# What is Family Teaching

My grandfather told my father a phrase before he passed away:
"A person cannot earn a countable amount of money."

According to my father, my grandfather was a landlord by origin, and our ancestors in Shandong were once quite wealthy. Later, New China was established, the family scattered, and all properties and farmland were lost. But my grandfather's phrase was deeply imprinted on my father's mind.

Later, my father passed this phrase on to me.

So when I started investing in stocks, futures, and gold back then, my father not only didn't stop me—he actively supported me.

Because he understood: earning a countable amount of money means you can only live a countable life.

## 1. What is "Countable Money"?

Let me explain this phrase first.

The "countable money" my grandfather spoke of refers to money earned by selling your time.

For example, a regular job.

You earn 10,000 yuan a month, 120,000 yuan a year, and retire after 40 years of work, totaling 4.8 million yuan.

This number can be calculated precisely.

Take a day off, lose a day's pay.

Can't work anymore, no more income.

This is called linear income, or active income.

Its essence is: your time and life are priced.

There's nothing wrong with this—most people live this way. But if you're thinking about financial freedom, this model basically won't get you there.

Because you only have two hands, and there are only 24 hours in a day.

The upper limit of earning money by trading time is fixed.

## 2. So What is "Uncountable" Money?

My grandfather didn't specify, but what I understand is: money that comes in without directly selling your time.

In other words, investment.

Let me give you an example to make it clear.

Back then, I made a trade that took less than 3 months from opening to closing position, and the profit I made was equivalent to 3 years of my salary at the time.

During those 3 months, I ate normally, slept normally, felt anxious when losses happened, but the moment the profits hit my account, I suddenly recalled my grandfather's words: "A person cannot earn a countable amount of money."

If I had only been working those 3 years, I would need to actually sit at my desk for 3 years, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, rain or shine, to get that amount.

But that trade—3 months, spending no more than 2 hours a day looking at charts and reviewing trades, the remaining time, the market worked for me.

This isn't a luck issue; it's a model difference:

Working is addition: work one day, earn one day's pay. Stop working, income stops.

Investing is multiplication: money itself generates money. As long as your direction is right, compound interest helps you snowball.

The ceiling of work is the starting line of investment.

## 3. But Investment is Not Gambling

At this point, I must clarify something.

Many people think investment is gambling—chasing rallies and selling declines, listening to tips, following the crowd. That's earning money with risk, not "uncountable" money.

True investment earns the money of knowledge. My grandfather was a landlord by origin, but according to my father, the family's wealth wasn't simply from collecting rent. He understood grain prices, understood good and bad harvests, understood when to stockpile and when to sell.

Isn't that the "futures" of that era?

So "a person cannot earn a countable amount of money" isn't telling you to gamble, but to build a kind of ability to earn money without constantly selling your time.

This ability requires:

**Knowledge accumulation:** understanding economic cycles, understanding industry trends

**Disciplined execution:** holding when you should hold, cutting when you should cut—this part is hardest

**Patient waiting:** opportunities come every day, but good ones require patience

My father supported me doing investment not because he supported me gambling, but because he supported me practicing this ability.

## 4. Work vs. Investment: Not Either/Or

Let me say one final, possibly offensive thing. I'm not advising you to quit your job and day trade.

The meaning of work isn't just that paycheck. It gives you cash flow, social connections, and a reason to get out of bed every day. For most people, work is the foundation, investment is the amplifier.

Work is responsible for keeping you alive

Investment is responsible for making you live well

The best path is: use the cash flow from work to feed your investment seeds; use investment returns to nourish your confidence in life.

In the early years of my investment practice, I also lost money, also blew up positions, also stared at charts at midnight until my heart raced. But because I had work, I could endure, could learn gradually, could wait until those right trades came along.

My grandfather's phrase, passed to my father, passed to me—I'll probably pass it down too.

Not so the next generation will gamble, but so they remember: in this lifetime, don't turn yourself into a paycheck stub.

My grandfather had already passed before I was born, so unfortunately I never met him, never had the chance to hear him personally tell the family stories of those years. But his one phrase has been passed down three generations and still influences my choices today.

I suppose this is what family teaching is about.