“It’s never too late to start,” and “You’ll never learn any younger,” were two maxims I heard multiple times from my mother when I was growing up.

As I have grown older, both maxims seem to be losing their imperative instruction. In response to the second maxim I once responded to my mother that, “I don’t want to learn younger, I’ll wait to learn when I’m older.” The result of that was that I did learn something in that after verbalizing that to my mother once, I kept the thought to myself. (Don’t contradict or make fun of your mother.)

As I neared retirement there were the warnings that savings and investments were needed and that indeed, if you hadn’t started early to save and invest, it might be getting too late Social Security needs to be supplemented.

Now that I am retired, I am thankful for those early warnings, but there were also dreams that I had along the way. One of those dreams was that I would inherit a fortune that would save me. (Publishers Clearing House maybe.)

It has dawned on me that those maxims no longer apply to me. Lately I have noticed at least that I would not likely inherit from any relative in that I am down to just three relatives who are older than I am, two first cousins both of whom are less than a year or so older and my sister who is six years older – furthermore, unless they have hidden away a fortune I don’t know about and unless they are particularly generous with their fortune, I doubt that I will get anything at all from those sources.

jtr

As usual, what brought me to thinking about this were some articles I had come across primarily in Forbes Magazine at the end of March (yes, I am behind on catching up on my reading) and some in the June/July issue of Money. From Money there were lessons from “You Need To Do This Before You Retire!”

Hey, I am already there but maybe projecting my expenses for the future can still help. From the article, “A $2 Million Scam Is Scaring Investors,” was a subtitle of, “This isolated incident is a useful reminder to protect yourself – and elderly relatives.” I hate to think I might be in the elderly class, but I guess I am.

From the cover of Forbes was a teaser on what was inside: “WELCOME KYLIE! THE YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE. EVER.” I thought that might be another young techie. I do know that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame had made it to a billion in his 20s. But who is Kylie?

Possibly I would have known who Kylie is had I visited more with some of the millennial generation or maybe even from generation X, but I really didn’t know, so it took a while to get up to speed (Quick review: The Greatest Generation are those who were at least 18 at the end of WWII. The Silent Generation are those born from about 1928 through 1945 – that’s me. The Baby Boomers are those born at the end of WWII until about 1963. Generation X were born from about 1963 until about 1982. Generation Y are often called Milennials as they came adults at the turn to the 21st century. Roughly speaking, those born from the late 1990s on are Generation Z for want of a different name that may come as history moves on.)

jtr

Some of you readers probably knew that Kylie is Kylie Kristen Jenner, daughter of Caitlyn Jenner (formerly William Bruce Jenner) and Kris Jenner (née Houghton) (first husband: Robert Kardashian). By the time Kylie was 10 she was appearing on E! reality: “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” She and her sister, Kendall, created “Kendall & Kylie,” a line of clothing – Kylie was only about 15. By about 18 she started her own cosmetics firm, Kylie Cosmetics, that by March of 2019 at age 21 made her worth $1 billion, according to Forbes.

On Feb. 1, 2018, she and her partner (Jacques Berman Webster II, aka Travis Scott, aka Travi$ Scott) had a daughter, Stormi Webster. Travis Scott is a rapper, not unlike Kylie’s half sister Kim Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West.

Sound like a soap opera? Maybe the TV show of the Kardashians is truly reality TV, not just some made up games to win. Incidentally, I don’t think I will be watching that reality show.

Just one more comment about the youngest billionaire. I have to quibble with saying the “self-made” made billionaire. When I was growing up, I would have put her into the, “born with a silver spoon in her mouth” category. Her father Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner’s worth is about $100 million and her mother Kris (Kardashian) Jenner’s worth is about $60 million. Rather than being self-made it seems more like having a “leg-up.” Not unlike President Trump.

jtr

The March issue of Forbes did have some other interesting observations. It listed the 20 world’s richest people The top three are Jeff Bezos (primarily Amazon), Bill Gates (primarily Microsoft), and Warren Buffett (primarily Berkshire Hathaway). The magazine mentioned that when Bezos’ wife and he are divorced, that he would drop way down in the standings.

No speculation was made about Bill and Melinda Gates or any of the rest of the 20 richest.

There were two women listed in the 20, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers (primarily L’Oréal) and Alice Walton (primarily Walmart). There were 295 new billionaires and 169 former billionaires who dropped below the billion mark.

Also, there are apparently 2,153 billionaires world-wide with 607 of them in the United States (pop. about 328 million) which is up by 22 over 2018.

Until next time: Oh, Fiddlesticks!