At the age of 23, Chuck took a job with a big appliance company. He drove a van all over town and fixed dishwashers and washing machines. It paid just a bit more than minimum wage.
At first, like almost everyone at that age, he spent every penny. Then something convinced him to start saving money. Perhaps it was a story like this: The Ten Percent Rule.
It was not easy. His rent, car payments, food and utilities used up almost everything. But not quite. He reduced how many times he bought take-out food. When he dated, he did not spend lavishly to impress the ladies. He switched from a private club to the free public pickleball courts. He dropped his Netflix membership. Life wasn’t horrible even though his TV was old and only 21 inches. He could manage to put 10% of his paychecks in the bank.
It took quite a long time, but in the end it didn’t seem that long at all when he had $10,000 in a savings account. It seemed like a real victory.
Now came the difficult part. He had to teach himself something about investments. He hated it. It was so boring – at first. Then, something started to click and he found reading up on financial matters with a degree of excitement. He realized that continuing to keep the money in a savings account was stupid.
Real estate was out of his league. He didn’t trust the stock market. He found municipal bonds – perhaps not the best choice for everyone, especially in this day and age, but he started with that. In time he added a retirement fund offered by his company, and a couple of small wildcard investments, just in case they might pay off big-time.
He kept driving around and fixing things. He kept investing 10% of his paychecks. He continued to live in his 500-square-foot studio apartment, and did not replace his 21-inch TV. He didn’t buy a new car until it was easy to pay cash.
Twenty years later, at the age of 43, he retired as a multi-millionaire. Some of his habits remain to this day. He takes a kind of pleasure in remaining frugal, even though he has no need. He buys a new Jaguar every 10 years. Of course he pays cash. He has a manager take care of his seven rental properties. His wife and children enjoy their swimming pool, private pickleball court and the many acres surrounding their home.
Starting from the age of eight, he has been teaching his children about saving 10% of their incomes. They get $10 allowances every week, of which they voluntarily put $1 into investments. His teenage daughter Judy has already already turned her $1/week savings into over $1,500. She has written to Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steven Bartlett, Warren Buffet, Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey among others for financial advice. Some of them have written back.
