Tim McCarthy and the Business of Good

"Tim’s Top Five Investment Tips" by Tim McCarthy

Aug 30, 2015 9:29:00 AM / by Tim McCarthy

I stopped at a lemonade stand today. I told the Mom overseeing the operation that I never pass a children’s lemonade stand because it’s such a great investment. As I drove on, I started thinking about all the other “best investments” I’ve made over time.

  1. An investment in education. First for myself, then for our kids I followed the theory my parents implanted in us. That is, that knowledge and skill can never be taken away from you. Once you get it, you own it. And it travels with you wherever you go. That’s why I worked my way through Ohio State twice, first in the 70’s then in the 00’s and why we offered each of our kids the best education they were willing to work for. 
  2. We bought homes for appreciation but came out with something else. Unlike most people Alice and I have experienced a net financial loss on our homes over the years. We always seem to buy and sell at the wrong time. But from our first 700 square foot saltbox in Birmingham, Michigan, to our home on Lake Erie today, we’ve lived well. My brothers taught me early to live a little above your means home-wise because “the worst house in the best neighborhood is always better than the best house in a worse neighborhood”. 
  3. I figured we were just supposed to have kids. The current estimate for raising a child in the US is $245,000 so if you figure we were above average our three kids cost us over $1 million. I would have paid double that. There is simply no price, no ROI calculation that could measure the return for seeing someone grow so close to you. Including the tough times, perhaps more so because of them, I now have three best friends in addition to Alice and each of my surviving six siblings. That’s ten best friends – how wealthy am I? 
  4. Travel is solely an expense, right? The money for all these other investments came from traveling for a living. I flew an average of 150,000 miles per year without leaving the country. The good news of that is that I was able to make Alice and the kids into world travelers. Two weeks a year in cool venues, a week or two a year with our family in Florida and other places, conferences Alice would join me on a couple times a year and one trip per summer per child to work with me (their choice of city). These investments paid out handsomely in memories that will never be forgotten. This winter I plan to pull pictures and videos from all these trips and create a McCarthy family travelogue. Priceless. 
  5. Events are also one-time expenses. We had an annual “Cousinweekend” at Notre Dame. Each Christmas I’d share Cleveland sports, music and other event tickets with each kid. We had many other reunions, trips to local events, especially summer outings. And of course, every swimming and hockey tournaments became a family outing. Our family always overspent on experiences. Stretching for a $200 night hotel room (two nights minimum) in the 80’s and 90’s at Notre Dame when we didn’t have two nickels to rub together was rough but what a payout!

Financial investments are important, whether it’s keeping your credit card debt low or building a savings, investing in stocks and bonds or working an extra job. And we did all that and continue to invest in our golden years hoping we can improve our foundation’s future.

But my best investments had absolutely nothing to do with any financial markets.

Peace.

Tim McCarthy

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Tim McCarthy

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