There are 2 billion mothers in the world today of which 85.4 million of them are in the U.S.. 4.3 babies are born each second. Notably, A sizable minority of children in rich countries live with just one parent — a parent who is likely to be female, and also likely to be working.
Speak to virtually any successful human being, and they will likely credit at least some of their good fortune to their mother’s tutelage.
I was one of the sizeable minority of children who grew up with just one parent. When I was eight years old, my father died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm leaving behind his wife and three young children.
My mother, at the time a house wife and formerly trained as a chemist, fortuitously was 6 months from graduating from a prestigious business school and quickly secured a position at a big corporate accounting firm.
By my own recollections, my childhood was lacking in nothing. Logically, I know that after my father died that times were tough. But, those early memories of my mother as a stay at home mom and then widow were quickly replaced by those of the accountant, landlord, investor, and entrepreneur that she became.
And somewhere during all the tumult and turmoil of childhood, she managed to pass on to us children a sense of security and values that continue to guide us in our journeys today as husbands, fathers, and financially successful adults.
Today I introduce you to my mother Harriet. She graduated college from the university of Michigan and eventually earned a masters degree in organic chemistry. After marrying my father, she left her PhD program to follow him to Thailand after he was drafted into the the Vietnam war and she taught highschool at the international school of Bangkock. She was a few months away from finishing her MBA at the Kellog School of Business when my father unexpectedly died. Left with three children and no immediate source of income she moved effortlessly to corporate America on the path to eventually running a business of her own. Furthermore, she became a savvy stock market investor, landlord, and successful entrepreneur.
She also taught me almost everything of value that I know.
Today I invite my mother on the show to discuss growing up with immigrant parents, her early money lessons, career, and the joys of grandparenting.
Happy Mother’s day….today on Earn & Invest
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