[Cali Panthers Fan]

Well my parents divorced over 20 years ago, and as such they have vastly different situations.

My mother helped me a lot throughout my decade or so in school, and she sacrificed and saved a lot of her $40 K salary in order to give me enough so that I wouldn't starve during school. Even before that, she helped me get out of debt when I had a classic early 20's overspending problem. That's on top of all the stuff she did to raise me during childhood up until I was about 13 or so and went to live with my dad. She has little savings to retire on.

Basically I owe her big time.

Consequently, I bought her an apartment and moved her down here to Boca Raton for her retirement. We're doing well with our money, so even though she gets an ok pension, she'll never have to want for anything for as long as she lives.

My father raised me with his new wife from the age of 13 to 18, but abruptly asked me to move out at 18. I wasn't allowed to take anything that wasn't in my room, so I started with essentially nothing, even though they had plenty to give me. I never took a single dollar from my father at any point during my adult life, even though he made a multi-6 figure salary. I did ask once or twice for help, since he had enough money to help me, and much more than my mother. He responded by saying it would be better for me to "stand on my own two feet" rather than be bailed out by him when I ran into money problems. He's been a rather large enigma in my life as an adult, hardly keeping in touch, often going 6 months between communications. He's also had a problem with debt even though he makes a large income. I honestly don't know how he manages to dig himself into a hole.

He will get nothing from me at any point ever. I figure the principle he taught me of trying to stand on your own two feet applies equally to him.

Lesson is, you reap what you sow.