Advice from My Father

When I was a kid my dad would talk to me about money. It was usually unsolicited advice. You know the kind.

The advice he would give was the same advice his father had given to him when my dad was a kid. It was more of a question.

“When is the best time to plant a tree?” he would ask. I had never planted a tree so I didn’t know. Then he’d answer “Yesterday.” I would think, “Great I’m already behind.” Then he would ask, “When is the second best time to plant a tree?” And he’d answer, “Today.” And I would think, “But I have a baseball game.”

Thinking back on his advice this morning I remember that it definitely made sense about the tree but it definitely was not a motivational speech. Talk about feeling like you’re behind the eight ball. And I didn’t have much money so the tree wasn’t getting planted even after baseball.

Now that I think about it, the whole idea of saving and investing isn’t a whole lot of fun, especially when you’re a kid. I’ve tried to teach my kids about compound interest. We opened bank accounts at Bank Newport. But when the statements come in there’s not much to teach about the importance of interest earning interest.

But the act of saving is an important lesson all by itself. And compound interest—when it actually does its magic—is fun. A whole lot of fun.

Teach someone you love about the importance of beating inertia by saving money—and they’ll never forget you.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.