No. of Recommendations: 13
FWIW, you might read the Die Broke book - circa 1998. It's free on Kindle. I read it way back then and it has influenced me. I read it early on. Probably needs updating, but the basic ideas still hold.
For background, I'm a Great Depression born child who grew up in the rural deep South. Living was not that much different from Civil War days if you lived outside the towns. I'm talking bout no running water, no electricity, wood heat, the outhouse down the hill, and growing 90+% of what you ate. So I understand the value of money and the desire for financial security.
Even so, with the Die Broke viewpoint in mind, I decided to try to make use of the financial security I developed over five decades of work - started at age 12 - to use money instead of hoard it.
In an early Berkshire meeting, I recall Munger's answer to the "usual" question back then of how do you get rich? IIRC Munger replied that the key was getting the first $100k to invest. Do so as young as possible, invest it wisely, and enjoy the fruits of compounding.
So I set out to help my family follow that advice by helping with the early marriage years of capex. Cars, home down payments, early savings for college, seed money for investing, tuition early on, etc. The deal was to help them get started early. In turn, they had the ability to save and invest early. If they don't follow through, stop.
That has worked out well for us. They've seen the benefits and we've enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing the results of our own wealth building being employed while we're still around to see it.
We've been careful to always provide for our own needs so that we would not be a burden. And to enjoy the fruits of our hard work, savings, and investing while we were still healthy enough to do so.
It has worked well for us. Put the money to work while you can see and enjoy the results. Just something to think about.
