Having a child means when you take a hit like we did, you just have to keep plugging along. There is no real time to wallow in the mire. My new job, in Prosecution this time, was rewarding but stressful. The wife worked for the same employer, she had just transferred locations. This time around my conversations with HR actually involved me listening and trying to make the best financial decisions when it came to Defined Compensation and Healthcare plan choices.
2008 was also the impetus for me really cracking the books on Personal finance.
After the death of my in-laws, I became the Personal Representative for their Estate. Nobody else was in any shape to take on this duty. It involved a goodly amount of paperwork but I have always been fairly well organized.
They say that the transfer of assets through inheritance from the Baby Boomers to their offspring will be the single greatest transfer of wealth in the history of humankind. It happened in our lives way too early, but it did give us opportunities we would not have otherwise had.
I was able to start accounts and stash away savings before my projected time tables. We were able to buy each of our kids 3 years worth of prepaid college tuition and we get to tell them it’s from Nonnie and Grampa. We also eventually swung the inherited equity in the family cottage into a full blown takeover that preserved the cottage for generations to come.
My wife and my in-laws showed me what family was supposed to be like.My own personal growth is directly attributable to my wife and the way she was raised.
I would trade ‘it all’ in to have more time with them and let them meet our second son.
Our life progressed according to the time honored cycles of child rearing, work drudgery, and slowly preparing for a comfortable retirement. However, thanks to my obsessive nature and the feast or famine reality of legal work, I found a ton of stuff online relating to PF and it lit a fire under my FIRE.
Continue to part 3; Bourgeoisie Creep
Othala Fehu 