Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Thoughts as we get older

When I first met MrsW I borrowed £100 for a set of new wheels. I still owe her £50.

When we moved into this house, her father gifted us a sum towards the increased mortgage. Tiny by todays numbers but hugely important at the time.

When I inherit my mothers house I will gift a similar value at todays values to daughter & SIL. They are doing very well, but it makes no sense for them to be filling the pockets of bankers while we sit with that money in the bank doing nothing.

What I don't want to see is our hard earned assets disappear to pay for carehome fees - into the pockets of somebody else.

Selfish maybe, but we started with nothing.

That certainly would be the case if any terrorist was daft enough to take my 92 year old M-I-L as a hostage. Reverse Stockholm syndrome.

There is no answer to the question you pose. In my business life, every single multi millionaire businessman that I met had started life on the backstreets and none went to university, apart from one who ended his career in Leeds Jail. And I must have met 20 of them.

There is nothing like real hunger and envy to drive you forward but then what father has it in him to deliberately make his kids go short when he can help. In one sense you could say I was unlucky in life. My father was successful, gave me an excellent education and sufficient funds that I never had to borrow a penny. So I have never had a financial worry in life but I know deep down that I havent made the success that I could have done with more drive. I was too comfortable.

My kids are 40. Its too late to make them hungry even if I was willing. So I will leave them as much as I can. After all, the red car in the garage doesnt suggest am completely denying myself even if it is second hand.

howard, those multi millionaire businessmen - are they happy?
(No need to even mention the strange guy at the top of the US...)

Good income is all I wanted and that is what I achieved and I'm happy with.
I'm still with the wife I married some decades ago, I'm proud of a bunch of georgeous kids, have got a happy dog, more than one house, some cars, plenty of time to travel, to go to theaters and restaurants. I'm still healthy and have no loan or debt at the banks. Hard for lots of billionairs to compete with me when it comes to live quality.

Contentment is happiness!

Very good, I agree with most of it. I read it to , not so long ago she'd have been happy to see us penniless whilst giving everything to her sons (my step-sons), thankfully she's realised recently that it doesn't help them, they're not really grateful and it just made them expect it.
I never inherited anything from my parents when they died, but they worked hard all of their lives and dedicated themselves to making sure my sister, brother and I had what we needed (not what we wanted!) and were happy.
I was told at about 11 years old that if I wanted pocket money I'd have to earn it, cleaning the car, doing chores etc. When I was about 13 I started to work in the furniture shop that my Dad managed, on Saturdays and school holidays.
I am eternally grateful to them for instilling the value of money and teaching me that you appreciate things that you work for more than things you are given.
I was delighted to be fortunate enough to be able to buy a house near me for them to live in when they got older, they'd always lived in rented properties. The only way I could get them to agree was to say that I was buying it as an investment and they'd be doing me a favour by taking care of it, they'd never borrowed a penny in their lives and wouldn't accept "charity". Old fashioned values maybe but they felt secure and proud.
We do help out my sons and step-sons when they need it, but we plan to enjoy the time we have left and make the most of what we have.

And for the benefit of other TM'ers may I just add that as well as getting all of the family stuff right, The Austrian is what Australians would call "a good bloke." Actually it's one of our highest awards.

I'll clarify my previous comment in case anyone thinks I'm rather selfish!

I have no children to leave my money to. I have helped out my nephews from time to time and once treated my sister to an MX5 as a surprise birthday present.
And no doubt I will continue to help out in case of real need....but I have no feeling of guilt about spending every penny and leaving nothing when I pop my clogs.

Hmmmm...apart from making sure Wen is well catered for that is!

Way to go Jay

Wow...first world viewpoint or what. no wonder half the world hates us.
Good job Bill Gates hasn't seen that list. Luckily he's too busy trying to rid the world of Malaria or something.
The best people I know think of others' before themselves (and I don't mean spoiling their kids.
Nick

Well, I did a lot against malaria or locust on African agricultural projects in the 80's.
Bill Gates is just redistributing money he collected from customers for overpriced software - governments do the same with taxes. As I pay taxes and had Microsoft products in the past both are just executing things with money they got from me.

Too many out there to save the world. And too many with weird ideas...
In supporting the next generation a lot is done for a good future