...but after joining the Air Force, I had lots of free time and got interested in the arts. I encountered the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and after getting out of Vietnam went back to school to get a second degree in architecture. I quickly grew bored with that and opted for a more hands-on approach. I went to work for a general contractor and worked my up through the trades until I knew enough to start building my own house, alone, and by hand. It boggles my mind to remember how much labor I expended in the process. Ha ha. I had fun, but it was definitely labor-intensive. To lay a 13 meter high stone fireplace/chimney I had to build the wood scaffolding, mix everything on the ground by hand, and carry all that rock and mortar up through the scaffolding. What a trip!
Later, I went to work framing houses with a friend, and a year later started a small construction company building spec homes. After eight months my friend couldn't stand the pressure of borrowing money (too risky), so he quit and I continued alone. I had no idea what I was doing, financially, because I had no background or education in business. Carol finally got frustrated, went back to school to get an MBA, came home, and told me that I didn't know what I was doing. Ha ha. She was right! I was like an artist, first creating works of art (homes), and then trying to sell them. I was too impatient and uninterested to do any estimating, and I knew nothing about marketing. Carol dragged me kicking and screaming into the business world, and we eventually got computerized and started using an estimating system that she formulated.
We built and sold houses for several years, but I frequently got bored (because I was building formulaic homes rather than the kind of designs I enjoyed), and would experiment with other businesses. I set up an antique business, an educational video business, a landscaping/nursery business, and a rental business (office park with small rental units). Each time I got a creative burst of energy, but eventually realized that each business would require lots more money and time than I was willing to invest to make it successful. Each time I eventually saw the logic of returning to my core competency (home construction).
I continued to muddle along, financially, until twelve years ago, when my daughter, who was then getting a business degree in college, called me up and asked me why I had taken out a loan to buy a new car when I had enough cash to pay for it. After I explained my logic, she assured me that I did not understand the issue correctly. I brushed her off, but a week later she called again with the calculations that backed up her advice. What she told me was so counter-intuitive that I could not accept it. I drove around for about a week thinking about what she had told me and then, suddenly, a light bulb went off in my brain, and I grasped her message.
Carol and I subsequently changed our lifestyle completely, and began working like mad to get out of debt. It was a very funny trip.
Today, I look around and see opportunities everywhere, but they are all dependent upon my core areas of competency as well as a special way of looking at everything. Simply put, I look at the world like an investor rather than a consumer.
At one time in the past, I thought retirement might by nice, but now the idea strikes me as silly. I enjoy almost everything I do, so why would I want to quit? I enjoy installing hardwood flooring, pouring concrete, and doing other kinds of hands-on work, designing and building interesting homes, building commercial buildings, reading about the stock market, business, economics, finance, and politics (among other things), looking for and buying undervalued assets, writing, and thinking about hundreds of fascinating topics. Practically everything I do is a form of play rather than work, so there's no point in stopping. I suspect that I'll be playing like this until the day this body dies.
The reason that I hope to write a book about personal finance is that it would be a fun way to help other peeps think about money and finance differently and to pay my daughter's wake-up call forward. Peeps who have no interest in spiritual enlightenment might find financial enlightenment the next best thing. Ha ha.
Later, I went to work framing houses with a friend, and a year later started a small construction company building spec homes. After eight months my friend couldn't stand the pressure of borrowing money (too risky), so he quit and I continued alone. I had no idea what I was doing, financially, because I had no background or education in business. Carol finally got frustrated, went back to school to get an MBA, came home, and told me that I didn't know what I was doing. Ha ha. She was right! I was like an artist, first creating works of art (homes), and then trying to sell them. I was too impatient and uninterested to do any estimating, and I knew nothing about marketing. Carol dragged me kicking and screaming into the business world, and we eventually got computerized and started using an estimating system that she formulated.
We built and sold houses for several years, but I frequently got bored (because I was building formulaic homes rather than the kind of designs I enjoyed), and would experiment with other businesses. I set up an antique business, an educational video business, a landscaping/nursery business, and a rental business (office park with small rental units). Each time I got a creative burst of energy, but eventually realized that each business would require lots more money and time than I was willing to invest to make it successful. Each time I eventually saw the logic of returning to my core competency (home construction).
I continued to muddle along, financially, until twelve years ago, when my daughter, who was then getting a business degree in college, called me up and asked me why I had taken out a loan to buy a new car when I had enough cash to pay for it. After I explained my logic, she assured me that I did not understand the issue correctly. I brushed her off, but a week later she called again with the calculations that backed up her advice. What she told me was so counter-intuitive that I could not accept it. I drove around for about a week thinking about what she had told me and then, suddenly, a light bulb went off in my brain, and I grasped her message.
Carol and I subsequently changed our lifestyle completely, and began working like mad to get out of debt. It was a very funny trip.
Today, I look around and see opportunities everywhere, but they are all dependent upon my core areas of competency as well as a special way of looking at everything. Simply put, I look at the world like an investor rather than a consumer.
At one time in the past, I thought retirement might by nice, but now the idea strikes me as silly. I enjoy almost everything I do, so why would I want to quit? I enjoy installing hardwood flooring, pouring concrete, and doing other kinds of hands-on work, designing and building interesting homes, building commercial buildings, reading about the stock market, business, economics, finance, and politics (among other things), looking for and buying undervalued assets, writing, and thinking about hundreds of fascinating topics. Practically everything I do is a form of play rather than work, so there's no point in stopping. I suspect that I'll be playing like this until the day this body dies.
The reason that I hope to write a book about personal finance is that it would be a fun way to help other peeps think about money and finance differently and to pay my daughter's wake-up call forward. Peeps who have no interest in spiritual enlightenment might find financial enlightenment the next best thing. Ha ha.
