My grandparents were considerably wealthy. One year, the tax portfolio showed up in the mail and my grandmother said, "Ugh, taxes. That's terrible!" So my sister asked the obvious question: "Because taxes mean that you're losing money?" We were pretty young at the time, so we didn't fully understand what taxes were or how wealth accumulation worked.

My grandmother responded, "no, we LOVE paying taxes! If our taxes are higher, then that means we made more money last year! It's just annoying filling out the paperwork." My sister asked what it would mean if their taxes were lower. My grandmother said, "That means that we didn't make as much money, and the government takes less money from us to help people who need it. So, we donate more money in the years that we make less to make sure that people are still getting what they need."

Bonus story 1: My grandfather was in commercial real estate and was once debating with a family member about how important it is to prevent companies from converting residential zoning to commercial. The family member accused my grandfather of being a bleeding heart softie, and threw out an accusation along the lines of, "you're probably one of those people who believes that homeless people can magically succeed if you give them more handouts. You can't lift someone out of their situation by giving them things, they have to want to do it themselves."

This pissed off my grandfather who stood up to tower over this family member and said, "the last time that I bought houses for homeless people, they weren't homeless anymore. I don't know what success looks like to you, but I'd say not being homeless anymore is a pretty good start!" The family member laughed and started to retort. My grandfather interrupted him with, "it's such a shame. I was really proud of being your company's biggest donor, but now I'm concerned about who my donations are helping. I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself if you just want it enough, though."

Bonus story 2: Someone once asked my grandfather why he never got into residential real estate since it's so much easier to be a landlord for people than companies. My grandfather replied, "Charging companies to exist is cool and it forces business owners to consider their true value. Charging families to live makes you a bad neighbor."

RIP to half of the greatest grandparents ever.