An Announcement!

I don’t remember what the weather was like that Friday in late May when Michael Scott English was born.  I remember it being cool owing to a lake breeze in downtown Chicago while he spent a few days in Northwestern’s Prentice Hospital.  I’d been at work when his mother told me to hurry home as she was in labor.  I took a cab from the downtown offices of Kidder Peabody and Co {where I worked as a newly minted stockbroker} up to our condo on Chicago’s North side.  I paid the driver $20 to get me home as fast as possible.  I barely remember driving down to the hospital on Lake Shore Drive and I think I broke every traffic rule possible.  I wasn’t going to deliver our son in the back seat of our car.  Michael was born later that day.  The S&P 500 closed at 354.46.

I moved my investment company out to River Forest when my children were little.  I made the move partly to save some money as the early 2000’s weren’t a great time to be building a business in personal finance and also to be around my kids as they grew up.  Now of course it’s normal for people to work from home but back then it was more of a novelty.  I don’t know what business didn’t walk in my door back then in terms of clients because they found it weird that I worked at home, but I’ve never regretted that decision.  I jokingly used to refer to my kids as my “employees”.  In truth they did odd jobs for me back then.  They’d run letters down to the post box, empty waste cans and as they got older I paid them to clean my office.  Part of that was so they learned the value of work but the bigger reason was that dad just liked having them around. 

But time moves on while one by one my children grew up and flew the coop.  First came college.  Michael was first out the door in 2008.  Then on to careers in various places.  I’ve always referred to their current homes as “Branch” offices of my firm, even though none of my children are in my line of work.   

Which leads me to an announcement.  Lumen Capital is going to be adding an employee.  Michael is getting married to a lovely young lady named Angelica.  The wedding is this weekend.  His mother and I couldn’t be happier for the two of them!  Since we’re going to be preoccupied with wedding events I’m signing off for the next few weeks.  I’ll return once all the hubbub has died down.

My father said these words to me shortly after Michael was born and I’ve never forgotten them, “My God Chris, you’re going to turn around once and he’ll be 10.  You’re going to turn around again and he’ll be off to college”.  Those words were so true as my children seemed to grow up overnight.  What he should have added was that I’ve turned around a third time and Michael would be getting married.  I look at this and say where did the time go?  I’m a lucky guy though as I can fairly say that time goes by fast,  but for me at least it’s passed mostly well.

So with a toast then to Michael and Angelica it’s on to the future.  Hopefully to a future as bright as the stars.  God bless to them and to all of you as well.

Chris

PS.  The S&P 500 as of this writing is valued at roughly 4,400.  That’s an 1,141% increase since Michael was born not including dividends.  However that’s a story for another time.

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500 in both client and personal accounts.