Music, Money, Discipline, and Desire

From the time my 2 older daughters were three years old, I made them practice and learn the violin.

As they got more advanced, the pieces got harder.

but we persevered:

- we constantly listened to the music pieces in the car, at home

- they had an amazing violin teacher, and

- the girls practiced almost every day.

By the time we had Henry four years after Kiki, we switched to the piano for Henry.

Getting Henry to practice was tough.

I rarely forced him.

I wasn’t as disciplined with Henry as I was with Kiki and Alexandra.

But when Henry wrote an essay for his private school application, he wrote (indirectly) about one of the most important financial concepts there is.

Delayed gratification.

No kid wants to practice, especially piano.

Henry would rather play video games with his friends.

But one night we were rewatching The Crown, a Netflix original drama by Peter Morgan, which chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II.

A classical music piece, Moonlight by Beethoven, was playing in the background during a heated negotiation between the coal miners union rep and the Government.

The song Moonlight resonated with Henry.

Henry wrote in his essay that he didn’t enjoy the piano because he was learning “baby songs” or the basics.

But Moonlight's simplicity and eloquence motivated him to practice.

He wrote it was the most difficult song he has ever learned but the most rewarding and it all paid off in the end.

Practicing Moonlight was hard work, but it helped him prioritize a long-term goal of learning the piece over short-term desires like playing video games.

The ability to delay gratification is essential to financial lives.

Choosing to save money for retirement instead of spending it on immediate pleasures like shopping or dining out involves the ability to resist the temptation of immediate rewards in order to achieve long-term financial goals.

We must have the desire to be disciplined when it comes to investing and saving for our future financial lives.

The more we practice discipline the better our moonlights will be.

(photo on left is Henry practicing,

photo on right is kiki with her two friends forming a future girl band, I hope)

Thanks for reading! Happy Good Friday!

Your Friendly Wealth Engagement Guide,

Tiffany Kent, Tiffany@wealthengagement.com

Empowering women to take control of their future!

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