Lessons from My Father’s Watch

My father, Kent Esplin, was destined to be frugal. 

The first reason was that he raised during the Great Depression.  My grandfather and grandmother, Frant and Annie Esplin (we called them Mom and Pop), lost their sheep ranch near Zion National Park at the start of the Depression.  Dad was six or seven at the time.  They established a home in Cedar City, Utah and for the next decade grandpa couldn’t find steady work.

Pop died when I was only four years old.  I remember him only faintly but he wrote a personal history shortly before he died and my copy is one of my prized possessions.  In it he writes in some detail about how they survived during the Depression.

Every time I read it I am amazed at how hard working and resourceful my grandparents’ were.  Although Pop didn’t have steady work they were able to raise a large family without taking any assistance from the government or charitable organizations.  They survived by taking every opportunity available to them and creating their own opportunities when none were presented.  Growing up in this environment my father learned to work hard, avoid debt, save, be resourceful and creative, and to not waste anything.  Those lessons lasted his entire life.

Thrifty Scots

The second reason my father was destined to be frugal is our Scottish heritage.  Scots are known for their thrift.  In fact, have you heard the story about how copper wire was invented?  It happened by accident when two Scots were fighting over a penny.

Although you can’t rely on stereotypes they are often based on at least some truth, and it turns out there is ample evidence that Scots actually are frugal.  In the classic book, The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko report that Scottish-ancestry households make up only 1.7 percent of all households in America, but 9.3 percent of millionaire households.

The authors conclude that this can’t be explained by income, as Scots don’t make more money than other ancestry groups.  They state, “More than 60 percent of Scottish-ancestry millionaires have annual household incomes of less than $100,000.  No other ancestry group has such a high concentration of millionaires from such a small concentration of high-income producing households.”

The explanation for this is thrift.  Scots, as a group, are simply better at creating wealth out of income than other ancestry groups.  In fact, Stanley and Danko report that a family of Scottish-descent making $100,000 saves as much as a typical American family making $150,000.  This results in far more millionaires next door of Scottish ancestry than you would expect.

Frugality in Action

So between the Great Depression and his Scottish ancestry my father was destined to be frugal, and he definitely was.  He married my mother, Alice Mae White Esplin, shortly after World War II and they moved to Salt Lake to start their new life together.  I am the youngest of their six children.

My father didn’t have a college education so he started his adult life working jobs that required hard physical labor.  He had numerous jobs but the ones I specifically remember him talking about were unloading rail boxcars, delivering milk, and starting a small corner grocery store.  He enjoyed physical labor, took pride in every job he did, and was always a hard worker.

In addition to his regular jobs he was constantly experimenting with what today we call “side hustles”.  I was not born yet, and am not sure what all these side projects were, but one I remember hearing about was raising chinchillas in the basement of the family home.

He eventually stumbled on the idea of manufacturing and selling dehydrated food and the idea took off.  In the 1950s he started a company called Perma-Pak and became a pioneer in the food storage industry.  Although the company had its ups and downs it provided our family with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

Through all of this my dad maintained the thrifty habits he had been raised on.  We shopped sales, bought food and household supplies in bulk, rarely bought brand-name products, and drove middle-of-the-road Fords and Chevys.  While some of my friends were riding stylish new Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes I had a solid, well-built, and decidedly uncool Huffy bike.  I didn’t complain.  I just assumed we couldn’t afford a Schwinn, though I now realize that probably wasn’t true.

Although I got some new clothes each year many of my clothes were hand-me-downs from a neighbor a couple of years older than me.  We had everything we needed but displayed no outward signs of affluence.  Our family was like my Huffy bike; solid and dependable but not stylish or showy.

My father struggled with heart problems from his early forties on.  In the late 1970s, with dad in his mid-fifties and in poor health, my parents decided to sell Perma-Pak.  I was a teenager at the time.  I have no idea how much they sold the business for but they were able to live comfortably the rest of their lives without having to work.

Although their frugal lifestyle didn’t change much after they sold the business they did travel a bit more and gave significant amounts of money away to causes they cared about.  In fact, the first time I realized that having enough money to live on wasn’t an issue for them was when they told me how much they had donated to a church missionary program that was important to them.

My mom, who had always appeared to be healthy, died suddenly of a heart attack in October of 1985 when she was in her early sixties and I was in my early twenties.  Dad, who struggled with serious health problems most of his life, outlived mom by almost two decades.  They were reunited on New Year’s Eve 2004 when my father died at the age of 81.

My Father’s Watch

About a year ago my sister, Laree, asked me if I would be interested in a watch that had belonged to dad.  She had somehow ended up with it after his death and found it when she was going through some stuff.  I told her I would take a look and see if it was something I wanted.

It was a nice looking gold-colored watch that, style-wise, had held up well. It wasn’t running but I figured that might just be because it had a dead battery.  I remembered dad wearing it, so it also had some sentimental value.

I told her I would love to have it but jokingly asked, “Are you sure you want to give it up?  Knowing dad, it is probably worth thousands.”  We both got a chuckle out of that as sarcasm runs almost as deep as frugality in our family.

I took the watch to a jewelry store.  They changed the battery and set the time and date and it has been running great ever since.  I still use my digital Timex watch for everyday use but I wear my dad’s watch to church and on special occasions.  It looks much better than my Timex when I dress up and it’s great to be reminded of my dad when I check the time.

Seiko Millionaires

A couple of weeks ago I was reading Thomas J. Stanley’s sequel to The Millionaire Next Door.  The book is called Stop Acting Rich….and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire.  In the book there is a chapter about the watches millionaires wear.  Interestingly, only a small percentage of millionaires wear high-priced luxury brands like Rolex.  Most luxury watches are worn by non-millionaires who are trying to appear affluent.  In the book Stanley reports that the most common brand of watch worn by actual millionaires is Seiko.  Seiko watches are reasonably-priced, look good, and last forever.

Knowing instinctively that my dad hadn’t paid a lot for his watch I hadn’t paid much attention to what brand it was but after reading Stanley’s description of Seiko watches and the type of people who buy them I had a sneaking suspicion.  I ran to my room, picked up my father’s watch from the dresser, and there on the face, right below the day of the week, in raised gold lettering, it said SEIKO.  I smiled knowingly.

Now, when I look down at my wrist on occasions when I am wearing my father’s watch I not only think of him but of the important financial lessons he and my mother taught me.  Many of these lessons my dad learned from watching his parents, Frant and Annie Esplin, struggle to raise a family during the Great Depression.  Frant Esplin, in turn, learned some of these same lessons from his father, John James Esplin, who learned them from his father John Esplin, who was the first Esplin to immigrate to America from Scotland.  John undoubtedly learned some of the same lessons from his father, Alexander Esplin, who is buried in the Guthry Parish churchyard near Forfar, Scotland.  These lessons are deeply embedded in our family’s culture and in the customs and culture of Scotland.  Some of the lessons are:

• Work is a virtue: Nothing worthwhile in life comes without hard work. Work is noble, no type of work is beneath you, and hard physical labor should not be feared or shunned.
• Strive to be self-reliant: Do whatever is necessary to provide for your family. Accept help from charities or governments only after you have done everything you possibly can to provide for yourself.
• Be resourceful: If you can’t find a job, create your own. If you have a job, look for side hustles to improve your situation.  Be creative and always keep your eyes open for opportunities.       
• Be frugal: Whether you earn a little or a lot, live on less than you earn and do everything you can to save for the uncertain future. Have a plan and do your best to stick to it.  Name brands aren’t important but quality is.
• Financial security is more important than looking rich: Before spending money today consider how it will impact you in ten or twenty years.  Financial security and independence are worth sacrificing the appearance of wealth for.  Delay gratification and put a premium on the future.
• Be generous in helping others: Notice those who are struggling and help out when you are able. When your hard work and frugality start to bear fruit, and you can afford it, be more generous in giving than you are in spending on yourself.

When Laree first offered me my father’s watch I sarcastically joked that she might not want to part with it because it was probably worth thousands, which we both knew wasn’t true.  Now that I have come to a more complete understanding of what my dad’s watch represents I realize I underestimated its value.  Monetarily it is not worth much but the financial lessons it symbolizes are priceless.  I wear it proudly and will cherish both the watch and the lessons it signifies forever.