Relationships & Family
Parents, children, spouse, and presence: once you have financial freedom, relationships decide your happiness.
Children Are Kites You Don't Tie Down: After Freedom, Relationships Decide Happiness
Investing can make you rich, but relationships decide whether you're happy. James's parenting philosophy: children are kites you don't tie down — as long as the string of family love holds, they won't break away and they know the way home. Education is behavior education: how you treat your own parents teaches your kids how they'll treat you.
Family financial consensus: the thing that matters more than investing
The 2025-08-08 chat room was devoted to what matters "more than investing": keeping family finances from tearing the family apart. Three principles — communicate early, learn together, decide together (give the other person ownership). Plus one piece of doctrine: whoever is economically dominant in the household should move money into the weaker partner account, so a spouse never has to ask for it.