Page 4 - MidWeek - May 25, 2022

4 MIDWEEK MAY 25, 2022
What’s your ideal three-day weekend?
IRich Man, Poor Man
am so very grateful that our family does moderately well. My wife and I both make a good living, and we were able to put our two kids through parochial private school and
solid universities. Of course, there have been tough times but we have never been ungrateful for what we have. When she was little, our daughter asked me if we were rich. I picked her up and said, “Well, I have you and your brother and Mommy, plus Nana, Grandma and Papa, so we are very rich!”
KYLE HARADA
Marketing Professional,
Pearl City
“Exploring and relaxing on a neighbor island.”
JESSALYN LEE
Communications Supervisor, Honolulu
“Spending time with my husband, family and new niece; hiking up Koko Head; doing an escape room; and eating at my favorite hot pot spot.”
BRYAN TOLENTINO
Musician/Teacher, Mililani
“Timeshare staycation — eat, sleep, beach, repeat.”
ERICA APANA
Speech-Language Pathologist, Honolulu
“Outdoor time with my favorite 4-mile walk at Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Garden, a stop at the KCC farmer’s market, plant shopping at Ko‘olau Farmers, and a barbecue with friends and family.”
Still, we have the same problems as most people do with regard to finances. Probably charge too many things and take out loans that take forever to pay off. But as long as we have a roof over our heads and food to eat, I can’t complain.
Plus, being healthy and genuinely loving each other are infinitely worth more than an “ape” NFT or any amount of crypto currency. I always dreamt of striking it big on a Mega- bucks slot machine in Vegas, or our son buying a winning lottery ticket on the mainland worth hundreds of millions of dollars — after taxes.
We managed to buy a nice home in a great neighborhood, and while it is no mansion, it is certainly my castle. Our family was just starting out when we purchased the house. Our son was 3 and my mom was welcome to live with us. The mort- gage interest rates were in the double digits, and what we paid then couldn’t buy you a studio apartment today.
Ron Nagasawa
Director of Content / Supplement Products
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Senior Photographer
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Executive Editor
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Senior Creative Artist
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Creative Artist
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Senior Photographer
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Managing Editor
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Regional Editor
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Staff Writer
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Staff Writer
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W What Do You Yearn For?
hen people are comfortable with me, they open up. When they do, I will often ask, “In the depth of your heart and in the si-
lence of the night, what do you yearn for?” From here, there’s always a pause. I think it’s because we may not allow ourselves to think about yearnings too much because it might feel as though what we deeply desire is far-away or even unobtainable. However, yearnings, when acknowledged, can be the starting point toward consciously making different choices.
Do you yearn for true connection? Do you yearn for the feeling of being deeply alive? Do you yearn for acceptance? After talking to thousands of people about this, I have come to see that broadly, yearnings can be distilled into four categories: love, peace, joy and freedom.
alice@yourhappinessu.com
But we embarked on the American dream of homeown- ership. We are a happy middleclass family living in a hap- py middleclass neighborhood. My wife and I both attended public high school, and I did a couple of years at community college. Still, you can’t help but dream of one day being eco- nomically rich.
The other week, we celebrated Mother’s Day at our house. Our daughter and my sister’s son and his girlfriend decided to throw a brunch for the moms. My brother came over, as well, and we started talking about our homes.
I’m thinking about looking into getting a HELOC loan and asked him the lay of the land when he got his. He said it all pivots on the current value of your home. He took out his smartphone and looked up the estimated current value of our homes (he lives four houses down from us).
He had a big smile on his face and said, “Wow, both our homes are worth over a million dollars!” I couldn’t believe it and so I asked him to show me on his phone. Sure enough, the estimated value of our house was over a million dollars!
Heartily laughing, I yelled at my wife, “Honey, we’re final- ly millionaires!” I high-fived my brother and we did a little touchdown end zone dance. Bringing me back to reality my wife said, “Yeah, Elon, don’t forget to take out the garbage!”
rnagasawa@midweek.com