My Buddy twitted (as opposed to tweeted) me with this response to my third paragraph in the last post:
“9AM [meeting] was strictly personal with a financial advisor. Sorry, Data private.”
“That an elected official, who purports to be “liberal” and “progressive”, would say that, puzzles me. Did he mean to implicitly flaunt his wealth, by suggesting that the magnitude of it is such that he needs a financial advisor; or did he inadvertently and implicitly admit that he is not capable of managing his financial affairs by himself?
Your Buddy”
I replied in all good humor:
“I am on a data privacy kick, [Buddy]”
Now, in all seriousness,let me offer up a more candid answer to my “eight loyal readers” (including my “Buddy”)
I am on a data privacy kick. a real one. In a few minutes I am going to continue reviewing the billing from the Rupp firm. In fact, I wrote up a post and was just about to push the upload button when I realized I wanted to recheck one particular detail to make sure I wasn’t about to spout some Donald Trump level rubbish.
As to what my readers might conclude by my tease about visiting a financial advisor I’ll be blunt. I consider myself rich. I’ve considered myself rich since I was in elementary school even though it could have been said of me I was born with a stainless steel spoon in my mouth. I know people with a lot more money than me who would not consider themselves rich.
By the way, I tell people I married well. I haven’t dared squander the wealth my better half earned for us both. Had it been up to me I’d likely have blown it all on futile campaigns for public office. Instead, I had to be creative to be the successful “perennial candidate” that the editorial board of the Trib like’s to poke in the ribs every so often.
As to fiscal management let me say this. My Dad was an attorney. He always told me that anyone in court who acts as his own attorney had a fool for a client. Perhaps the same could be said of someone with a little money acting as his/her own tax and finance expert.
My comfort is on my mind especially as it contrasts with the poverty of children I have some responsibility for educating as one in seven votes on the Duluth School Board. Last night I attended the meeting at Denfeld which was written up in today’s Trib.
This morning our church men’s group had Holly Sampson as a guest speaker to talk about the “opportunity gap” between poor and rich children. She explained what the Duluth Superior Foundation is doing to help our community bridge that gap.
It is inspired by this book by Robert Putnam who did some of his research in Duluth:
Buddy,
I’ve been in noblesse oblige mode since I was a little kid and heard about the holocaust. I’ve tried to carry out this mission without too much saccharine, “nanny state,” bloviating. I started out trying to do this as a moderate Republican. I know I don’t always succeed in the platitude department and I sure as Hell failed doing it as a Republican.
And by the way, I wish I knew a lot more about Donald Trump’s financial tenticals with Putin and a lot of other rascals around the world. I ran for Congress twice and had to spill my financial beans out to the whole world each time. Trump……Not so much. Do some googling. I’m sure you could find my old records someplace if you’re curious.
