Put Time on Your Side

Goal setting has always been an important part of how I address future planning challenges. Some have said I have a 1-2-3 answer for just about anything. Without goals, I think people go through life just reacting to whatever happens to them and around them. I describe a lack of goal setting as just responding to the next phone call, email or text message. During eighth grade, I became interested in investing and this lead me to explore banking. Bankers in my small town were respected for their community involvement, leadership positions in the city, involvement in school board activities and their understanding of financial matters. These translated into helping people meet their business and personal financial goals. My grandfather had been instrumental in the founding of a bank in Lamar, MO. He personally helped the Lamar bank survive the depression. He was not a banker: he was a farmer who had come to the USA from Switzerland as a young man at the age of 14 with his parents and started farming in Barton County, MO. He was my hero for all he accomplished by his hard work and dedication to his family. His was a frugal lifestyle. His family of seven was self-sufficient with gardens, orchards, livestock, chickens and crops raised on the farm with their own labor. He believed strongly in hard work and saving. Out of every dollar earned, he always saved something. This was the savings philosophy he passed along to me. It is what made him a successful farmer, business man and respected by others within the community. I have tried to follow this philosophy throughout my life and I hope I have passed it along to my children. My grandfather passed away when I was in the sixth grade and it was one of the saddest days of my life.