Today in the news I read that gold prices have declined for the first time since January. Which naturally, made me think of my childhood. And subsequently, I felt compelled to share with you yet more details of my life that you never knew you wanted to know in the first place.
Why did the prices of gold prompt what I thought was a repressed memory?? Because my childhood was full of Gold.
Gold teeth.
I come from a place where instead of investing in a 401k, you invest in yourself. Specifically, in your mouth. It's almost the safest place on your body. Practically no one is going to get all up in your grill. Except maybe your dentist.
I have a lot of stories from my childhood. I have a lot of stories period. My life is awkward. And I've decided to embrace it. Not only that, I've gone so far as to start over-sharing personal stories of my life. (The main reason I started this blog.)
To make sense of the weird...I've always written. Things have always been weird, so I've had more than enough material to work with. I've just never shared my "writings." Until now.
My childhood was full of inconsistency and most of what happened is completely unbelievable. I wasn't raised by wolves...but worse...Myself. My mom worked so much that my brothers and I just decided to wing it, raise ourselves, and see how we turned out.
Flash forward a couple of decades and my two brothers are successful and work with inanimate objects (airplanes). I've had a great sales career and am now in grad school to be a Therapist. We turned out alright. One of the three has been through extensive therapy. You can pick which one that was.
Ok, back to the teeth.
My mom isn't going to be a huge fan of this. However, I'm sure I'll be lucky enough to have an adult daughter that will one day blog about her weird childhood.
Ok seriously, I need to get to the teeth.
So this morning as I'm reading about declining gold prices I'm reminded of the sound financial advice that I obtained from my parental units as a child.
As far as my parents financial planning strategies go, I'm not sure there was any sort of official strategy. This is due to the fact that you'd have to have some actual money to strategize about. Which, we did not.
Full Disclosure: I wore underwear from garage sales. I'm not even mad about it. In fact, it's kind of funny? (Not funny at the time though.)
Could my childhood situation have been worse?? DEFINITELY. It could of been much worse. Could it have been weirder?? Probably not.
Anyway, I'm trying to set the scene in regards to our level of un-wealth and therefore subsequent financial planning processes. Or rather, lack thereof.
So as I'm reading about gold today I remember a tidbit of actual advice my Dad gave me one day.
In summary what he told me was: One day, when I get older I need to put my money in a safe place. The safest place he knew of was in your mouth. He then goes and shows me his gold teeth. He said they were worth a lot of money. Additionally, it was in his viewpoint that your mouth is a really hard place for someone to steal from. Although, he's had friends that have had theirs stolen. (Yes, their teeth.)
So, I filed that under "Financial Planning" and went to college. I decided I should get a degree in business.
Color me surprised when I learned in a Finance class that most people invest in these things called "stocks and bonds" and have "'401k's" and "IRA's" instead of a bunch of gold teeth.
I learned a lot.
Due to a phone call from my parents one day while in said college...I also learned that if you swallowed your investment accidentally it's hard to re-coup the profits. You'll have to wait for a while, and it isn't pretty. But it can be done.
In summary, I received some great financial advice from my parents: Put your money where you mouth is. However, this is not the same advice I received from my Finance professor in college. It was a toss up, but in my professional career I opted for the 401k route...as gold teeth were never part of the benefit packages.
- I lived through my childhood and received a lot of sound advice.
- Putting your money where you mouth is...Should probably not be taken literally.
- I have a 401k and no gold teeth.
So, I Ask You?
What is the best financial advice your parents have given you?? Do you think gold teeth are good investments?? Are you surprised to find that I'm almost a fully functional adult??
Forever, Blogging About Stories of My Life You Never Knew You Wanted to Know in The First Place,
Miss Oakley
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