Hey little guy,
Today is the 22nd of July, so it is just about 91 days until you are due. Keep up the growing! Your mom is saying that if you keep it up at this rate, you may be about 10 pounds when you are born. Whether you are 10 or 6 we will still love you anyway.
Since it is the 22nd and we get paid at the University around the 7th and 22nd every month I thought I would talk to you today about money.
Money is a tool, though there are a lot of people who disagree about that. It is a way to get you the things you want and need, It is a way to show the value you place in the service they provide. (Tips, raises, etc.) There are also those who say it is the root of all evil. ( I disagree, but sometimes it is a challenge to be overcome) Here is the deal, If you want something in life you have to be willing to work for it. There are some tools that can help you get it, but you have to remember that they are tools, nothing more.
Credit cards are a great way to give yourself a "Loan" for something you need to pay for now, but will be paying back and more that it would cost. They are not a permanent solution, but they can give you a little joy when you are able to buy things now, as long as you are willing to pay more in the long term it is a trade off. This morning, when I looked at one of my cards for example I had a little more as a balance than I had planned on paying. Knowing that, I paid the whole thing off. (Sometimes credit cards give you joy in getting what you need to on them, and more joy in paying it off!) If you can, save your money. I have a little bank account that I stash $50 a paycheck away. I do not see it, I do not use it but very occasionally but it allows me to have some money when we need it for vacations, or other trips. The cool part is that the $50 builds up. Yes it is only $50 now, but by next pay check it is 100, in 6 months it is 600, by the end of the year if I do not use it it is 1200 (Plus the interest they pay me for keeping it there)
This is a new thing to me. When I was growing up, I had allowance. My dad gave us $5 every 2 weeks until we got our first jobs. I always went out and spent it as soon as I had it. most often on toys or something. Every 2 weeks for awhile, your Uncle Corey and I would go to Toys R Us and buy Star Trek figurines (About $5 each) the thing was this. Every week I bought them sometimes ones that I liked but was not totally in love with, and every week I eyed the bigger much more expensive things that I wanted more but did save up for. The thing was, that if I had saved a few months of it, I could have had the bigger cooler toy I had eyed. You have to be willing to delay the satisfaction of getting something cool now, for something cooler and nicer later sometimes.
One last note on money. When I was in Kindergarten my mom worked on the movie Promised Land. We all were extras in parts of it, but I remember my part pretty well. There is a scene where they are in a toy store and there is a kid and his mom who walk down the aisle looking at toys. I was that little kid. They set me up with the fake mom and we walked up and down that aisle over and over again while they got the action in the scene they were really filming. At first I was excited to be doing it, then after what seemed to me hundreds of takes, I was ready to quit. I talked to my mom about it and she told me that I could quit, but if I did, I was not going to get paid. I did not end up quitting, and at the end of the day I got a little toy bow and arrow that I had wanted. At the end of the day, what mattered was I was willing to put the work in to get what I had wanted. I could have quit and not gotten the toy. (Truth is, now I have no idea what ever happened to it) But I knew that if I walked away I was not getting the thing I wanted, in fact I was not getting paid at all, and since I had put the time into it, I may as well get paid for the whole thing.
I never want you to worry about money, but to do that you need to see it as a tool to get what you want. You can spend it all when you get it but at some point you have to ask, is it worth a little satisfaction now (The candy bar, the Fast food dinner,) when if you save it you can use it for something better down the road. I would rather save 5 dollars now, so I can spend it at Disneyland than to spend it on a coke and a candy bar now and not be able to go to Disneyland, or on a sword trip because I didn't save at all. It is really your choice, but never think that money can only be the root of all evil. as I read in a quote once (Paraphrased). No is the second most powerful word in the English language, because when you say no to one thing you are saying yes to something else. You have to ask yourself what it is that you want, then smilingly and unapologetically say no to everything else. As Voltaire said "The best is the enemy of the good."
-Dad
