Historically you typically bought shares in blocks of 100 and the transaction fees were also meaningful.
You couldn't easily buy 1 share of a $20 stock. If you had to buy 100 shares @ $20, that's $2,000 - in 1970 that was a lot of money.
Now, of course, you can buy fractional shares with no transaction fees. (Ignoring things like payment for order flow, etc.)
I also had an ancient car and a cheap apartment, and didn't spend money on booze.
Average new car prices were $14,000 in 1982. I bought my car for $800. So yeah, I'd say investing $1,000 was well within common man finances.
Historically you typically bought shares in blocks of 100 and the transaction fees were also meaningful.
You couldn't easily buy 1 share of a $20 stock. If you had to buy 100 shares @ $20, that's $2,000 - in 1970 that was a lot of money.
Now, of course, you can buy fractional shares with no transaction fees. (Ignoring things like payment for order flow, etc.)