My dad died in Edmonton of cancer early on Christmas morning 1973. He was just 43 years old, and I was 17. As my mom's firstborn child, I went with her to shop for the least expensive casket and funeral. Companies offering "discounted" funeral services were quite rare back then, but we managed to find a firm in Edmonton that saved mom over a thousand dollars.
Two years later, a year after graduating from high school, my girlfriend and I left Canada to attend a Discipleship Institute in Sebastapol, California. After graduation I joined that ministry, which was moving to East Texas. Meanwhile Sheila returned to Canada to tour with a Christian band (Emmanuel) recruiting youths for YWAM's outreach at the Montreal Olympics. In July 1977, most of the wedding gifts we received during Klondike Days in Edmonton were travel-oriented: highlighted by two Samsonite suitcases, and a cedar-lined chest. We moved to Lindale, TX, until the Agape Force ended up in Tacoma, Washington. We weren't exactly homeless... just itinerant.
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| Sheila & I toured Australia with music group Candle in 1982 (Gold Coast). |
The ten years we spent in "ministry" were highly rewarding in so many ways. But as you might guess, financial benefits were not on the list of blessings. In fact, we had more credit-card debt than cash-on-hand. Finally, in December of 1984 we left Tacoma for Edmonton with our 1 year-old daughter. It took me a year to find full-time work—in Vancouver, BC at Word Records of Canada. That was an expensive place to live, so we were only able to rent half of a nearly-ramshackle duplex on a major arterial street (Number 2 Road).
In late 1990 I was hired by Word, Incorporated in Dallas, Texas—where we were able to buy a small house within a month of our arrival. But barely two years later the company was acquired by Bible publisher Thomas Nelson, and relocated to Nashville. Thanks to a generous corporate move package, we made a healthy profit selling our house in Coppell, TX and were able to buy a modest-sized new home in Franklin, TN.
We lived in middle Tennessee for 30 years, during which time we became U.S. citizens, and I left the corporate world to join a creative start-up—Fancy Monkey Studios. Alas, the company hit a major speed-bump, which eventually caused Sheila and I to file for bankruptcy. We sold our house, went back to renting, and I worked for any client that would hire me——writing for Christian magazines, doing videography for churches and weddings, controlled-document training for a pharmaceutical firm, marketing campaigns for Christian companies, non-profit management for a wealthy client, website creation/maintenance, audio-book recording/editing, eBlasting, animation production, video editing, screenplay writing, DVD authoring, and on and on.
Nearing age 65, and having become empty-nesters, we desperately wanted to avoid becoming a financial burden to our kids. Having recovered from bankruptcy, we were able to purchase a modest home in Spring Hill, TN... which was appreciating nicely. Plus, our mortgage rate was under 2.5%. Still, that house was the only "asset" we owned, and I wanted to find a way for Sheila to retire from her job as a residential house-cleaner. Sadly, our retirement age for Social Security benefits had extended to 66.5 years. Ugh.
The lowest emotional point while pondering and planning the last few chapters of my life was when I ended up researching cardboard caskets, and green conservation burials. Fifty years after my dad's departure, I couldn't even afford the cheapest wooden casket, and cemetary burial.
In 2019 my dear mother-in-law up in Chilliwack, BC passed away shortly after we attended her 90th birthday celebration (pic below). Her teriffic hubby, who died of cancer in 1998, had created a solid portfolio for his bride, allowing her to live comfortably in a high-rise apartment.
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| My 90 year-old mom-in-law visited Harrison Lake with her daughters. |
So there was a non-trivial inheritance that would be split between Ethel's two daughters. Alas, it took over a year for the funds to arrive in America from Canada. But the number of "dollars" was nearly 30% less in USD than CAD. Thankfully, even a very low six-figure inheritance was enough to pay for a nice coffin. Whew!
But during that year of waiting for the bequest to arrive, I felt the Lord leading me to study how to create a portfolio for my darlin' ... who is quite likely to outlive me. Cash? Gold? Stocks? What about Bitcoin?
I'll walk ya thru that process in my next blog post. :-)