My Family's Financial History Part 1

As I’ve been working on my paperwork for the Budget Teacher, I can’t help but reflect on my lifelong financial history which has had such a substantial impact on where we stand with our finances today.  For starters, my parents instilled in me from a very early age to avoid debt at all costs. This is a value that had been instilled in them by their own parents as well. My maternal grandfather was an incredibly hard-working self-employed antique car upholster.  His work was renowned, something my family continues to be proud of to this day even 17 years after he passed away. If you do a Google Image Search for “Paul Matz antique cars,” you will see several photos of antique cars with his name cited for his pristine reupholstery work.  My grandfather truly earned every last penny he made with each precise stitch and tuft. With my grandma as a homemaker and my grandfather tirelessly running his own business, my mother’s family certainly was never rich, but they also never found themselves struggling financially either.  All in all, they were very smart with their money.

My dad’s family’s story is quite different.  Similarly, though, my paternal grandfather was a self-employed crop duster.  With the wealth he saved from crop dusting, he purchased his own trailer court and ran the business himself.  Unlike my mom’s father, my dad’s father was extremely wealthy. It was well-known to our family that he was a millionaire, but outsiders would have never known it because he was such a penny pincher.  My dad grew up in a small run-down home. Right next to that same crumbling dilapidated home, my grandfather and grandmother lived in a double-wide trailer until the time each of them passed away. My grandfather died in 1997, but my grandmother didn’t pass away until 2009.  Sometime within those 12 years, my grandmother managed to spend nearly all of my grandfather’s acquired wealth. I certainly don’t blame her, though. My grandfather could not have been an easy person to live with for all those years. I can’t imagine what it was like to live so stingy for so long knowing they were more than capable of having more.  

After my grandfather passed away, my grandma almost immediately purchased a brand new car.  Nothing too fancy- just a Pontiac Grand Am. However, I don’t know if my grandma ever had the privilege of owning a new car up until that point.  She chose to remain living in the same double-wide trailer she had shared with my grandfather for so many years. It was the place she knew as “home.”  However, I know she spent a good chunk of change remodeling that double-wide from top to bottom. I also remember she carried an obscenely high insurance policy in the event anything would ever happen to her precious double-wide.  Another way in which my grandma enjoyed her new-found wealth is that she took the whole family...and even extended family and friends...out to eat very often. We could order whatever we wanted! I recall many trips to Red Lobster in which the table was filled with several Ultimate Feasts, and my teenage-self got to indulge in both a non-alcoholic pina colada AND key lime pie for dessert.  That was sure the life!

It wasn’t just my grandma’s spending that dwindled away my grandfather’s life savings.  Unfortunately she also had a gambling addiction. I don’t even want to think about how much of her money went to Harrah’s Casino or trips to Vegas.  As I shared earlier, I actually am grateful that she had the opportunity to spend money more freely after Grandpa passed away. However when Grandma suffered a stroke in 2004, the family quickly realized there wasn’t much money left to even cover her need for long-term healthcare.  For five years, my grandma spent time in and out of substandard care facilities, until my dad took on Grandma’s care full time for the last few years of her life. Although they made the best of it and seemed to genuinely enjoy their time spent together, that circumstance taught me that I absolutely never want to burden my own children with my care.  

Funny how different the financial circumstances were between my two sets of grandparents:  Both grandfathers were very hard working entrepreneurs, but my dad’s father had far more wealth than my mom’s father.  However, my mom’s family lived far more comfortably with their nice houses, nice cars and nice clothes. Yet, they always made smart financial decisions and never lived outside their means.  My dad’s family, on the other hand, lived very far below their means for a large portion of their lives.  

A very critical difference between the two sets of grandparents that had a HUGE impact on their last few years of both grandmother’s lives: My mom’s parents took out a long-term healthcare policy early on in the 1990’s.  My maternal grandfather never had a need for the policy since he passed away from glioblastoma, a very aggressive cancerous brain tumor. My maternal grandmother, however, most definitely used the policy. For nearly the last 3 years of her life, my grandma resided in a comfortable assisted living facility in Wichita, KS.  She had her own apartment with a kitchen, living room and separate bedroom and bathroom. It was furnished and decorated with all of her personal belongings. It wasn’t the most top-of-the-line assisted living facility and my grandma still had plenty of complaints, but all in all it was still quite nice. The best part of all: it was FULLY covered by her long-term care policy!

Most uninsured elderly adults who end up needing long-term care burn through their life savings pretty quickly, as was the case with my maternal grandmother.  (Although she had already burned through much of her money before she was in need of long-term care.) Long-term care policies were unbelievably affordable when my maternal grandparents took out their policy in the 

1990’s.  Unfortunately these days, though, long-term care policies are incredibly expensive and they usually only cover 3 years of care unlike the lifetime policies that were offered over 20 years ago.  However, I still think it’s incredibly important for older adults to purchase a long-term care policy. My maternal grandmother never had to dip into any of her personal money to cover her long-term care.  Therefore, that allowed both my mom to receive an inheritance. Shortly after my mom got her inheritance, she took out a long-term care policy for herself. That was by far the best gift she could have given to both my brother and me.

When I first started typing my story, I didn’t originally have the intention of preaching the importance of carrying a long-term healthcare policy.  However, it truly is oh so very important, and something all of us millennials should be encouraging our baby boomer parents to do. There is SO much more to my family’s financial story that I would like to share when I have the time.  But for now, I will you at this. To be continued...