HRM Planning Should Be Ashamed

[Keith P.]

The comments about accumulated wealth were timely for me. Today I caught up with an old friend, these days more of an acquaintance since he and his much younger wife moved to the boondocks about a 2 1/2 hour drive away after he retired from his job. They had been living the typical suburban life with a lovely house, multiple vehicles and an active social life. A couple of years later they sold everything and moved to the country to restore an old farmhouse. They put what seemed like a lot of money into it but the last time I was there I remained unimpressed. Not long after that, parents on either side of the marriage died and apparently some serious money came their way.

The particulars of this were never revealed until he mentioned today in an odd, almost complaining sort of way that his investments from those windfalls just keep growing despite how much of it he spends. He spends a lot on things he is passionate about but apparently that doesn’t even make a dent in it. He has 3 adult children, 2 from a failed first marriage and one younger one with his current partner. None of them seem to have benefitted much from that good fortune to date though I don’t know that for sure. Certainly the youngest is a bit of an odd fellow who lives a very modest lifestyle. The two older ones live on the other side of the country and so are somewhat disconnected. He has several millions in investments from what I gather and isn’t in the best of health but given his wife is much younger she will be the main beneficiary. Oddly enough she spends her days buying, renovating and selling old properties, so it lines up for the kind of thing being discussed here. Sometimes good fortune falls into your lap, even if it is the result of parents passing it along.