Roth IRA

 A Roth IRA may be the best investment vehicle a person can do. 

Here are some of my unpaid for thoughts on it:

1) Grows Tax Free 

2) No taxes on withdrawals at 59.5 yrs

3) You can borrow money from the account for certain things like house downpayment - this means your money isn't necessarily tied up forever

That is all pretty good. The government thinks this is such an incredible vehicle they limit what you can contribute to this.  

My oldest worked as a W2 this year and made almost $2k. I opened a Roth IRA for him. Most open Roth IRA's with their first full time job after college - think 25-30 years old. 

Investing in one 10-15 years earlier can have drastic consequences on the compounding.  

Will he be set for life? No, not by a long shot. 

Will it help? For sure. 

And this feels like a gift that won't be realized until long after I am gone. Something about having something that is going that my kids will benefit from feels good. 

But life is pretty ironic. This account could easily do well and my name never gets mentioned. 

A good day

A good day for me is pretty easy - just seems a little selfish.

The things that you need to keep you balanced are opposite of what you experience the majority of the time. 

If you are away from your family, a good day is to play with your kids. 

If you are a stay at home, a good day is when you have a few hours to yourself. 

It's a dynamic pursuit based on your life as it is at that time. 

Too much chaos and your want a little order. Too much order and you and a little chaos spice's life up nicely. 

At this point in my life - staying at home with three kids at home - having a few hours in the day to read, workout, and put energy to a pursuit like this blog, the podcast, or the newsletter makes the difference. 

I know when I am at a different stage and the kids are grown a good day will be them coming over for a dinner or a phone call. 

It feels like their are people who can be so present that they seemingly enjoy being swamped in whatever their life currently is without the want of the opposite. Color me jealous because I very much need my feet firmly planted in both to log a good day. 

Hardest lesson my Mom taught me

In college I liked to party. As the years rolled on it was harder for me to stay on course. Thankfully I went to a small private school that didn't let me get lost in the sauce. 

By senior year it was touch and go. I was steadily riding my GPA down to the lowest level possible while still being able to graduate and now that I was over 21 partying was easier than ever - the weekday specials at the bars were unmatched! $1 pitchers sign me up. 

One of the bigger mistakes I made was not managing my money all that well. Instead of paying tuition with summer wages I told myself that I would pay near the end of the semester and it would be nice to have some walking around money. That money got drank up. 

I was able to cobble together tuition and roll into the final semester of senior year but my money habits were solidified.  Working wages went to partying first and rent second.

Then one month I was a little short to my roommates. A quick call my parents and they said 'yes' to the $100 requested but don't call asking them again.

I called again next month. 

Dad was on the phone, I needed $200 this time.  He was giving in. He didn't want to tell me 'no' in my time of need. Then he gave the phone to Mom. 

"We don't have it" she said. 

Bullshit. I knew they had it but she said repeated sorry but they don't. 

I hung up the phone outraged. I couldn't believe they said 'no'. 

Now I was panicked. There was only a couple people in my life that had $200 extra dollars and the possibility of saying yes to me asking for it. 

I called Gunnar. I broke down crying asking for the money justifiably feeling like the huge piece of shit I was. 

Gunnar deposited the money the next day and my checked cleared. 

I never made that mistake again. I paid the bills first after that.* 

As a parent I can see how hard this must have been on Mom and Dad. The easier thing would have been to say yes. And they were right in thinking I would come back for more next time - I would have. 

I hope that I am as good of parent in that way if it is ever needed. I can only imagine how hard it was to do the right thing by saying 'No'. 

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*I also had to learn a lesson a few months later about paying car insurance. But hey, that helped me chose the US Army.

Long Tail Relationships

 A great piece of advice I got many years ago was something to the effect of 'find people where you can compound those relationships over the long term'.  

This is a long tail benefit. If you spend your life to find friends, co-workers, a spouse, that you can stay with for 50-60 years - there is a significant advantage to that. 

I will be the first to admit that in trying to find people that I can do business with long term has burned me. I am a trusting guy and making handshake deals has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars. But what I lose out in money I gain in realizing that keeping those people in my life would have cost me more over the long run. 

Life is never that simple. Person 'X' can't help me so I won't even pick up the phone. Rather there are different kinds of relationships. I have buddies that make me laugh and the longer I know them the more I laugh - I want that to compound. 

You hit the jackpot if you find a long term compounding relationship in your wife or husband. Experiencing a 50 year wedding anniversary is a special event only a handful of us get to have. If having a spouse that you love and care about is your only compounding relationship then you already won. 

The only issue with this is you never know which ones make it through the filter until the very end. A business partner can be great for decades and one day it goes sideways. 

But we go on. It is important to respect these compounding relationships more than the others.