Before my father found his sobriety, he was homeless.
When he rebuilt his life, the fear of losing it again persisted in his behavior with money until his passing this year.
Everything was too expensive. We couldn’t afford “it,” whatever “it” was.
He never went on vacation. Ever.
Discussing financial planning was a recipe for a fight. Dad couldn’t see money as a tool.
In between riding my bike and baseball practice, I kept a Wall Street Journal in my back pocket during my junior high school days.
I convinced my dad to buy a house to create wealth through value appreciation and tax savings.
It was a complex process for him, and I ended up managing the escrow because of the anxiety it caused him. I was thirteen years old.
The summer after high school graduation, I landed a paid internship with @Capital Group ($2.6 Trillion AUM). I learned about mutual funds and convinced my dad to move into some of their flagship funds by the summer’s end.
I could never convince him to write a will or put the property in a trust.
When I started my first business in my dorm, I worked my ass off and made very little money.
I built solid relationships/networks even and took some big swings.
Mid-career I began to see moderate success but never thought about getting married.
I witnessed my parents’ poor relationship and decided it was not for me.
It also gave me a finite view of life even though I understood the math behind how wealth accumulates.
I didn’t have enough sense of self-worth to invest in myself.
All that changed when I met my wife. It also changed my relationship with money.
Tune in tomorrow for part two of this story.
