Lessons in Generosity and Community
“Investing in people is more gratifying than investing with money.”
There are things I hope my kids understand about money—lessons that go deeper than spreadsheets and savings accounts. These aren’t tips you’ll find in a finance podcast or a TikTok hustle video, but they matter more to me than maximizing returns or early retirement.
One of the most important things I’ve learned is this: investing in people is more gratifying than investing with money.
We’ve lived this truth in many ways.
Like when we chose to build bedrooms on the third floor on our home for three women, recent college graduates we mentored, not because it was a smart financial move, but because it created more space to welcome them in.
Eventually, those women moved away. We welcomed your Uncle and enjoyed his companionship as he occupied that same space.
After we spent our money on building rooms for our friends, we were depleted financially and it took a while to complete some projects that we felt desperate to begin in our home. However, the relationships that we built and the love that we invested during that time endure and continue to bring us joy. Those women who still love you and care about your lives—that started when we created space for them to live with our family.
So, we waited over a decade to redo a kitchen that had black commercial vinyl tiles that showed the plywood subfloor through cracks at the edges; painted, used, mismatched cabinets that in some cases were sawed off in the middle and awkwardly nailed together; and a wonky layout with an island placed awkwardly under a lowered portion of the ceiling where a wall was supposed to be.
We finally renovated our kitchen a few years later on a tight budget and we undertook the project ourselves. Now, we have a beautiful, functional kitchen that we proudly built with our own hands. We prioritized relationships with people over making a helpful renovation. I would do it again if I had the opportunity. The richness and love that they added to our lives was more valuable than the money that we spent on their bedrooms. They were worth the wait.