Money, Money, Money

So Wifey and I had an unusually expensive couple of events this weekend.  First, we had dinner at Il Gabbianno, which is great, but very expensive.  Saturday we met Edna and Marc again at Gulfstream, my partner and brother Paul's favorite hangout, where there was another quite expensive meal.  Plus, we gambled and lost $200!

All said, we spent nearly $1000 on the weekend's entertainment.  We enjoyed ourselves.  We didn't need it.  It got me to thinking about money, and its role in our lives.

I grew up nicely middle class -- maybe on the upper side, at least among my more blue collar friends.  By the time I came along, my Dad was already in his 40s, and was enjoying the fruits of his very hard, post WW II labor.  When I was 8, we took a family trip to Israel.  I was the first of my friends to be on a jet plane, except for Mark, whose Dad was a weather guy for TWA, and got to fly for free.

Wifey's childhood was more economically challenged.  Her father, may he rest in peace, continued to try various businesses, and never made it.  His ego led him to choices that left him behind his Survivor peers.  The clearest example is when they were back in Miami, in the early 70s, and part of a group of "card players" who were all War refugees.

The group pooled their money, and each invested $10K in real estate -- they decided on what is now West Kendall.  Not my father in law.  He had decided that Miami was already "done" -- no -- the future was Cocoa Beach.  So he put his money in two housing lots there.

In the late 80s, the other card players sold their holdings -- for the high six figures each.  Their land became a major shopping center.  My father in law asked me to help in selling his Cocoa lots.  Since the Space Program never reached its promise, the lots sold for, and I remember this distinctly, $12K.

I joke with Wifey that I could have married a rich girl.  She replies I AM married to a rich girl...

I was extremely lucky when it came to making money, and I never forget that.  Wifey likes to bring up an incident from 1990. D1 was 2, and Wifey and my sister went shopping for curtains and bedclothes for the adorable toddler.  I was the sole support for my family -- Wifey was going to return to work after D1 was three months old, but simply couldn't.

The purchase was, I think, $150, and I hit the roof.  We couldn't afford luxuries like that!  I was already under major pressure -- this made it worse.  Take the stuff back!

It was too late -- my sister had already hung the curtains, and D1 loved her Little Mermaid comforter.  I figured I better step it up, if I was going to live with such a spendthrift wife.

And now, just over 25 years later, we toss away more money to a betting clerk at Gulfstream.

It's nice to have the freedom some money brings.  Wifey suffered from years of back pain.  She sought expensive treatments -- two separate stays in Orlando with every day PT.  None of it was covered by insurance.  But it brought her relief -- and was worth every penny.

About 10 years ago, Paul brought his college buddy Andy to the office.  Andy has led a renaissance man life -- coaching, teaching, leading seminars.  At the time, he was a "money coach," who consulted with people about their feelings with, and dealing with, money.  To help out his buddy, our firm paid for Andy to give a mini-seminar, including a test that showed how healthy and realistic one's views were about money.

Nilda, Stuart's always broke secretary (just last week she emailed to ask for a loan, even though she hasn't worked for Stu for years), scored the lowest.  She believed, in essence, that she would someday win the Lottery, but until then, it was fine to be broke.

I scored the highest.  I understood that having money was nice, but didn't define who I was.  I enjoyed pizza and beer with friends as much as martinis and NY Strips at the Palm.

So I'm lucky in this regard, I guess.  As long as the S and P keeps rising...