Dad 101

Let's get Meta. 

Yesterday morning's post was about catching more flies/bees with honey than vinegar. I wrote that piece last Saturday morning. Then rewrote it Sunday night. Then checked for typos on Monday. More typos on Tuesday. And then corrected the typos I made on Tuesday -- correcting typos -- on Wednesday morning.

I make a lot of typos. I attribute it to age. Or when I was working for PayPal, just not giving a shit. 

Last night, long after the post had lived its useful life, I got into a small argument with my daughter. It concerned money, naturally. And how she was not making the most of the money she earned by investing it wisely in her 401K plan.

It was infuriating. I have tried to impress upon my children the importance of saving. And more importantly, putting those savings to work in a wisely-chosen 401K equity plan. 

My portfolio, my investment portfolio not the one with all the dated, crappy laminated ads in it, has performed exceedingly well. Indeed it has allowed me to cease connecting synapses for the purposes of crafting ads for lime-flavored tortilla chips or brown, sugary carbonated water.

Thank god. And thank Charles Schwab.

When I discovered my daughter's haphazard, nonchalant approach to minding her money, I was upset. Not you-left-dirty-dishes-in-the-sink upset. But I'm gonna-redouble-my-efforts-spend-all-my-money-and leave-you-nothing upset. 

In other words SKI, Spend Kid's Inheritance.

Maybe some of you other parents out there have experienced the same phenomena. We can blame ourselves, for not teaching children about money/finances. But we can also blame our schools for eschewing these essentials and spending inordinate amounts of time on solving quadratic equations. Or revisiting the British partitioning of land between India and Pakistan and then leaving Kashmir up for grabs.

My anger was palpable. And still is.

But having taken a few breaths. Consulting with Ms. Muse. And a a generous pour of Bulleit Rye whiskey, I put my displeasure on the shelf.

And, in a proud moment of listening to myself, decided to go to my literary pantry and take out the honey and put away the vinegar.

I slept on the frustration and vexation and decided to write a memo to my girls. A two page primer on 401K's/IRAs/ Asset Diversification etc. 

In short, I listened to myself.

And the results couldn't be better...