“Jack-San, if you want Yoji’s advice about the babes, you come to Yoji with respect!†– Mr. Baseball
The last thing Pa Wilder told me was, “Son, it makes sense to spend money on good stereo equipment.â€Â That was sound advice.
One thing we often do as a family is go out for dinner at an Italian place on Friday nights. When we went out, it was a no-cellphone zone. Everyone had to leave ‘em at home in a pile by the door. We also didn’t apologize – we figure that everything was left in the pasta.
The other dinner rule was that only one subject was off-limits: computers. It is a subject that The Boy, Pugsley, and I could talk about for hours, but one The Mrs. has no real interest in – as long as her electronics work, there really isn’t a need for them to be discussed. We couldn’t even talk about spiders, since they’re web designers.
But one night, The Boy was going on and on about Bitcoin. He was in fifth grade. Bitcoin this. Bitcoin that. An endless stream of information about Bitcoin.
I finally looked him in the eye and said, “How many Bitcoin do you have.â€
“Seven.â€
“How did you get seven Bitcoin? Did you mine them?â€
“No, mining them is too hard for my computer. I mine Litecoin and then when the price of Litecoin is high and the price of Bitcoin is low, I trade for Bitcoin.â€
You can’t eat Monopoly®, either. Tastes too gamey.
At that point, Bitcoin was worth about $500. So, I was presented with my fifth grader having set up a cryptocurrency trading scheme that had netted him about $3,500. He even started up his own server to discuss cryptocurrency trading.
Some kids mow lawns.
The price of Bitcoin dropped pretty low. He traded Bitcoins for, of all things, web hosting. All I know is that his stash of coins disappeared, otherwise he would be sitting on enough money to buy a house today.
The Boy even gave me half a Bitcoin for father’s day one year.
I gave it back to him when he wanted to buy something. Silly me, giving back a $25,000 (today’s prices) father’s day gift.
The advice I gave him when he had seven Bitcoins? Save them.
Oh well. If I didn’t follow my own advice, why should he?
We have a restaurant that serves breakfast at any time. I chose medieval France.
But each of us has been given good and bad advice throughout our lives, and we took it or we didn’t. When it comes to money and work, there is a world of free advice out there. Here is some bad advice I’ve gotten over the years:
- (From Pa Wilder, before my first marriage): “Well, they say that two can live as cheaply as one.â€Â Well, the divorce cost me the price of a Lamborghini®, so, that’s not really true. Still, I’m happier to have the divorce than to have owned a Lamboâ„¢.
- “Gold, why would you buy gold? It’s fallen in price to $300 an ounce!â€Â I would have ignored this, but I didn’t have $300. Because of the divorce.
- “Buy new cars. That way you’re not buying someone else’s problem.â€Â Again, this was Pa Wilder’s advice, which might have made sense in 1960, but not in 1999.
- “A car is one of the biggest investments you’ll make.†A car salesman.
- “Don’t move from company to company.†Again, this was Pa Wilder. Every single time I got a great raise, it was from moving from to a company that valued me more.
If you ever think you’re a failure, remember this: you’re closer to being worth $900,000,000 than Jeff Bezos is.
I’ve had some good advice, too:
- “Buy more ammo.†The Mrs., 2018.
- “Really, you need to buy more ammo.†The Mrs., 2019.
- “Buy land. If it blows up, you still own a hole in the ground.â€
- “Do not forget, stay out of debt.†– Hamlet as seen on Gilligan’s Island
- “Modern used cars are generally a good deal.â€
- “Don’t make fun of bald men. If you do that you’ll go bald.â€Â Too late.
Part of the problem in life is that good advice sometimes sounds exactly like bad advice, and vice versa. Also, Pa Wilder’s advice was good based upon what he knew, and the life he had led up to that point. Job hopping, in his world, was the sign of an unreliable employee. In my career, moving from job to job was what people did.
Alas, my kids were gnome schooled.
When given at the wrong time, good advice can be bad advice, which sounds suspiciously like luck. Is it all luck?
Certainly not.
Does luck matter?
Certainly it does.
I’ll turn it over to you:
- What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?
- What’s the worst advice you’ve taken?
- What bullets did you dodge?
- What advice would you give a 20-year-old?
And I’ll take my own advice next time, and keep any $25,000 gifts that any of my kids give me.