Tuesday, June 24, 1997
Foolish Childhood
by
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Looking back, I can see that I had a foolish childhood and it was my parent's fault. I don't know if you would consider it normal; my father was an American diplomat overseas. But since most of my friends were also Foreign Service Brats, it seemed pretty normal to me. An important part of my childhood involved my parents passing on their values to us kids. There were three investing rules that I learned from them.
The first thing I learned at an early age was that investing is normal; it was not something that only rich people did. My parents saved a percentage of their money, after paying for everything. When they were first married, they lived on my father's salary and saved my mother's. That money was put to use in the stock market. Many kids would follow their sports teams from afar but I remember opening the Stars and Stripes to see how IBM was doing since my parents owned it. For some reason, I remember it being in the 370s so some historian could tell me when in the sixties that occurred (or at least narrow it down). I find following stocks as fascinating now as I did back then.
Another childhood lesson I learned was that you had to work for everything you got. My family employed a maid, a cook and a gardener, but in order for me to collect my allowance, I had to wash the car, inside and out. This was in sharp contrast with some of my friends. People may talk about kids growing up without discipline today but it was no different back then. I would get $5 a week for my work, several of my friends would get $50 for breathing the air. Besides teaching me how to work for money, I learned to delay gratification at an early age. I also realized that life was not fair and that there would always be someone with more money than me. I then realized that this was not a problem.
Finally, I unwittingly learned not to trust authority. One memory I have comes from when we were in the Philippines. This was in 1968 and some of my friends' fathers were in Vietnam while the families were in Manila. By then, we were assured that we were winning the war and General Westmoreland encouraged the mothers to come to Saigon for a vacation. Experts said that it would be completely safe during the Tet holiday and that this was the best time to visit. Needless to say, my friends' mothers spent their time hiding behind mattresses in hotel rooms, saying less-than-polite things about the Wise.
Now, people may say that they are disadvantaged compared to me because I had a cushy childhood but they are missing the point to this tale. In spite of having material things, my parents still taught me the values of thrift and investing. Not all my peers can say the same thing. My question to the questioners would be, what are you teaching your kids about investing?
With Foolish Intentions,
Mark