This is my son. As a two-year-old, I am a big part of his life. Whatever I do, he wants to emulate. When I vacuum the floor, he wants to try his hand on it. When I sweep the leaves in the backyard, he wants to help out.
When I read, he wants to emulate me in flipping the pages and all the little actions I do on my desk. When I work out doing the bench press, he watches on eagerly. If he could, he will do it too. Obviously, as depicted here, he has figured out his arms aren’t long enough.
To him, I am larger than life. I am his HERO (yes, in CAPITAL letters). I am his father figure, literally speaking. Of course, he is a big part of my life as well.
My point is this. The older he grows, the more he will realize that his father is just like so many other fathers, so many other human beings in the world – human beings with flaws as well as some admirable qualities (or so I hope).
The older he becomes, he more he will realize that he is his own person – a person with his own set of values, ideals, philosophies and goals in life that are different and ‘different’ from his dad’s.
In this world many claim is a greatly unfair one (and I do readily agree with them), almost everyone is given a fair opportunity. A fair opportunity in influencing his or her children in ways that are positive and beneficial to the kids themselves, their parents and the family as a whole and the society until such time they are ready to step out of our shadows. This window of opportunity is very narrow and will close very quickly. In short, the time frame is not very long.
Any parents who do not make the fullest use of it will have to live with its consequences – both the not-so-good and the not-so-bad ones. Yet, as they grow older, they still will be a big part of our our lives.
In fact, they will be an even bigger part of our financial lives. Which part? The expenditure part!
But for them, just as they are getting ready for the real world, with the whole world ahead of them, we will be the smallest part in almost all aspects of their lives – be it social, academic, sports, professional or whatever adjectives given to it.
The implication of all this to me is that I have to spend more time with my son and at the same time work towards financial freedom in a systematic way with the help of compound interests and frugal living. In my mind, the fastest and most practically viable way to financial freedom is not to work endless hours or build mega-businesses (because I am not that young anymore) but to live a simple but no less fulfilling lifestyle so that money saved is money earned.
Money earned will then be invested in either income-generating assets or capital growing assets or better still, a combination of both. And let the compounding interest and the DRPs (dividend reinvestment plans) work its ‘magic’ so that one and a half decades later, there will be enough money for us to retire and focus more time and energy on things we love doing.
Time changes everything. Kids will grow and mature. So must parents.
Or else our kids will be saying the ones who are childish are us – just like how we are thinking of them right now.
Written by Ken the “Good Meh???” guy
