I'll never match my grandfather's income. That's fine.
I didn't understand the need to be frugal, when I was young, because of this. But dealing with my own money and my own jobs, gave me hands on experience with the value of being frugal. This went well with their sharing of their own experiences - the value they got out of being frugal.
The lessons sunk in well. It's not just "savings are good" and a list of abstract rationalizations - savings feel good because I absolutely get it why they're good to me even this moment.
Understanding my grandfather's wealth taught me other important things beyond frugality, however:
I was able to learn from my grandfather's success about managing money - the value of compound interest, savings, calm and diverse long term investments. The dangers of panicked short term day trading.
I was able to learn from my extended family's failures with managing money - putting all their eggs in one basket, throwing good money after the bad, the disadvantages of lending to family - really underscoring what these mistakes can inflict on people, losing more money than I'll ever earn.
All the frugality in the world won't secure one's financial future if you can't resist shoving a retirement fund all in on the housing market. Or into a tech bubble. Or any number of baskets you couldn't see were going to come to an end eventually.
I didn't understand the need to be frugal, when I was young, because of this. But dealing with my own money and my own jobs, gave me hands on experience with the value of being frugal. This went well with their sharing of their own experiences - the value they got out of being frugal.
The lessons sunk in well. It's not just "savings are good" and a list of abstract rationalizations - savings feel good because I absolutely get it why they're good to me even this moment.
Understanding my grandfather's wealth taught me other important things beyond frugality, however:
I was able to learn from my grandfather's success about managing money - the value of compound interest, savings, calm and diverse long term investments. The dangers of panicked short term day trading.
I was able to learn from my extended family's failures with managing money - putting all their eggs in one basket, throwing good money after the bad, the disadvantages of lending to family - really underscoring what these mistakes can inflict on people, losing more money than I'll ever earn.
All the frugality in the world won't secure one's financial future if you can't resist shoving a retirement fund all in on the housing market. Or into a tech bubble. Or any number of baskets you couldn't see were going to come to an end eventually.