It isn’t easy to make investing interesting. Between the numbers and the unpredictability of the stock market, there just isn’t much for the average person to cling to. Most find it a boring and dry subject, and they’re right. But investing doesn’t have to be boring, as  FCHS Economics and Personal Finance teacher Gary Greenwood has consistently proven through his still-young writing career.

Greenwood’s newfound vocation stemmed from the one of the most unexpected places: standup comedy. “The gentleman that I used to write with, he got out of comedy before I did and got into the business world,” Greenwood explained. “So when they needed a new writer, somebody who could write a little bit more on the ‘lighter side of things,’ he put out on Facebook that they were looking for writers.”

The announcement went out on Facebook to a group of people, known as “Charlottesville Comedy Round Table,” asking for comics to submit writing to Fresh Brewed Media. “I’m not a serious investor writer type,” Greenwood said, “I do things a little bit more tongue-in-cheek… try to be more entertaining, so I applied and they liked what I did and asked me to start writing for them.”

Through Fresh Brewed Media, Greenwood publishes at least one article a week for the Options Trade section of their site. “They have certain areas and sectors in the business world that they are going to cover for that given week,” Greenwood explains. “For example, one week it was the oil industry, so the writing staff would be assigned different types of trading options for the oil industry. I would be given one particular company that they want me to investigate; I’d put my little twist on it and add the option trades to it.”

Greenwood has the articles are assigned to him on a weekly basis by his supervisor. “Each week it is a different assignment. Every Sunday [my boss] would come up with a new topic that he wants the writers to work on, so I usually have until Wednesday to turn in the article to him,” Greenwood said. As for the other articles he writes, he chooses their topics personally. One of the latest of his chosen articles features WWE (yes, it’s possible to invest in WWE stock).

“I just enjoy writing, I try to enjoy expressing myself, and it was just nice that somebody else enjoyed it,” Greenwood said. He also said he may be motivated by something one of his teachers told him in fifth grade: that he should make sure he doesn’t go into a profession that requires you to read or write. “Maybe that helped motivate me in a different way, him telling me I couldn’t do it. It made me say, ‘Well, maybe one day I will.’”