Bulletproof Investing

CHAPTER 6Riding a financial rollercoaster

That my father and his two brothers were born to the same parents and raised under the same roof speaks to the randomness and unpredictability of human DNA. Born just four years apart, the three of them could not have been more different. My dad was almost defined by his reckless optimism and John was the miracle money maker with the Midas touch, while Jimmy, the middle son, is a successful but cautious and frugal man who budgets and knows where every dollar goes and comes from (I seriously doubt either of his brothers would have been able to spell ‘budget’!). Human beings — families — can be fascinating.

When I look back on Dad's life, I often wonder where it all went wrong financially. Was it his unwillingness to face reality? Was it his pursuit of quick fixes and easy gains? Was his insecurity driven by social comparison, looking at what his youngest brother had achieved and feeling left behind? Or did his problems stem from an absence of self-awareness — the inability to see what was to others blindingly obvious?

I loved him dearly until the day he died, far too young, with dreams unmet and life ambitions unfulfilled, leaving behind a not insignificant trail of destruction in his wake. In essence, my father was a very good man, but he refused to be reined in by the uncomfortable constraints and responsibilities of day-to-day life. Like John, he was good at making money. Unlike John, he wasn't good at keeping it or making it work ...