was $138/share which represents over a 600% increase in the stock price in the last 27 years. 

A few years after my dad gave me 1 share, the stock completed a 3 for 1 split, meaning that for every one share I owned, I now owned 3. This happened in 1998, and interestingly, that was the last time Disney split their stock. 

Unfortunately, I don’t remember what happened to my 3 shares of stock. I’m sure I eventually traded the certificate in and sold the shares, but I wish I would have held on to it, especially considering that it was the first stock I ever owned and you can no longer purchase the physical certificates. 

I was reminded of this story when I started preparing for this week’s podcast. If you’ve ever owned individual stocks yourself, you’ve likely experienced a stock split. 

So this week, we’ll talk about: 

• What is a stock split 
• Why companies split their stock
• Whether or not it’s good for the future stock price for a company to split it’s shares
• Who is splitting their stock in 2022, and 
• Why stock splits may become less common in the coming years

I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance