Steve took the kids by his old home growing up on our way home from San Antonio to show them where he started. Although his mom’s side came from an aristocratic family, she sacrificed her life in the PI to marry the love of her life who was enlisted at the time. Steve’s father eventually worked his way up through education and became a Clinical Psychologist, but that wasn’t until Steve was out of the house and well on his way to medical school himself.
My home growing up in the Philippines was certainly nothing to write home about either.
The point is that we’ve come a long way, and it’s taken a lot of work and effort to cycle out of the class we were born into.
Children are taught what their parents know. The transfer of knowledge is limited to what parents are able to teach you based on their understanding of the world and how to navigate it. In the case of middle-class children, relative to work and success, the formula is more or less: do well in school, work hard, prove yourself, get regular raises and promotions, save money in a 401k, and retire. “The answers are in the textbook” – some are, most are not.
If you’re lucky, you can invest and own some assets or capital, but you still won’t control the capital, and you’ll be at the mercy of the general partner or the majority shareholder that does. Make no mistake, to the extent that they can, they will keep you exactly where they need you. A limited partner with limited control. It is rare to find people in business that think of much other than themselves and the people important to them.
It’s not that you’re not smart, but if you don’t know the rules, you can’t play by them. Wealthy families pass on the rules of money. Along with that comes the “hidden curriculum” of etiquette, education, networking to name a few.
It is not the money that wealthy people give their children that has so much value. It’s the understanding of money. How to use it to create more.
The learning curve can be steep if you have to figure it out on your own. We did. But it was very difficult and came with a lot of sacrifices.
Other than their faith and morality, this is one of the most important lessons I can teach my kids.
For example, the knowledge of investments and how to use capital to create more capital. Most importantly, how to control the capital. Then how to protect that capital.
