My late grandfather, Walter Marquart was one of the hardest working men I have ever known in my life. From chopping massive piles of wood in his 70's with a chainsaw and axe to shoveling the biggest snow drifts in history, I saw it all. He also believed in saving. Pennies, nickels, dimes and dollars.
Hard work is all he knew. With an 8th grade education and having to marry his pregnant girlfriend at 21 he just worked every day. His dream of becoming a Park Ranger never materialized, instead he worked the land on the farm where he was born. Grampa had 5 sisters who pampered him as he was the youngest and he never had a haircut until he started school.
He probably wasn't up to speed on simple compounding of returns and never owned a stock in his life. The Rule of 72 wasn't his thing but he understand the use of measurement in rods instead of feet.
Living on that farm with Gramma and Grampa while in college was a unique experience for me. I learned early on that when I worked I wanted to make money not just work for the sake of working or making something "look good". Why not let your work compound for you? If you are going to put in time, effort and energy away from your family maybe you should be making some money I thought. I never wanted to look back and regret that I wasted a lot of time in doing meaningless shit.
I learned that if you work hard enough at anything you can get what you want. Motivation, desire and goals work well with hard work. I never wanted to look back with regret.
Today is the 10th anniversary of my Dad's passing. It seems just like yesterday I felt the warmth of his body slowly dissipate.
I wish I had more days with Dad and Mom ahead.
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