Investing

My Dad was lucky to make a really nice salary, eventually. When he returned from WW II, he had three jobs to support his family -- and barely made it. By the late 50s, though, things looked up -- he had become a very skilled salesman in the gift industry, and the money was nice, especially from those commissions from recurring clients, like Alexanders, and Al's Pottery.

In the years before I was born, my family lived in a nice part of Queens, Glen Oaks, and rented a lovely "garden apartment." They actually took a step that probably seemed out of the question years before: they joined a country club! It was the Roslyn Country Club, a place right out of "Flamingo Kid" and "Goodbye, Columbus," and my Dad told me they were probably the poorest members. But my parents thought it would be nice to have a pool for their daughters, and maybe my sisters would meet nice Jewish boys there. Ha. As if! Didn't work out that way...

In 1961 I came along, and the two bedroom apartment was cramped, so my Dad went to his boss, Mr. Katz, and asked to borrow $2000 for the down payment on a house. Mr. Katz agreed -- buying, essentially, my father's complete loyalty to him and his company for the rest of Dad's career.

Things got better financially for our family. We took our first airplane trip in 1969 -- a dream trip to my parents -- Israel. I was 8 years old and mostly remember trying to find Mets scores from news stands in Tel Aviv, and of course the highlight was watching Neil Armstrong take his historic steps. I still recall it clearly -- we gathered around a TV shop near Dizengoff Square, and all the Israelis cheered wildly -- their brothers had done it. Years later, I remembered that in contrast to the Palestinians cheering wildly after 9/11. And still plenty of Americans take up the Palis cause...oh well.

Anyway, my Dad was never one for investing in the stock market. He had a few muni bonds -- I remember going to the bank with him to clip coupons -- and did buy a few companies -- I recall a Dennison Mines, from Canada, and Airlift, a Miami cargo company. Both went bankrupt.

When Dad retired, in May of '79, he did so with about $250K, from savings and a profit sharing plan at his company. Interest rates neared 20%. I recall Dad opening different certificates of deposit with local Delray banks. Between the interest income and his social security, my parents lived very comfortably, without invading their principal. After Dad died, just three years later, I thought about investing some of Mom's money in the stock market, as interest rates declined, but I was chicken. She wasn't going to work, and things hummed along fine.

Mom traveled -- China twice, Europe, Israel twice, and many cruises and junkets to South Florida hotels. She gifted money to us -- the $10K she gave Wifey and I in '86 went to our down payment for our first house -- we always were grateful for that.

She "lent" my sister and brother in law $3K to build a pool at their LI house. She forgave the debt.

But the point was, she didn't need to mess with the stock market. When she went to the nursing home, she still had over $70K of savings left, plus her comically bad investment of a condo. She paid $39K for it in '79. When it was sold 34 years later, her three kids each netted $14K. The savings went into a pooled trust so that she got Medicaid, and they covered the $6K per month for nursing care. The remaining money went back to the state, to pay the liens.

As far as investments go, I am NOT my father's son. Although I have only a minority of savings invested in the stock market, it's not a little money. And lately, things have been crashing. We have lost more money than I would have ever thought we would have in total when I was a man in my late 20s.

And it's ok.  I think that over time, the losses will rebound, and we don't need the money right now. My broker friends who laughed at how much I keep in cash and muni bonds aren't laughing so much now.

Years ago, I read that well off people of a certain level (say assets above $5M but less than $50M) all said they would feel "rich" if they had 40% more than they did. That is, someone with $10M "needs" $14M to feel comfortable. Someone with $1M needs $1.4M.

Not me. I look at the plunging investment statements and just sort of chuckle. I imagine the expression on my Dad's face if he saw them. "You lost HOW MUCH????!!!!"

Years ago, my friend and broker Pat thought we ought to invest heavily in Apple -- three times the amount of my typical investment. I went ahead with him. It paid off -- my Ds have significant shares which we have gifted them, and we do, too.

And yet, owning the shares brings no joy. Paying for the life experiences does -- helping with first houses, wonderful meals, extravagant parties..

We plan to have some dear friends over for NYE. Even with the plunging markets, we'll serve bountiful amounts of stone crabs, and champagne. I told the Ds, who will be spending NYE together, that I was paying for THEIR get together in NE Miami, too.

I guess if the market continues to crash over the next 9 days, I can revise that and switch to pizza. Nah -- I'll come up with the funds regardless.