The Good Wife

A good wife is essential for any man determined to put aside money for future generations. Not only does he need a mother for his children, he needs someone willing to go along with his project. Without this, the project is unlikely to go anywhere.

Where most young men go astray is that they look for a mother without paying sufficient attention to whether she is interested in the overall project. She may be an excellent vessel for carrying a child. However, if she is a self centered spend thrift, the children are unlikely to get much in the way of inheritance.

In addition to being sufficiently passionate and intelligent to be interesting, the mother has to be thrifty. Her children are not merely offspring. They are the future stewards of the family estate. As such, we cannot take out too much for ourselves. There has to be enough left for future generations to carry on the tradition.

This has been the mantra of the wealth carrying side of my family for at least five hundred years, and I would hate to see this line terminate with me. My motivation for carrying on the tradition of saving is therefore strong. The same must have been true for all of my wealthy ancestors. It has certainly been so for my parents and grand parents.

Both my father and grandfather married well. My mother came from a modest background, and so did my grandmother. What they had in common was a tradition of modesty. They were middle class with a desire for upward mobility, not just for themselves, but for their children as well. They wanted to become part of the sort of project that my father and grandfather were involved in.

In contrast, my first wife was middle class with a desire for upward mobility, only for herself. There was little tradition of modesty in her family. Life was to be enjoyed to the maximum, and no savings were to be left behind. Consequently, my ex acted as if she was determine to make me the end of a five hundred year line of thrift. Unable to change her ways, I had to terminate the marriage before it was too late.

In my second marriage, I've been much more lucky. My wife is all in on our joint venture. She does not view our savings as hers to spend. They belong to our son. We are merely stewards while he is too young to take care of it himself. We do not spend more than we can reasonably do without depriving our son of his savings.