Dear Self,...
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Passions can be developed. In fact, becoming really, really good at some specific thing can be an abstract passion in itself. That's where a lot of conscientious, hard-working people end up, and I don't think they're missing out just because they're not doing as an adult, what they dreamt of as a child.
@Horace said in Dear Self,...:
Passions can be developed. In fact, becoming really, really good at some specific thing can be an abstract passion in itself. That's where a lot of conscientious, hard-working people end up, and I don't think they're missing out just because they're not doing as an adult, what they dreamt of as a child.
It's also a balancing act. At the risk of sounding like somebody who wears amusing Christmas sweaters year-round, having a happy family life is way more important to me than following a career dream, and my job means I get to own my own house and what-not. So maybe the happy family life is my passion. Well, that and my collection of amusing Christmas sweaters.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
There are a shitload of musician-adjacent careers that are just close enough to help musicians maintain enough give-a-shit to make the job loads better than accountancy.
That's not really following your passion, though.
"Music" isn't a passion, that's ridiculous. What do you mean by that? Playing in front of others? Teaching others how to play? Mixing stuff? Soundscapes? Theory? Music therapy? Actual passions aren't vague.
And there's a world of difference between compromising everything about yourself to be more marketable and negotiating with the world to find something you don't entirely hate doing and gives you something beyond a paycheck. No, it's not literally doing the very specific thing you had in your head that you wanted to do, but were you allowed to do that thing for a living you'd be just as happy or miserable as you are now.
What I meant was that 'maintaining enough give-a-shit' isn't really what I think of as passion. Of course music is a passion.
Says the guy who's never really pursued his professionally?
OK, let's make it personal
I was never good enough to make it a career. I've played with people who were and who did, and I've seen enough to know it's a very double-edged sword, with ruined marriages and in one case ending up being a hotel porter and playing in pubs at night, which isn't what I would want. I know other people who have ended up with a decent life doing session work and playing cruise ships, but I don't think that's the dream.
Anyway, my passion is safety engineering.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
There are a shitload of musician-adjacent careers that are just close enough to help musicians maintain enough give-a-shit to make the job loads better than accountancy.
That's not really following your passion, though.
"Music" isn't a passion, that's ridiculous. What do you mean by that? Playing in front of others? Teaching others how to play? Mixing stuff? Soundscapes? Theory? Music therapy? Actual passions aren't vague.
And there's a world of difference between compromising everything about yourself to be more marketable and negotiating with the world to find something you don't entirely hate doing and gives you something beyond a paycheck. No, it's not literally doing the very specific thing you had in your head that you wanted to do, but were you allowed to do that thing for a living you'd be just as happy or miserable as you are now.
What I meant was that 'maintaining enough give-a-shit' isn't really what I think of as passion. Of course music is a passion.
Says the guy who's never really pursued his professionally?
OK, let's make it personal
I was never good enough to make it a career.
Make what a career? Playing gigs? That's like one job. That's not "music." If "music" is a legitimate passion as you claim it is, then sound design, production, audio engineering, teaching and dozens of other jobs are also on the table. Unless the passion we're talking about truly is just playing gigs.
In which case, of the people you know who did play gigs for a living, how long did that last? You mentioned ruined marriages and being a hotel porter. Shit, Johnny Cash was playing dumpy cocktail lounges and living in obscurity when Rick Rubin picked him back up. Playing gigs on a national or international scale is not a career, it's a thing very few people get to do for a very short period of time.
"Pursuing a passion" with a mix of common sense and a gut feeling about whether or not you'll hate it usually leads people somewhere (1) completely outside of where they were aiming at and (2) somewhere that's interesting for them. It's not a bad strategy.
Not everyone has to do that—another good strategy is to pick something sensible to support everything else in one's life. But guaranteed your musical abilities aren't holding you back from doing everything under the sun. There's a ton of stuff in between "nothing" and "Taylor Swift."
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
There are a shitload of musician-adjacent careers that are just close enough to help musicians maintain enough give-a-shit to make the job loads better than accountancy.
That's not really following your passion, though.
"Music" isn't a passion, that's ridiculous. What do you mean by that? Playing in front of others? Teaching others how to play? Mixing stuff? Soundscapes? Theory? Music therapy? Actual passions aren't vague.
And there's a world of difference between compromising everything about yourself to be more marketable and negotiating with the world to find something you don't entirely hate doing and gives you something beyond a paycheck. No, it's not literally doing the very specific thing you had in your head that you wanted to do, but were you allowed to do that thing for a living you'd be just as happy or miserable as you are now.
What I meant was that 'maintaining enough give-a-shit' isn't really what I think of as passion. Of course music is a passion.
Says the guy who's never really pursued his professionally?
OK, let's make it personal
I was never good enough to make it a career.
Make what a career? Playing gigs? That's like one job. That's not "music." If "music" is a legitimate passion as you claim it is, then sound design, production, audio engineering, teaching and dozens of other jobs are also on the table. Unless the passion we're talking about truly is just playing gigs.
In which case, of the people you know who did play gigs for a living, how long did that last? You mentioned ruined marriages and being a hotel porter. Shit, Johnny Cash was playing dumpy cocktail lounges and living in obscurity when Rick Rubin picked him back up. Playing gigs on a national or international scale is not a career, it's a thing very few people get to do for a very short period of time.
"Pursuing a passion" with a mix of common sense and a gut feeling about whether or not you'll hate it usually leads people somewhere (1) completely outside of where they were aiming at and (2) somewhere that's interesting for them. It's not a bad strategy.
Not everyone has to do that—another good strategy is to pick something sensible to support everything else in one's life. But guaranteed your musical abilities aren't holding you back from doing everything under the sun. There's a ton of stuff in between "nothing" and "Taylor Swift."
@Aqua-Letifer said in Dear Self,...:
In which case, of the people you know who did play gigs for a living, how long did that last?
One guy I played with in a cheesy school band for a year still plays in Simply Red, but other than him (who I obviously don't know now), the happiest musicians I know are the ones who do it for fun. I do know a few people who went to music college, and their professional lives have actually been a bit disappointing. Admittedly not from following their passion, but possibly from not being willing to diversify as you suggested.
To be honest, all that other stuff like music production never really appealed. I had the option of working as a tech for the BBC, which would have kind of being a tertiary type job and could well have developed further, but all I saw was a bunch of guys spending most of the day sitting around waiting on the artistes.
Anyway, I'm really just aimlessly bullshitting. I'd never advise somebody not to follow a passion.
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...and sarcasm.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
...and sarcasm.
LOL I wanted to be a garbage truck guy (riding on the back of the truck looked cool) as a kid. I settled for cybersecurity engineer, which is basically the same thing, but without the truck.
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@taiwan_girl said in Dear Self,...:
Save early and save often. I know we have shown charts here on that.
For example: saving a USD$100/month at age 20 will give you XXX $ at age 60.
However, if you wait to start saving until age 30, it will require USD$500/month to get the same amount.
Each generation helps the next, at least that's the goal. My dad's parents abandoned him as a kid, so he lived with his uncle and ate ketchup packets after school because there was no food in the fridge. Worked 80 hours a week during college to pay for it, later was the single income with 5 kids at home, eventually got his masters and doctorate. Smart man but also too proud to talk finances and unfortunately taught me a lesson indirectly as he later admitted he burned through his 401k just after the housing crash in 2008 as he was trying to get a consulting firm off the ground. So instead of that $300k 401k in 2009 being worth a million now, he mostly lives off of social security now. Two of my brothers have zero in savings, whereas another brother and I have been saving from the start.
In any event, I'm building off of the opportunities my parents provided to me (paid for about half of college), by having savings accounts for the 3 kids already set up and college accounts (529s) ready to help them get a jump start in life once they enter the workforce. Hopefully it enables them to do the same for their kids, and so on, and so on.
@89th said in Dear Self,...:
@taiwan_girl said in Dear Self,...:
Save early and save often. I know we have shown charts here on that.
For example: saving a USD$100/month at age 20 will give you XXX $ at age 60.
However, if you wait to start saving until age 30, it will require USD$500/month to get the same amount.
Each generation helps the next, at least that's the goal. My dad's parents abandoned him as a kid, so he lived with his uncle and ate ketchup packets after school because there was no food in the fridge. Worked 80 hours a week during college to pay for it, later was the single income with 5 kids at home, eventually got his masters and doctorate. Smart man but also too proud to talk finances and unfortunately taught me a lesson indirectly as he later admitted he burned through his 401k just after the housing crash in 2008 as he was trying to get a consulting firm off the ground. So instead of that $300k 401k in 2009 being worth a million now, he mostly lives off of social security now. Two of my brothers have zero in savings, whereas another brother and I have been saving from the start.
In any event, I'm building off of the opportunities my parents provided to me (paid for about half of college), by having savings accounts for the 3 kids already set up and college accounts (529s) ready to help them get a jump start in life once they enter the workforce. Hopefully it enables them to do the same for their kids, and so on, and so on.
Stories...
I went to a young man's home this past weekend for a gender reveal party (why they do these things nowadays, I don't have a clue). He's maybe a little younger than you (mid-thirties) and as a married couple, has had a lot of difficulty conceiving a child. Finally, he and his wife were starting to look into the adoption process, when she became pregnant.
It's a girl.
Whatever this young lady decides to do in life, she'll have a starting boost. Her great-grandfather was my best friend. The family passionately believes in hard work, smart investing and generational wealth, starting with her great-great grandfather.
Great-great grandfather was raised poor on the edge of Saline Swamp and Black River. As a young man, he bought fish from the commercial fishermen in the area for his employer, who iced them and shipped them to market by rail. Not satisfied with just that paycheck, he started selling groceries off his boat to the fishermen. He used that money to buy a small farm which he worked along with running a school boat (yes, a school boat). That allowed him to lease out the farm and buy a small grocery store. That was successful, so he let his wife run the store, while he and his son-in-law started a logging company and a sawmill. Selling that for a profit, he also sold the store, using the profits to build a furniture store and a finance company. From there, he built two more furniture stores, and eventually retired. His oldest boy got the stores, but all of the children received a pretty good nest egg.
My friend was his youngest son. He was an electrician by trade (a very good one, as not everybody wires the controls at nuclear plants), but he also worked hard at other things...Commercial fishing, an outboard motor repair business, a roofing company, a hunting guide service. When he died, his two children inherited his daddy's original farm, three houses, 80 acres of land and a considerable portfolio of investments.
His son began his career as an electrician, later worked for Shell and now works as a safety engineer. He has always invested heavily and is known to be frugal to the nth degree. He will retire well, if he ever does. When he passes, a substantial asset transfer will occur.
Both of his boys are the same way. They work hard, they aren't spendthrifts. Both boys owned mortgage -free homes by the age of 30. Their goal is to retire well, but also to pass on a bigger stack of generational wealth than what they inherited.
I guess the point of this story is that each generation in that family works hard and tries to make sure their children inherit more than what they did.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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Hard to make a living playing music as a sideman. I know a few, all cousins of my wife, that tried. Gene was the only one who made a full career... Was a staff guitarist on the Louisiana Hayride, played piano for Johnny Rivers for a couple of years, Bob Luman for a couple of years and was Loretta Lynn's piano player for probably a decade and a half. He also did some band leader work on a small scale and wrote a few songs for people like Mel Tillis and of all people, Englebert Humperdinck. Gene will tell you today, he never made any big money. Just a living.
Nicky played bass and toured with the Dixie Chicks, Dennis played banjo and worked for Bill Monroe for a few years. My nephew played steel for Randy Travis and later for Travis Tritt. My son has never toured nationally, but he's had an offer or two...Occasionally you'll find him drumming on 6th Street in Austin. None of those guys hung with it as a fulltime career.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
...and sarcasm.
LOL I wanted to be a garbage truck guy (riding on the back of the truck looked cool) as a kid. I settled for cybersecurity engineer, which is basically the same thing, but without the truck.
@89th said in Dear Self,...:
LOL I wanted to be a garbage truck guy (riding on the back of the truck looked cool) as a kid. I settled for cybersecurity engineer, which is basically the same thing, but without the truck.
I wanted to be a postman. I delivered newspapers as a kid on a really long round, and I loved it, so it seemed like the logical next step.
I'd be retired by now on a government pension.
I was only joking
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@89th said in Dear Self,...:
@taiwan_girl said in Dear Self,...:
Save early and save often. I know we have shown charts here on that.
For example: saving a USD$100/month at age 20 will give you XXX $ at age 60.
However, if you wait to start saving until age 30, it will require USD$500/month to get the same amount.
Each generation helps the next, at least that's the goal. My dad's parents abandoned him as a kid, so he lived with his uncle and ate ketchup packets after school because there was no food in the fridge. Worked 80 hours a week during college to pay for it, later was the single income with 5 kids at home, eventually got his masters and doctorate. Smart man but also too proud to talk finances and unfortunately taught me a lesson indirectly as he later admitted he burned through his 401k just after the housing crash in 2008 as he was trying to get a consulting firm off the ground. So instead of that $300k 401k in 2009 being worth a million now, he mostly lives off of social security now. Two of my brothers have zero in savings, whereas another brother and I have been saving from the start.
In any event, I'm building off of the opportunities my parents provided to me (paid for about half of college), by having savings accounts for the 3 kids already set up and college accounts (529s) ready to help them get a jump start in life once they enter the workforce. Hopefully it enables them to do the same for their kids, and so on, and so on.
Stories...
I went to a young man's home this past weekend for a gender reveal party (why they do these things nowadays, I don't have a clue). He's maybe a little younger than you (mid-thirties) and as a married couple, has had a lot of difficulty conceiving a child. Finally, he and his wife were starting to look into the adoption process, when she became pregnant.
It's a girl.
Whatever this young lady decides to do in life, she'll have a starting boost. Her great-grandfather was my best friend. The family passionately believes in hard work, smart investing and generational wealth, starting with her great-great grandfather.
Great-great grandfather was raised poor on the edge of Saline Swamp and Black River. As a young man, he bought fish from the commercial fishermen in the area for his employer, who iced them and shipped them to market by rail. Not satisfied with just that paycheck, he started selling groceries off his boat to the fishermen. He used that money to buy a small farm which he worked along with running a school boat (yes, a school boat). That allowed him to lease out the farm and buy a small grocery store. That was successful, so he let his wife run the store, while he and his son-in-law started a logging company and a sawmill. Selling that for a profit, he also sold the store, using the profits to build a furniture store and a finance company. From there, he built two more furniture stores, and eventually retired. His oldest boy got the stores, but all of the children received a pretty good nest egg.
My friend was his youngest son. He was an electrician by trade (a very good one, as not everybody wires the controls at nuclear plants), but he also worked hard at other things...Commercial fishing, an outboard motor repair business, a roofing company, a hunting guide service. When he died, his two children inherited his daddy's original farm, three houses, 80 acres of land and a considerable portfolio of investments.
His son began his career as an electrician, later worked for Shell and now works as a safety engineer. He has always invested heavily and is known to be frugal to the nth degree. He will retire well, if he ever does. When he passes, a substantial asset transfer will occur.
Both of his boys are the same way. They work hard, they aren't spendthrifts. Both boys owned mortgage -free homes by the age of 30. Their goal is to retire well, but also to pass on a bigger stack of generational wealth than what they inherited.
I guess the point of this story is that each generation in that family works hard and tries to make sure their children inherit more than what they did.
@Jolly said in Dear Self,...:
I guess the point of this story is that each generation in that family works hard and tries to make sure their children inherit more than what they did.
I think that if you grew up destitute or just in challenging financial circumstances, that can really put charge in you to make sure your kids don't have that experience.
I can't say that's what motivates everyone, though, beyond taking money problems off the table.
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@89th said in Dear Self,...:
LOL I wanted to be a garbage truck guy (riding on the back of the truck looked cool) as a kid. I settled for cybersecurity engineer, which is basically the same thing, but without the truck.
I wanted to be a postman. I delivered newspapers as a kid on a really long round, and I loved it, so it seemed like the logical next step.
I'd be retired by now on a government pension.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@89th said in Dear Self,...:
LOL I wanted to be a garbage truck guy (riding on the back of the truck looked cool) as a kid. I settled for cybersecurity engineer, which is basically the same thing, but without the truck.
I wanted to be a postman. I delivered newspapers as a kid on a really long round, and I loved it, so it seemed like the logical next step.
Funny, sometimes I watch the mail carrier and think... that would be a refreshing change of pace. Probably for the first month, then like all things it might get a bit old.
BTW I'm with you earlier in terms of family being my passion. My kids unlocked a love in me I didn't know was possible and as they grow up way too fast (as you know, since I met you in 2007 when your kids were little), it's worth it to me to enjoy it as much as I can, and my job enables it. It's a good job too... I serve an important mission (stopping hax0rs), and it enables the rest of my life (family, hobbies, etc).
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Dear Self,...:
@89th said in Dear Self,...:
LOL I wanted to be a garbage truck guy (riding on the back of the truck looked cool) as a kid. I settled for cybersecurity engineer, which is basically the same thing, but without the truck.
I wanted to be a postman. I delivered newspapers as a kid on a really long round, and I loved it, so it seemed like the logical next step.
Funny, sometimes I watch the mail carrier and think... that would be a refreshing change of pace. Probably for the first month, then like all things it might get a bit old.
BTW I'm with you earlier in terms of family being my passion. My kids unlocked a love in me I didn't know was possible and as they grow up way too fast (as you know, since I met you in 2007 when your kids were little), it's worth it to me to enjoy it as much as I can, and my job enables it. It's a good job too... I serve an important mission (stopping hax0rs), and it enables the rest of my life (family, hobbies, etc).
@89th said in Dear Self,...:
BTW I'm with you earlier in terms of family being my passion. My kids unlocked a love in me I didn't know was possible and as they grow up way too fast (as you know, since I met you in 2007 when your kids were little), it's worth it to me to enjoy it as much as I can, and my job enables it. It's a good job too... I serve an important mission (stopping hax0rs), and it enables the rest of my life (family, hobbies, etc).
Yeah, it's funny, when we met you we were in what we thought was child-hell, with a three-year old and a six year old, but in many ways it really is the time of your life. They just went back to college on Sunday after Christmas, so we're empty nesters again, and the transition still a bit shocking. Make the most of it.
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@89th said in Dear Self,...:
@taiwan_girl said in Dear Self,...:
Save early and save often. I know we have shown charts here on that.
For example: saving a USD$100/month at age 20 will give you XXX $ at age 60.
However, if you wait to start saving until age 30, it will require USD$500/month to get the same amount.
Each generation helps the next, at least that's the goal. My dad's parents abandoned him as a kid, so he lived with his uncle and ate ketchup packets after school because there was no food in the fridge. Worked 80 hours a week during college to pay for it, later was the single income with 5 kids at home, eventually got his masters and doctorate. Smart man but also too proud to talk finances and unfortunately taught me a lesson indirectly as he later admitted he burned through his 401k just after the housing crash in 2008 as he was trying to get a consulting firm off the ground. So instead of that $300k 401k in 2009 being worth a million now, he mostly lives off of social security now. Two of my brothers have zero in savings, whereas another brother and I have been saving from the start.
In any event, I'm building off of the opportunities my parents provided to me (paid for about half of college), by having savings accounts for the 3 kids already set up and college accounts (529s) ready to help them get a jump start in life once they enter the workforce. Hopefully it enables them to do the same for their kids, and so on, and so on.
Stories...
I went to a young man's home this past weekend for a gender reveal party (why they do these things nowadays, I don't have a clue). He's maybe a little younger than you (mid-thirties) and as a married couple, has had a lot of difficulty conceiving a child. Finally, he and his wife were starting to look into the adoption process, when she became pregnant.
It's a girl.
Whatever this young lady decides to do in life, she'll have a starting boost. Her great-grandfather was my best friend. The family passionately believes in hard work, smart investing and generational wealth, starting with her great-great grandfather.
Great-great grandfather was raised poor on the edge of Saline Swamp and Black River. As a young man, he bought fish from the commercial fishermen in the area for his employer, who iced them and shipped them to market by rail. Not satisfied with just that paycheck, he started selling groceries off his boat to the fishermen. He used that money to buy a small farm which he worked along with running a school boat (yes, a school boat). That allowed him to lease out the farm and buy a small grocery store. That was successful, so he let his wife run the store, while he and his son-in-law started a logging company and a sawmill. Selling that for a profit, he also sold the store, using the profits to build a furniture store and a finance company. From there, he built two more furniture stores, and eventually retired. His oldest boy got the stores, but all of the children received a pretty good nest egg.
My friend was his youngest son. He was an electrician by trade (a very good one, as not everybody wires the controls at nuclear plants), but he also worked hard at other things...Commercial fishing, an outboard motor repair business, a roofing company, a hunting guide service. When he died, his two children inherited his daddy's original farm, three houses, 80 acres of land and a considerable portfolio of investments.
His son began his career as an electrician, later worked for Shell and now works as a safety engineer. He has always invested heavily and is known to be frugal to the nth degree. He will retire well, if he ever does. When he passes, a substantial asset transfer will occur.
Both of his boys are the same way. They work hard, they aren't spendthrifts. Both boys owned mortgage -free homes by the age of 30. Their goal is to retire well, but also to pass on a bigger stack of generational wealth than what they inherited.
I guess the point of this story is that each generation in that family works hard and tries to make sure their children inherit more than what they did.
@Jolly said in Dear Self,...:
@89th said in Dear Self,...:
@taiwan_girl said in Dear Self,...:
Save early and save often. I know we have shown charts here on that.
For example: saving a USD$100/month at age 20 will give you XXX $ at age 60.
However, if you wait to start saving until age 30, it will require USD$500/month to get the same amount.
Each generation helps the next, at least that's the goal. My dad's parents abandoned him as a kid, so he lived with his uncle and ate ketchup packets after school because there was no food in the fridge. Worked 80 hours a week during college to pay for it, later was the single income with 5 kids at home, eventually got his masters and doctorate. Smart man but also too proud to talk finances and unfortunately taught me a lesson indirectly as he later admitted he burned through his 401k just after the housing crash in 2008 as he was trying to get a consulting firm off the ground. So instead of that $300k 401k in 2009 being worth a million now, he mostly lives off of social security now. Two of my brothers have zero in savings, whereas another brother and I have been saving from the start.
In any event, I'm building off of the opportunities my parents provided to me (paid for about half of college), by having savings accounts for the 3 kids already set up and college accounts (529s) ready to help them get a jump start in life once they enter the workforce. Hopefully it enables them to do the same for their kids, and so on, and so on.
Stories...
I went to a young man's home this past weekend for a gender reveal party (why they do these things nowadays, I don't have a clue). He's maybe a little younger than you (mid-thirties) and as a married couple, has had a lot of difficulty conceiving a child. Finally, he and his wife were starting to look into the adoption process, when she became pregnant.
It's a girl.
Whatever this young lady decides to do in life, she'll have a starting boost. Her great-grandfather was my best friend. The family passionately believes in hard work, smart investing and generational wealth, starting with her great-great grandfather.
Great-great grandfather was raised poor on the edge of Saline Swamp and Black River. As a young man, he bought fish from the commercial fishermen in the area for his employer, who iced them and shipped them to market by rail. Not satisfied with just that paycheck, he started selling groceries off his boat to the fishermen. He used that money to buy a small farm which he worked along with running a school boat (yes, a school boat). That allowed him to lease out the farm and buy a small grocery store. That was successful, so he let his wife run the store, while he and his son-in-law started a logging company and a sawmill. Selling that for a profit, he also sold the store, using the profits to build a furniture store and a finance company. From there, he built two more furniture stores, and eventually retired. His oldest boy got the stores, but all of the children received a pretty good nest egg.
My friend was his youngest son. He was an electrician by trade (a very good one, as not everybody wires the controls at nuclear plants), but he also worked hard at other things...Commercial fishing, an outboard motor repair business, a roofing company, a hunting guide service. When he died, his two children inherited his daddy's original farm, three houses, 80 acres of land and a considerable portfolio of investments.
His son began his career as an electrician, later worked for Shell and now works as a safety engineer. He has always invested heavily and is known to be frugal to the nth degree. He will retire well, if he ever does. When he passes, a substantial asset transfer will occur.
Both of his boys are the same way. They work hard, they aren't spendthrifts. Both boys owned mortgage -free homes by the age of 30. Their goal is to retire well, but also to pass on a bigger stack of generational wealth than what they inherited.
I guess the point of this story is that each generation in that family works hard and tries to make sure their children inherit more than what they did.
Sounds like a heck of a good family. Hard working.
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I think that in many times, passion becomes business and isn't as fun any more.
