investing has totally changed how I look at money. I didn't think about it before I started doing it but you can't really out work money. The more money you can get in income the more money you can have your money make for you.
Most people make more money but use that money to fund lifestyle creep. If you took a person that made $50K and the next year they started making $100K they're moving and getting a better car and new furniture. If I was that person I'd keep living how I was living and invest all the excess past what I had with the $50K.
My parents did a lot for me. They drilled into me fiscal responsibility, maintaining good credit, debt avoidance. They did not teach me anything about investing and I kinda resent that. If I would have really known about investing in my late teens or early 20s my life would probably be completely different now. My pops was anti-stock market. He didn't understand it and looked at it as gambling so I adopted his attitude and ignored it until age 35. When it comes to growing my investments I can't get that time back.
My dad always used to encourage me to save my money and not get into much debt. He pushed me to getting a 401k when I was eligible at my job back then. Told me to save my money instead of gambling it away playing poker or at the casino. So I had a 401k and savings which was paying decent interest rate but never got heavy into stock trading like I am now. Never took the big risk with my money and instead of getting like 1.5 or 2% interest in a year, I could've gotten that weekly or better. My dad was big on the 401k thing but never took major risks. He was good with managing money but not really using it to make major growth. My parents just worked hard and paid their house off but I believe if they would've invested more, they would've been able to be better off.
My dad used to wake up at like 2,3, or 4 in the morning to go to work and even tho he made decent money and my mom did too, but doing all that physical labor especially in his late fifties and sixty, didn't seem worth it. But he emphasized the importance of working for a good company with great benefits which he did for like over 30 years. At least he had a 401k and did some investing which I imagine my grandparents didn't really teach him about. Cuz coming with them to this country when he was 10 with my uncle, and my grandparents never speaking any English other than small shyt like "hello how are you?" that my grandmother used to say to my non Spanish speaking friends, I can't imagine they knew anything about investing. So at least my dad was able to have that.
My mom is a completely different story. Her parents were also immigrants and I don't think they taught her about investing either and even today she isn't too much of a fan of it. She doesn't like the risk involved. She has been more interested in how the market is performing lately because now that my dad is gone, his 401k is hers. But she doesn't invest at all. I'm riding in the car with her the other day talking about my dad's 401k and she says she has one but it's just sitting there. She tells me she has like 12k in it. She's in her early 60s. She asks me how much I had in mine and I said 82k and I turn 36 next month. I had way more than her 12k even before this 2020 bullrun happened so not like it was all recently. She was shocked. She lucky her and my dad paid off the house and don't have much debt but who knows what the future may bring and what expenses may come up for her. I was telling her that a lot of people from her generation aren't financially knowledgeable or ready for retirement or bothered much with investing. Things were different back then and those who invested are reaping the rewards now. It's a different era now and we gotta be thankful for the opportunities we have now and pass the knowledge on to future generations. I think back of missed investment opportunities and I'm like for what. Just gotta move on to the next play and hope to make up for it.