Today I’m writing about my uncle. Who was a millionaire… and lived in the same building as Wayne Gretzky back in the 80′s when he played with the Edmonton Oilers.
Probably not next door, but I don’t recall because I’m not a hockey fan. (Although I was good friends at one point with Wayne’s brother – who had club feet as a child and never played hockey. I also partied quite a bit in my younger pre-children days with Grant Fuhr, Dave (cement head) Semenko and some other hockey type people who I also can’t recall but were probably famous at the time).
But I digress.
There are a few things I remember about my uncle (long deceased):
- He didn’t appear to ever work
- He could finish the NYT crossword puzzle very quickly
- He drove Cadillacs
- His condo in Wayne Gretzky’s building had a sauna in it and floor to ceiling windows over 2 floors. OMG, was it something to a kid from butt-**** nowhere.
- He dressed sort of like an oblivious or homeless person
- He lived with his mother until he was maybe 50 years old until she had a stroke in her 90′s
- He was involved with Big Brothers
- He didn’t get married for the first time until he was almost a senior citizen. She was a wonderful, simple woman and she made him happy.
- He built what was at one time the largest waterpark in North America – and a large campground
- He played around in politics behind the scenes
- He made a lot of money in real estate
- He owned a gravel pit
- He was eccentric
- He was very wealthy
He also said “you will never get rich working with these” – looking down at his hands.
I think Uncle Joe was right.
How did he make his millions?
Well that’s kind of funny but he made his money in real estate like Gretzky made his fame in hockey (skating to where the puck was going, not where it had been) – by buying where the trend was going, not where it had been.
I have to say this is my favorite post for today. Granted I’m not a millionaire but since I’ve trimmed “the fat” I am now debt free and have savings to save for retirement and three kid’s colleges all on my own. I’ve learned to really trust my GUT on certain things rather than fret over other people’s advice which in the past has typically been wrong. But that is so true, work smarter not harder.
Heather Buen – Dallas Single Mom recently posted..Fun Ways to Display Your Favorite Family Photos
Heather, I think that’s huge – the working smarter rather than harder. And I have found in a regular job as well as non-jobs, that I’ve come up with my best ideas all the time while doing things like just relaxing out camping, letting my brain just have a sense of wonder about a problem for a few hours.
Congrats to you for being debt free and kicking butt with your kids’ education! There’s nothing quite like the feeling that you’ve done something all by yourself with no help.
Love the last line. It is in line of the saying “pennywide, pound foolish”. You won’t achieve financial freedom just by making laundry detergent and clipping coupons. The real lever comes from being able to get a high degree of payback from the time you do work.
It sounds like he definitely worked smart vs hard if he had the appearance of never working. Did he read a lot? I am curious how you believe he formulated his theories on market trends.
First gen American recently posted..Life Changing Advice – Part 1
Exactly! Way way too many bloggers focus on the frugal side of things and not on the income / risk-reward area. Quite frankly, I think most of the people who are doing it in real life, spend their time in other areas than writing about it.
How did he know? I honestly don’t know. But he hit a lot of “trends” – booms, construction, growth of condo developments, land developments, the upsurge in “family entertainment” like waterparks – even though I’m sure he’d never actually gone on a waterslide – or stayed in a campground in real life. He had no children of his own, so that makes sense.
He was incredibly smart, and a little strange with it. His favorite game with us was playing the “guess which hand the quarter is in” and the only gift he ever gave us was commemorative coin sets (god knows where mine are). I suspect he was rather… money oriented.
I totally get you on the making detergent and clipping coupons thing.
Heather Buen – Dallas Single Mom recently posted..Bed Bug Bedlam: Protecting Your Children
I love this! It reminds me a lot of the millionaire next door.
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Here’s the thing – I’d say he worked 1/10th as hard as my own father and ended up with 10 times the money. There’s a lesson to be learned somewhere there and I guess I’m trying to find it.
One of the few redeeming features of growing up in Brantford was seeing Walter Gretzky; super cool guy.
Your Uncle Joe sounds awesome (and it’s not just his name). To meet my personal definition of success, I’ll also need to have lots of kids — which may interfere with some other goals.
Joe recently posted..Top Off Your Oil (or: How to Prepare for a Blogging Conference)
So true. The only way to make money is to differentiate yourself from others – everyone can work with their hands, but only a select few are really capable of using their intelligence to their greatest financial benefit.
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That’s interesting. Never thought of it that way. I guess, even if you’re an artist, you don’t gain wealth from your hands, but your business smarts. I think I wish you COULD get rich working hard with your hands, but you probably can’t. I had my kids’ photos cut by hand out of paper when they were little. I asked the people doing it if their hands got tired and they said no. Hard to believe! That’s quite the talent.
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