just had a piercing revelation. the reason my parents work so hard to try to give us an abundant financial backbone is because a big financial sum was what my dad's parents left him. he managed to blow that money away (bought a car, junked it in a month. took the family to to eat out daily), and we lived poor until somewhat recently. i should take this as a precautionary warning so i don't do the same thing. sounds like something i would do. but analyzing other things, i think my dad blew that money off because he doesn't like things given to him that he didn't earn. whenever someone gave him free food, he'll always complain about it's bitterness. whenever he got anything of value, he'd most likely give it away or think it was worthless. he really wants to make it on his own without any help at all. our family's financial situation went to the absolute bottom of the barrel, when i was about 4. me, i'm the type of person that is comfortable to claim the same amount of success with a lot of help from people like my parents. as long as i am successful and able to make a lot of money from my financial decisions......back to the book.