More expenses, less money ... that has become the new American motto over the past few years. As unemployment rises, the stock market falls and people lose their homes, savings and businesses. Since the economy is touching just about everything around us, I thought it would be a good topic for Bobby Bishop and I and a fitting way to end the 'Everyday Man' interview series. What I expected was some good money saving tips and Biblical lessons on being frugal. What I got was much more. (But that seems to be the way with Bobby. He always gives you much more than you expect.) I got another piece to the puzzle by learning about his dad and the life lessons that he taught Bobby on finances balanced with the really important things in life.
Bobby started off on taxes, that one subject that everyone dreads. He said, "I wish I had the smarts to do my own taxes. I know plenty of people who pick up the Turbo Tax software each year and submit their forms without hesitation, but I’m just not that attentive to detail. I’m confident I’d miss some huge write off, like, say, my kid."
After hearing about some of his daughter's antics, I am somewhat doubtful that she would allow him to forget her, even as a tax deduction! But I certainly understand how stressful taxes can be because my mother is a retired revenue agent.
"My previous accountant would groan as I would arrive during tax season with a grocery bag of crumpled “records” from the previous year’s music tours, expecting him to discern how to justify my excessive spending at Starbucks and the Nike Outlet to the IRS," Bobby continued. "He usually had a half a bottle of Jack Daniels polished off before I even arrived for our late-night, eleventh-hour accounting sessions. I eventually learned the discipline of record keeping, but I’m unsure he learned the discipline of sobriety. I started using a new guy last year and subsequently saw a significant jump in my refund. Amazing what a little organization, planning, and low alcohol blood content will do for your tax return."
Learning Financial Responsibility From Dad
My own dad wasn't exactly a bastion of financial teachings. He was more a study in opposites. Very nice house - driving his work van everywhere. Eating out every night - shopping for clothes at the discount store. Maintaining his own lawn rather than hiring a company like his neighbors because he saw it as "wasteful spending" but taking day cruises to the Bahamas and vacations abroad when the local scenery "got boring."Bobby's dad was different. He gave his kids regular lessons in finances and where they fall in the food chain. Bobby reminisced about his dad and tax time.
"I recall my father doing our family’s taxes growing up.," he said. "He’d canvas the kitchen table with donations statements, W-2’s, W-9’s and a big-numbered adding machine. Dad was mild-mannered for the most part, but we all knew to leave that dude alone for the following three days, as his look of determination said it all: He needed a big tax return so that he could take his family on vacation that year."
Bobby continued, "What was remarkable about Dad was not just his ability to stretch a dollar, but his unselfish spending habits that resulted in that dollar-stretch. This was undoubtedly an example set for him as a child, as he grew up bailing hay on his father’s farm in the Midwest. We visited our grandparents several times as children, and witnessed firsthand the simple life they lived. The community in which Dad was raised was not one that considered True Religion Jeans, Venti Americano coffees, or Air Jordan Fusions anywhere in the category of real priorities. It was all about their small community and the day-to-day life they led as working-class contributors to their society. On weekends they would wake early to hook some catfish and fry up more than they could eat that evening alongside a plate of corn on the cob and sliced watermelon. Their lifestyle consisted of simple rewards for hard labor."
My Dad, My Childhood Hero
Like many of us, Bobby's dad was his hero. He talked more about his dad and what an amazing man he was."As a child, my impression was that my father was a gifted man," Bobby explained. "He could watch an episode of Jeopardy and know 85% of the answers, but I never saw him reading a book. He could pitch a softball 80 miles per hour well into his fifties. It was uncanny how often he brought home winning scratch tickets. He went to college on a full sports scholarship, had a brief career in the NFL, obtained master’s degree in business from NYU, and worked for NASA all before he met my mom. He then chose to work as a type-setter for my grandfather’s printing company upon marrying her. He worked that typesetting job for ten years before using it to eventually catapult to a vice president position in one of the world’s leading data market research companies. That must have been a long ten years in the print shop, but it was as if he knew his season was brewing, and he simply needed to be patient for his moment to re-launch."
