Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

Financial Advisor

Sometimes children have the strangest perspective on things. The way that they go about formulating ideas regarding certain subjects has always fascinated me. I often find myself asking Ty questions along the lines of: how in the world did you come to that conclusion? Where did you get that idea from? What made you think that? His answer is always a short and simple one: “Because I just know”. He thinks he knows everything (kinda reminds me of myself in that regard), but the topics that he swears to be a subject matter expert on are so off base that you can’t help but laugh.

Ty’s main area of expertise is MONEY. Throughout our many talks and discussions I have learned that when it comes to money, Ty’s knowledge is very vast. He is a financial advisor, an investor, apparently on his way to becoming the first child thousandaire. We were at the grocery store one day and Ty asked me to buy him one of those stupid crappy grocery store toys. You know, the ones that break soon after you get them home. I kindly expressed to him that I didn’t have any money, so we’d have to get something another time. Ty says, “You don’t have any money, are you sure” so I showed him my wallet and said “yup I’m sure look, no bills”. I rarely ever keep cash on me so I figured this was a sure fire way to get me off the hook. I was wrong, he quickly shot back with, “well what about the card, can’t you just use the card?” Now I’m sitting there thinking to myself, who is teaching this kid these things? What does he know about “The Card” anyways? I explain that the card only has enough money to get the groceries that Mommy needed, and then it would be empty

After this, Ty goes into mentor mode and proceeds to tell me tidbits that are sure to improve my standard of living and in turn his own. To quote him exactly, he says, “Well that’s too bad, cause you should always have money. You always go to work so you should always have money right?” Wow, look at that sound financial advice, you couldn’t pay for better information than that. Who would have thought, if you go to work, then you should always have money. That’s a great idea; maybe I should try to capitalize off of it.

He then comes up with another idea; he was determined to get this toy. He says, “Well what about the bank?” I’m thinking to myself, where can this be going? So I respond back: “what about the bank Ty?” He tells me that I should have some money in the bank, so we should be able to go there and get some for his toy. This kid is really persistent isn’t he? I told him that there was no money in the bank because I spent it all. His next statement made me smile inside, he had stepped into the roll of investor and I hadn’t even known. Ty proceeds to inform me that I should really really really put some money in the bank. Because the bank has all the money and if I put some money in there then it gets mixed with the other money in the bank; so that means I get to have all of the banks money. I asked him how much money I should put in the bank and he told me just a little bit is all you need to get started (sounds like you’re local Wachovia rep doesn’t he) because the bank has the rest.

Effectively, Ty taught me a simple way of working to get just a little bit of money and then letting that money work for me. If I followed his simple instructions I would have all the banks money in no time and he’d be one step closer to having all of the grocery stores toys. When I think about this story I look back on my childhood. I don’t even think I knew what money or cards were back then. When we went to the grocery store all I ever wanted was a quarter to get a silly bouncing ball. My sights were set so low in comparison to Ty & I guess that’s part of the reason that I don’t already have all the banks money. I admire Ty’s ambition and hope he continues to dream big!

Don’t forget another Tre’s Thursday Toy Review is up today. Go check it out.