One of the things that Kerry Taylor and I talked about that didn’t make it into last week’s post on her great new book was the importance of raising children to understand money. She talked about working as a kid and the lessons she learned about the value of a dollar.

“I’m very lucky that my parents started me off with a bank account when I was a kid,” she said. “I’ve always worked, whether it was mowing the lawn with my Dad, a paper route, babysitting or a part time job after school. I knew what it took to earn money. And therefore it had value when it came to spending it. I’d look at buying a pair of designer jeans, and I’d ask myself: ‘Is that worth five hours of work?’”

I was similarly lucky; my family had a healthy reverence for work and money. The lessons I learned watching my parents raise my brother and I are priceless. There were the obvious ones – work hard, save and invest. Looking back though, I’m struck by the less conventional lessons. These are the ones that made my folks, in my eyes at least, uniquely successful parents.

In honour of Father’s Day, here’s a few of my favourites from John Press.

• If you can work more than one job, do it. When I was young, about six, my Dad seemed to work constantly. His days at the office were impossibly long compared to my kindergarten schedule. And when he finally did make it home, it was with a briefcase full of kitchen-table work. I later learned that, in addition to his full-time job, he was studying to become a chartered accountant and providing book-keeping services to several local businesses. Somehow he also found time for me and Dr. Seuss.
• Learn everything you can about money. Dad did become a CA, a very successful one. He went on to become an influential executive in the retirement home industry and eventually owned his own consulting business. He’s one of the smartest deal-makers I’ve ever met.
• Be generous. This is about much more than money. My Dad is the most generous person I’ve ever met. He spends money on people; he gives freely of his time and energy. And he’s seen all that repaid many times over.
• Be good to yourself. My Dad is an avid golfer, and so he lives next to a golf course. It’s not a lavish set-up, but it makes him happy. It’s what he always wanted, and so he made it a priority. As obvious as this sounds, it’s often a difficult thing to do when your default setting is to think of others first.
• Do what you love for as long as you love it. So many Canadians have embraced this philosophy that it has come to be a kind of new cliché. It’s still worth mentioning. When my Dad isn’t golfing, he’s working out of his home office. Both make him happy (and one pays for the other). What could be better?

I find myself asking my Dad for advice more and more these days. No matter the subject, there’s a kind of uncomplicated sensibility about his advice that I’ve come to appreciate and admire. It always helps.

Happy (belated) Father’s Day.