Choices and Money

We didn’t have a lot of money when I was little. I mean little like elementary school for me. My dad hated debt and paid off things as fast as he could. We never did vacations. A day at an amusement park, that was a vacation.

YET my sister and I were sent to private Catholic School. If the public schools were bad, it’d be one thing. They weren’t. Those schools have been among the top schools in Indiana most of my life. This was especially hard because Kindergarten was public only (Catholic school didn't have it). So I, an introvert, adjusted to K for one year and then got yanked into a new school of uniforms, nuns, and a lot more strictness...

Religious programming meant that much to him? I guess…but it’s so funny how when my sister had kids, and my dad had more money…he spoiled those boys like crazy. They went on the Disney cruise.

We never went to Disney world…not once. Sure, there are plenty of kids who never get to go. But he moved us in this middle to upper middle class town with great schools…then paid for private school. He didn’t seem to get how it was seeing other kids going on real vacations and we didn’t really do one…

All he had to do was not choose private school, go with the BETTER public school and he’d have had the money for one nice vacation. But knowing him, he’d have put it toward the mortgage. People’s priorities only seem to change when they want them to.

Harshness warning: The man didn’t take care of himself…but saved money like he’d live forever. Maybe now he gets it. You can’t take it with you. You actually have to enjoy life while it happens…I need that reminder sometimes because I wasn’t raised to believe that life was fun. My first fear is financial security and work...

Then...reality time. my Dad paid for my sister and her family (nephews were like 4 1/2 and 3) to go on the Disney cruise. It's amazing how priorities change.