Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

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orlandoguy
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by orlandoguy »

"Money is to be spent and enjoyed."

Words to live by...but presumably assumes FI.

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jmndu99
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by jmndu99 »

My father was not good with money and showed (advised) me to spend it all as soon as payday came around.

I, at an older age, started doing the exact opposite of what dear ol' dad did.

Thanks Dad for slowing (advising) me what NOT to do with my money
theDON2050
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by theDON2050 »

My dad told me to find a spouse who isn't crazy. Pretty solid indirect financial advice.

A year or so after becoming a boglehead he also told me index funds are probably the way to go.

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The Wizard
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by The Wizard »

My dad was born in 1921 and went through the Great Depression as a (pre) teenager and then through WW2 in Europe.
He was not a great financial expert but had the attitude that if something was important we'll find a way to make it happen.
He passed away in 1994 and I still miss him...
:(
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Hunky-dory
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Hunky-dory »

"At some point money becomes just another way of keeping score."

My dad did not talk about the details of finances but he had some success in business and always made it clear by sayings such as the above that at the end of the day money should not be a focus of life (particularly after you have "enough" which was the context of the above quote). He always lived below his means. When I was young we were members of a country club because he thought it was a good deal. We would drive there in his old beat up Camry to play golf on Sunday evenings when the course was empty. Definitely the cheapest car in the "members" lot but he never cared and drove that Camry until it hit 300,000 miles and the transmission went.
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badbreath
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by badbreath »

When the 401K came out I told my Dad about it and the free money my company was giving and he said oh I should do that. He made most of his money in rentals and of course work. His biggest recommendation was just work very hard and become inrapacabe.
“While money can’t buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.” Groucho Marx
Vize
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Vize »

"Before spending, pay yourself first."

He also got me hooked on Jonathan Clements columns.

Thanks, Dad!
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El Greco
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by El Greco »

My dad told me to buy VTSAX. No kidding. My dad was also the smartest, kindest, most honest man I've ever known. I miss him dearly and remember him fondly. Here's to you dad, wherever you are :sharebeer
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celia
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by celia »

My dad (and mom) valued education a lot. He worked as a milkman, delivering to homes, starting before dawn, and somehow managed to get 6 kids through 12 years of Catholic school and then college. I still haven't figured out how he did it. We all value the education and tried to pass the same down to our own kids. Happy Father's Day, Dad! :beer (that's milk he's holding!)
basspond
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by basspond »

I am working on my second million, I gave up on the first!

Father in law not really anything specific but would sit down with him and casually talk. Just a lot of common investment sense by listening and observing. He died way too young so I made a point to keep our finances in order so I could retire early.
LukeHeinz57
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by LukeHeinz57 »

Great Topic!

I think the best advice I got was to get an education in something I enjoy and can pursue a career in that will sustain a family.
"Contentment", the only thing you ever truly need more of!
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masterofinvesting
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by masterofinvesting »

One of the best advice my dad gave me was - "Do the best you can do, and don't worry about the result". It is a mantra that I've followed throughout my life in exams, interviews and also now in investing (where the best I can do is a diversified stock/bond index portfolio that is commensurate with my need, willingness and ability to take risk).
sschullo
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by sschullo »

Father's Day never meant much to me. I did not learn about the wisdoms of life from him. My father died when I was 13, and he was sick 3 to 4 years before his enlarged heart stopped. But I will say this, both my parents owned and operated a dairy farm, and lived frugally. It was their example of hard work and devotion to all of us kids, which helped me to do the same in my adult life. While I learned about frugal living as a kid, I learned everything else especially about life's wisdoms and investing as an adult. I was very fortunate to have met several mentors as a young man, and I was lucky to listen to them.

Now my father in law showed me what NOT to do in investing. He was a day trader all of his 25 years in retirement, and when he died in 2006 at 90 years old, he owned one stock, Taser, and $100,000 invested! I kid you not! Still, he was a funny man and a character who loved me, and for that, I greatly appreciated him. Father-in-laws like mother-in-laws are powerful too.
Never in the history of market day-traders’ has the obsession with so much massive, sophisticated, & powerful statistical machinery used by the brightest people on earth with such useless results.
Faith20879
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Faith20879 »

My father was born in 1907 and still has all his marbles. He was a low ranking officer in Chiang Kai-Shek’s air force and ran errands for the Flying Tigers during the Japanese invasion. This he always told stories of with much pride.

Then war-torn China taught him “save and save some more” was the only way to survival. This probably instilled a sense of financial insecurity in us very early on. All my siblings are good savers, especially the older ones who experienced the extreme poverty first hand, saved (and still do) like a fiend.
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SmileyFace
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by SmileyFace »

Actions rather than words provided the best advice for me.
In my case it was watching my Father work two jobs 7-days a week with little time off. He stressed the importance of a great education and one that would provide a career with good income so that I wouldn't be in his shoes. Although I work more than 8 hours a day with my current job to get things done - I'm happy to not have to take a secondary low-income job to pay for basic housing and food needs for my family, happy to have the money to put kids through college, happy to have enjoyed many great family vacations, and happy to spend my life with weekends dedicated to family life and enjoyment.
spoco79
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by spoco79 »

My dad valued hard work and education. He was a chemical engineer that worked in a plant that made road paint for 35 years. 2 weeks after he retired he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Not being a smoker, it was likely from breathing in all that crap.

Investing wise - he wasn't an all-star by any means, but he did fine. At 9:00 pm every night he would call an 800 number and get the results of the day (obviously pre-internet). He'd write down the results and the balance in a Moleskin notebook and share it with me. "Compound interest is my favorite math," he'd say.

He loved to tease my mom - a lifelong homemaker who did not know or care much about investing. "We lost $5,000 today," would nearly put her into tears. He hated debt to the point he did not allow it. The only major financial mistakes I ever witnessed him making were always to avoid debt.

There were three of us brothers, which I am the youngest. My oldest brother is an EVP of an International Corporation. Everything he touches turns to gold. The middle brother is a financial moron, college dropout, bouncing from job to job because he doesnt like something = he is always in a mess. My dad had to bail him out of major problems several times.

And then there is me. I don't have my older brother's salary, but I try to share he appreciation for my dad's wisdom and have done fine.

He wrote in a graduation card with a nice check:
Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.

Its the only card I have ever kept.
Spirit Rider
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Spirit Rider »

My parents were both children of the depression. They were both uprooted from their families during this time and it had profound impact on them.

My dad's father lost everything in the stock market crash and died during the depression. This caused my dad to be totally adverse to the stock market and our family never invested a penny. He never gave me investment advice, but he taught me by example; your word is your and your family's honor, work hard, play harder, live economically, save until it hurts, most importantly, family is everything!. He was a Marine in WWII and ran the family like a squad. He was not the easiest father to have growing up, but I miss him dearly.
ncbill
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by ncbill »

Another cautionary tale here.

Dad made a lot of money from his main business over the years, but kept very little of it.

Liked to live large (made him a target of every scammer or hustler out there) plus wasn't wise enough to "stick to his knitting" and lost perhaps as much as half of what his main business made him by pursuing side ventures where he had no success - plenty of experience, but no success.

In the end a cash crunch forced him to sell his main business for maybe half of what it should have normally brought.
Since his health forced him to retire, unfortunately due to his own poor choices over the years.
I might well have had my last Father's Day with him.

OTOH, despite being a modestly-paid blue-collar worker who retired decades ago, my father-in-law has probably a 7 figure net worth.

Plus with his work ethic he also has plenty of side income, in addition to pension & social security.
deltaneutral83
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by deltaneutral83 »

Business advice: "sell what you produce, or produce what you sell." He used that one to demonstrate that most people replaceable, but these are the most valuable people at the company.

Financial Advice: Don't be foolish and have a car payment, intelligent people don't because it's such an insignificant portion of their NW that it's hardly a thought. If you can't afford to cut a check and forget about it (which would translate today to put as much on the rewards credit card and pay off immediately), then you can't afford it. If the amount you can afford to cut a check and not think twice is $4k, then a $4k car is what you can afford.

Investing advice: "WorldCom was full of crooks." He's probably 30% S&P, 40% single stocks, 20% real estate, and 10% cash or equivalent/misc. Very heavy on single stocks which I've tried to dissuade. He understands why now and I'm glad I have convinced him to go 30% S&P. Never any bonds. Can easily live off SS and several RE investments. Addicted to financial porn. Born in the hay day of whole life ins. In essence, it was good of him to expose me to the stock market since day one which lead me to a much smoother transition to diversified mutual/index funds as opposed to being scared of the big bad market. Unfortunately, he has dabbled too much in single stocks and the S&P has trounced his returns the last 40 years.
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Flobes
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Flobes »

"There are no pockets in shrouds!"
Pyrite
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Pyrite »

Both of my parents taught me a lot by example, most of it good: live below your means, keep track of your spending (they had a sheet of paper on the fridge each month where every expense went), buy used cars, max out your 401k and IRA. And a little bad: they lost quite a bit of money in the early 80s in a limited partnership owning a motel. My dad is a PhD engineer and the other partners were doctors and dentists, and the lesson I took from that was smart people aren't necessarily good with money, so I'd better make an effort to learn so I didn't do something stupid someday when I had money.

But the best specific bit of advice my dad gave me was to loan me Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds and suggest I use Vanguard because of their low fees. Thanks, Dad, for starting me on the road to being a Boglehead!

After reading some of the posts above I also really appreciate that he made an effort to teach financial stuff to me, his daughter. (He also tried to teach me to do car maintenance, but sadly I was uninterested as a teen.) I'm seeing him in a few weeks and this thread has made me realize I want to thank him for all of this.
MutualEdge
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by MutualEdge »

"Ask your mother."

My dad is so skilled at so many things, but on this particular topic, he knew when to pass the torch. :beer
Hockey10
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Hockey10 »

"Don't ever start smoking".

Lung cancer killed his Dad shortly before I was born so one of my earliest memories in life was to learn how bad smoking is.
KlangFool
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by KlangFool »

Folks,

1) Be generous

We were poor and starving. But, that does not stop my father to share what we had. And, help others. Generosity has nothing to do with what we have. The poor could be generous and the rich could be selfish. It is a mentality.

2) Be fair and honorable.

Being treated unfairly and discriminated is not a good enough excuse to do the same to others. Be honorable. Treat others fairly even for those that discriminated against you.

3) Leave room for others

Do not take all the profits. Leave some for others. Ditto, do not take all the credits and so on. Leave room and space for others to succeed and win too. They are plenty for everyone.

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ray.james
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by ray.james »

A dollar spent is two dollars earned.
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best2u
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by best2u »

My father was born in the depression years. He was a farmer in the Midwest like his father before him. Taught me and my siblings to be frugal. The advice to each of us was always the same when it came to money, "Spend some and save some."
“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” Will Rogers
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Portfolio7
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Portfolio7 »

Really mostly frugality, and building assets. He is a terrible investor. Now has all his money in bonds and cds, which I think is best for him. But he was always thinking about building assets, and I got that much from him.
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest" - Benjamin Franklin
Dirghatamas
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by Dirghatamas »

Not much on actual investing but dad/extended family/culture gave strong lessons in childhood about debt (never ever have any), LBYM/frugal living and self reliance. Some of these childhood lessons are now so deeply ingrained as to be almost irrational. I finished college without debt but needed to buy a car when starting my first job. Instead of buying the car with debt, I rode my bike to work for a few months till I could buy my first car with cash. Borderline silly but that's what happens if you were brought up a certain way. I did have to get a mortgage on my house but it bothered me so much that I paid it off in my late twenties and have never taken on any debt since. It is irrational (leverage with mortgage is beneficial) but I think frugal living/no debt lessons are probably a positive overall and I thank him.
johnra
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Re: Best Financial Advice from Dad (in honor of father's day)

Post by johnra »

My dad always said the best investment a parent could make was in his kids' education. I grew up with no education debt and have managed to do this for my kids.
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