What are you waiting for?

I know you.  You're always going to start investing in individual common stocks someday.

When you learn enough.
When you get your next bonus.
When your savings account or IRA or mutual fund hits a magic number.
When the market pulls back.
When you get your tax refund.
When the bald, loud guy on TV confirms that the time is right.
When you pay off your credit card debt.  (Well, this one might have some validity to it.)
When you get a raise or win the lottery or your great Aunt Gertrude dies and unexpectedly leaves you her baby grand piano - which you don't play.

Enough.

Stop waiting.  Just do it.  Scrape together a few bucks from somewhere, be it your next paycheck or part of the mutual fund you own in your retirement account.  Stop waiting for a sign from the heavens and get thee to a discount broker.  Merrill Edge.  Ameritrade.  Fidelity.  It doesn't matter.  Stumble your way through the on-line account application (and transfer process if you are moving your retirement account).  Call the 800 number. Ask questions.  Do what you've got to do because there is no perfect time, there never has been and never will be.  Do it now.

Buy one share in one company that you believe in with all your heart, a product that you use and understand, a company you like so much you want to own it forever.  If that's all you can afford, then buy that one share.  Or two or five.  It doesn't matter. Stop being afraid and pull the plug because that's the day you become a real investor, when you've got real money on the line, money that you earned and saved, when you stop buying these stupid generic funds and decide for yourself what makes sense.  Stop dabbling.  Stop researching.  Just do it.

Give up eating out for a month - not forever - just a month.  Take that same money that you would have diddled away on waffles (oh, I know they're yummy) and carry out (yes, you're tired after a long day at work and I know you don't feel like cooking), and pale ales (oh, I know it's not easy) and make your first stock investment. Who knows, if you can cold turkey on the $10 lunches, the $20 Happy Hours for one month -  maybe you could stretch it to two.  And then you'd have enough to buy another share of something that would really get you somewhere.

Stop waiting.  Be an owner.  Reinvest the dividends.  Care about the future - yours and our common good.  Because that's what it means to own individual common stocks.  Ticker symbols mean something beyond the random letters and numbers.  They are our collective future, visions to believe in that will make your life rich in a way you can never suspect until you're on your way.   You've got to start somewhere, so start wherever you are.  Start now.