{"id":541,"date":"2011-01-14T10:39:13","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T15:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?p=541"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:39:07","slug":"18-years-are-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"18 Years Are Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It seems like yesterday, but now 18 years have passed. \u00a0My youngest daughter turns 18 today. \u00a0Like you and your children, I remember 18 years ago today for several reasons. \u00a0First, we were so excited that she would be born within just a few miles of our house. \u00a0Second, it was the day my father-in-law swore he would never eat another Big Mac (they were 99 cents each and he got a bad one).<\/p>\n<p>It is funny how you remember special events in your life, but you can not remember other things that have occurred more recently. \u00a0As I tell clients, almost 20 years have passed by and it is hard to recall where they have went. \u00a0Minutes into hours, hours into days, days into years &#8211; time waits on none of us.<\/p>\n<p>I hope we have taught her well in all the areas of her life. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>What are you doing with the days, months, and years in your life and the lives of your family?<\/p>\n<p>Happy Birthday Morgan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems like yesterday, but now 18 years have passed. \u00a0My youngest daughter turns 18 today. \u00a0Like you and your children, I remember 18 years ago today for several reasons. \u00a0First, we were so excited that she would be born within just a few miles of our house. \u00a0Second, it was the day my father-in-law [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>18 Years Are Gone - Financial Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"18 Years Are Gone - Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems like yesterday, but now 18 years have passed. \u00a0My youngest daughter turns 18 today. \u00a0Like you and your children, I remember 18 years ago today for several reasons. \u00a0First, we were so excited that she would be born within just a few miles of our house. \u00a0Second, it was the day my father-in-law [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/financialfocus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-14T15:39:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/18-years-are-gone\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/18-years-are-gone\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\"},\"headline\":\"18 Years Are Gone\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-14T15:39:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/18-years-are-gone\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":171,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Encouragement\",\"Personal\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/18-years-are-gone\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/18-years-are-gone\\\/\",\"name\":\"18 Years Are Gone - Financial Focus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-14T15:39:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/18-years-are-gone\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"description\":\"Personal Financial Coaching\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"width\":\"400\",\"height\":\"72\",\"caption\":\"Financial Focus\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/financialfocus\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\",\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Parkey Thompson\"},\"description\":\"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \\\/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/parkey-thompson\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"18 Years Are Gone - Financial Focus","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"18 Years Are Gone - Financial Focus","og_description":"It seems like yesterday, but now 18 years have passed. \u00a0My youngest daughter turns 18 today. \u00a0Like you and your children, I remember 18 years ago today for several reasons. \u00a0First, we were so excited that she would be born within just a few miles of our house. \u00a0Second, it was the day my father-in-law [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/","og_site_name":"Financial Focus","article_publisher":"http:\/\/financialfocus","article_published_time":"2011-01-14T15:39:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00","author":"Parkey Thompson","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Parkey Thompson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/"},"author":{"name":"Parkey Thompson","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4"},"headline":"18 Years Are Gone","datePublished":"2011-01-14T15:39:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/"},"wordCount":171,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Encouragement","Personal"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/","name":"18 Years Are Gone - Financial Focus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-14T15:39:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:39:07+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/18-years-are-gone\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","name":"Financial Focus","description":"Personal Financial Coaching","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization","name":"Financial Focus","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","width":"400","height":"72","caption":"Financial Focus"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/financialfocus","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4","name":"Parkey Thompson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Parkey Thompson"},"description":"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/author\/parkey-thompson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}