I'd like to have enough money that I can provide the sort of life my parents gave me to my kids. Even though I went to college on a near full-ride, my parents w

I'd like to have enough money that I can provide the sort of life my parents gave me to my kids. Even though I went to college on a near full-ride, my parents were ready to pay out of pocket for tuition if need be. Even though I worked from the time I was 15 on, my parents never required me to - school was my job. Even though I probably could have gotten into a good college with a public school education (and the schools where I lived weren't great by any stretch), my parents homeschooled me and then paid for me to go to the best school in the area when I knew more than they could teach. As I've grown older, I realize what a great advantage that was, and I'd like to give my kids the same. Even if they don't do anything with that chance, I don't ever want anyone to be able to say "yeah, Barton - but you didn't do <blank> for your kids." That's my paramount goal. I have subordinate goals to that, but they're expendable given the greater good. For instance I'd like to get better at math and eventually get an M.S. in math of some sort to complement my M.S. in CS. That would open the door to what I consider more interesting work, but there's no guarantee it would be higher paying than the sort of work I do now. I'd also like to eventually run my own business doing work in scientific computing or some other highly technical arena, but that entails a degree of risk that makes it more of an endgame plan for me. I'd like to finish the marathon I was training for before I tore my PCL in 2005, but I don't have the time in my life now for the training regimen I was on (75 miles a week). I'd like to be fluent in Latin again like I was 5 years ago, but again - there's too few hours in the day for something that doesn't get me closer to my primary goal. I'd like to get what I assume is a case of mild Asperger's under control so that I can be a better husband to my wife and so I don't have to live in near-constant fear that I'm not being emotionally available enough. Since I don't know anyone well who has died, I'd like to make peace with death. The wisest person I know is my grandfather, who has a Ph. D in aeronautical engineering from Stanford, taught math there for a while and contributed to the analysis of the Tacoma Narrows disaster (he worked out some aspects of a phenomenon called flutter in his dissertation). He solves the cryptograms in the paper almost by sight and does the New York Times crossword without writing answers down - his solutions are kind of a zero-knowledge proof where you just ask him enough clues until you're satisfied his answers are consistent and correct. I have seen him read the answer to a cryptogram nearly as easily as if it were English. He's 85, and I am perpetually astonished at how sharp his mind is. It's going to be an enormous loss when he eventually passes, and frankly I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the fact that, when he goes, all that knowledge and skill will be gone as well. I need to figure that out. I've got lots to live up to, and lots to accomplish.