An anonymous reader e-mailed a story about the financial education he received from his father.
Something my dad did for me when I was a kid — after I got my first job (delivering papers) at the end of the year, he gave me a gift. He wrote a check for my annual salary ($650) and told me to pick a brokerage firm and open an IRA. I didn’t have any idea what an IRA was, or why I needed to care about retirement — I was still a kid — I was still immortal. But I did what he said. (Why pass up “free money”?) The next year, he did the same. As a result, I learned a little about stocks and mutual funds, the power of compounding, and about how starting early was a good thing.
I also learned a lot about my dad. He was born to a poor family in a small town, and was a little kid when the Depression hit. He attended a one-room schoolhouse from first grade to tenth, and had no illusions of going to college. He enlisted in the army and served in the Pacific during the occupation of Japan. He came home and used the GI bill to become the first in his family to get a college degree. He bootstrapped his way to owning his own home, and raising a family who knew the value of a dollar, and how to save. Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps not, my brother and I are the only ones of our generation of our extended family to get a college education. He also taught me that if you and your wife both work, try to live on one income, save and invest the rest.
His simple act of helping me start funding my retirement at age fourteen was an eye-opener for me. I’ve been investing ever since. I’m now 45 and have managed to accumulate over $1.5 million. With luck, I may retire in a few years. Thanks Dad!
Awesome. It’s been a long time since I shared a success story from a reader. I should do it more often. I think they’re great. If you have a story about money, drop me a line at 
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That’s cool stuff. I like hearing positive stories like this one. While my Dad never cut me a check, we did watch CNBC together during lunches and chatted about what everything meant. Definitely a big influence on me.
Sounds like this guy’s really got an edge on life. Thanks for sharing!
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Great story about savings and investing your way to financial freedom! I wish there are more of these for people to read so they know the importance of saving and the power of compound interest.
My Own Millions Blog
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Great Post. This is something I can pass to my daughter. She is 10 years old.
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Good story. Whenever I hear a story like this, I immediately think, “why didn’t I do that??” Granted, I’m still in my 20s, but I wasted a lot of investment years – years of compound interest that will never return.
The moral? Start young!
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Kev, it’s never too late to start. If you start now in your 20′s, you’ll be ahead of 90% of the population.
J.D, Great story btw, definitely post more stories like that.
FT
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I love these personal stories. Thanks for reposting that.
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If you’re 15, this is great. If you’re 30, you realize you’re still screwed.
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> if you and your wife both work, try to live on one income, save and invest the rest
what a great suggestion.
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great story
my pops was an accountant and ironically he never taught me about money matters.. i kinda had to learn on my own
he died at an early age of 51.. i was only 18 when he passed.. one thing i do remember him telling me was that if anything were to ever happen to him.. that the family would be taken care of.. so far that has held true.. i want to do the same for my kids
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That is really cool! I want to teach my children at a young age about finances and the importance of saving too. (Can I hand over $650/year? Probably not yet… But that is a great lesson to teach, and a great “heritage” to pass on. Perhaps I can do something similar.)
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Some day, when I have children, I will do the same. What I really want to do is buy a rental property for each child as they are born, so that when they go to college, they’ll have a ready source of funds for their tuition. BUt in addition to that, for their whole life, they will be real estate owners, and be constantly empowered to make decisions about their “assets.”
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I read about another interesting option. Open a low-cost variable annuity after your kid is born and put it in a trust where it’s only available upon retirement age (59.5). Even a small sum of money will grow to something gigantic after ~60 years.
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That’s just awesome. Way to go, Dad.
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Great story – I’m sucker for the simple father-son stories.
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I did a similar thing for my son. Last summer was his first job (lifeguard at age 16). He made $1,666. I did a simple spreadsheet and showed him how it would grow to $106,286 by the time he was 70. Not bad for sitting around the pool for a couple months. I convinced him to put it all in a Roth IRA.
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This is such a touching story..
It tells multitudes about the kind of man and father he is.
Thank you for sharing this story with us.
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thats an eye opener and i had a yearn to learn about the investment options after the first job, though don’t know much. again, ironically, being a bank officer my father couldn’t teach me anything significant in this regard except other life-lessons.but thats coz he didn’t get enough time before leaving for GOD’s place. but i now after facing much financial constraints while studying, i got my first job and am keenly interested in investments to secure my geraitric period as my MOMs situation is a great lesson to emphasisise upon the need of it.
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Great story,
1.5 million and may retire in a few years with luck?
Euhm, you are way past safe to retire any time you wish. Just think about it, would you be able to blow 100 000$ per year for fifteen year ? I bet my money that with your family culture, your education and your lifestyle, you couldn’t bare doing that! 50 000? Maybe, but I still would bet that you wouldn’t be able!
Enjoy life and have a great day.
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Nice success story.
Thanks for sharing with us
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$1.5 million? That’s not enough to retire on. What’s really sad is that he seems to thing that’s a lot, as shown from his choice of words. “Accumulate.” “Managed to.” “OVER $1.5 million.” That’s no higher than middle class.
What a sad act.
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At his age with $1.5 million is WAY ahead of most at that point. Just what do the others expect to do in this investment climate? Anybody notice the lack of returns lately? Talk about a correction. What’s to come of the American Dream???
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It can be so easy to miss those teaching opportunities because you’re so busy. But they are so important. I always try to involve my 5 year old in what I’m doing and WHY I’m doing it.
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His $1.5 mill is probably less than $1 mill after this ‘correction’.
I had to laugh at the previous comment to retire and spend $100k a year. He’s 45 years old, at $100k a year, he’d be broke by 60.
The cost of private health insurance at his age is $350 a month and escalates as he ages. If he has a family, he could spend upwards of $1000 a month on just health insurance (with a high deductible).
My suggestion is to buy an income producing property which will generate a 10% cash on cash return. Higher than money markets and CDs these days. Plus you lower your tax bracket with the depreciation write off.
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Guys, you are missing the point and speculating how much he spends and how much he needs to move forward. None of that matters. If you should question his situation, it is first that you question your own, and post an article about what you have, and how much you spend, and how far your money will last.
This will make a comparison more apt.
Remember, we do not know his profile, his risk taking ability, where he has invested it, what his needs are, and what his debt structures are like. And, what difference does it make. Have we taught this to our kids, done for our kids (if we have them old enough) and learned from his Dad?
Lets leave the kid alone and take what we can from his story, and replicate 10x in our lives!!!!!
KKP
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I really liked this story too!!! I was never taught how to invest unfortunately… but at least how to budget; when my brother and I was abt 10-11 we were given a sum that should last a week and shown how to keep track of expences… I really liked the freedom and clarity of it … and it has stayed with me. So, even though I never made it into investing (trying to learn now!)and never had much money I have been able to live a rich life never going into cubicle life and staying out of debt (minus mortage and study loan)have been travelling a lot over the years, all due to this little experience. lesson learned: never spend what you do not have, look at the cost of everything and ponder: do i REALLY need this???
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1.5 Million could be very safe if withdrawn with a good plan. The “accepted” safe withdrawal rate is 4% but 3.5% would give him $52,500 per year, and, according to most monte carlo simulators, this nest egg would continue to grow nicely. $52,500 REALLY is quite a good living depending on where you live. I live a healthy lifestyle on $50k with my family of 3, inluding 2 vacations per year (5-6k total). I do live in rural Maine and we simply resist “keeping up with the Jones’”.
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