Monday, August 2, 2021 (Day 214)
Relaxing Music for the week: Letting Go: Liquid Mind (9:17) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrCID0gUtZ8
Question: What was your money story growing up?
Answer: I didn’t have a money story growing up because I didn’t have money. I didn’t receive an allowance as a kid; in our house, we were expected to do chores, not as a way to get an allowance, but as a way to serve the family. One of the things I remember growing up was getting a bike with solid rubber tires so my dad wouldn’t have to pay to get new tires/inner tubes. And all through Junior High School and High School, I had this tiny room with a small desk, a full-sized bed, and a night stand with an AM radio. That was everything that I had in my room. For at least 6 years in life, until I went to college. I did have a lot of sports cards and comic books, but that was because they were given to me because people were throwing them away vs me buying them. I had lots and lots of cards for sure, well over 1,000,000. As a kid, if I needed money to buy something, I would bike (since I didn’t have a car) to Union Market Place (in New Jersey) and sell cards to a card dealer in the marketplace. In hindsight, I’m sure he didn’t give me much for really valuable cards, but since they were given to me, I didn’t really lose any money. But imagine that, at that time growing up, I had baseball cards sets from 1961 to the last 1970’s, as well as sport cards from football, basketball, and hockey – some that I still have today. So, money was a non-issue growing up; money can’t be an issue if you didn’t have any, right?
Today, I don’t have many money issues like the past. I’ve really focused on making sure there’s enough money for my retirement years; it’s been fun watching it grow over the years – especially the past 5-6 years. Now, if it can grow as well for the next 5-6 years, life will be grand. Just got to keep being smart and stay fairly aggressive so that it can grow at 10% or more each year (which has happened 10 of the past 12 years). There’s always stuff to deal with money, it’s just nice not to have to live paycheck to paycheck for a change…
Other Stuff
I don’t know the accuracy of this information, but I read an interesting article that addressed how long $1,000,000 would last in every state in the U.S. If anything, it was a fun read. Here’s the link:
- How Long $1 Million in Savings Will Last in Every State – https://finance.yahoo.com/news/long-1-million-savings-last-220000955.html
I live in North Carolina, so it’s okay compared to most states. What I did notice is that many of the states listed where the money would last longer are states that I would NEVER want to live, like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. I have no interests in being around tornadoes or places that won’t accept me (as a black male), if you know what I mean. I guess staying in North Carolina isn’t such a bad place to be…
The Dream Dean 