Growing up, my parents were social workers for the state of Oklahoma. The state of Oklahoma didn’t pay social workers much, at least not enough to give my two sisters and me the kind of Christmas my mom thought we should have, so my dad picked up a part time job at the local Wal-Mart photo mat.
While my dad got the job at Wal-Mart in order to cover current expenses his 9-5 did not, he had an eye on the future. With every check he received, he deposited a small part of his pay into the employee stock program, purchasing a bit of Wal-Mart stock with each paycheck. At some point my dad discussed with me and my sisters the concept of stock and what it meant to be a Wal-Mart stock holder. My takeaway from those early personal finance lessons was that you could give a company some of your money, do nothing, sit back and watch that money grow. I can remember turning to the stock listings in the Daily Oklahoman on Saturday mornings to find out where Wal-Mart had closed on Friday and calculating our gain or loss for the week.

The idea of owning stock fascinated me. I was amazed that with $35 at the time you could become part owner of a business.

As a kid, I would walk into the El Reno, Oklahoma Wal-Mart and imagine that every share of stock my dad owned equated to owning a 1 ft. x 1 ft. square of linoleum tile in that store and being entitled to the requisite portion of the store’s profits. Not exactly right, but close.
My dad eventually resigned from that photo mat job and the Wal-Mart employee stock purchase program, but he never sold the shares he had amassed. When I graduated from high school, he gave me a portion of those shares as a graduation gift. It wasn’t a life-changing amount of money; far from it. But what those shares represented was worth more than any amount of money.

First, they represented the sacrifice of his time that he made those years ago to take care of his family. Every share he gave me represented hours of late-night work. Second, they represented our mutual love of investing. To this day, we text and call to discuss the movements of the stock market and the fate of our latest stock pick.

As an 18-year-old, there were a lot of things I could imagine spending the money on if I cashed out those Wal-Mart shares. But those early lessons on investing with my dad stuck with me. My understanding had matured to recognize my fascination with investing was based on the concept of compound interest; when your money makes money, your money plus that money makes money, and so on throughout the years. Instead of cashing out, I held on to those shares through college. When I got my first job out of college, I opened a direct investment account, deposited my Wal-Mart shares and began purchasing $50 worth of Wal-Mart stock each month.

I did eventually cash out my Wal-Mart stock.

When my son Ian was born, I opened a 529 college saving account for him. To seed the account, I sold those Wal-Mart shares to purchase mutual fund shares within the 529. So, while the dollars aren’t in the form of Wal-Mart stock anymore, they are still in the stock market earning that compound interest.
What a beautiful story it would be to tie my father’s after-hours job at the local Wal-Mart in the early 1980s to his grandson’s college education in the 2020s. But that doesn’t look like it will be the case. Ian is a senior this year and has excelled both in and out of the classroom throughout high school. That hard work has translated into college offers to cover most, and in some cases all, education expenses. Ian will likely not need the funds in his 529 plan.

No, this story did not tie my father’s after-hours job at the local Wal-Mart in the early 1980s to his grandson’s college education in the 2020s. It likely is a story that ties my father’s after-hours job at the local Wal-Mart in the early 1980s to his great grandchildren’s college educations in the 2050s.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad.