Chapter 30

I was used to well off. As Harley I had been used to far more than well off. But a billionaire?

Three times over? Oh My God. Throw in a few expletives while you're at it! God Damn!

"I'm richer than Donald Trump." I said through my slack-jawed daze.

"you're richer than quite a few billionaires," Michael laughed. "The Forbes 400 is a list of the 400 richest Americans and you are richer than almost three hundred of them."

"How does this work then?" I asked through my slowly weeping eyes. I was crying tears, not of joy, not of pain or anger, but tears of uncertainty. I had no idea how to be a billionaire. "Do I just ask for more money if I want it, or what?"

"The figure your lawyer showed you was fifty million dollars, correct?"

"Yes, and I thought I was rich when he told me."

"The fifty million figure indicates your personal wealth. That is the amount you have to pay taxes on personally, though our tax department has been filing all the tax returns for your parents and I strongly recommend you allow us to file for you as well."

"Oh absolutely. I can't count high enough to do this kind of return," I laughed and he joined me.

"The rest of your wealth is actually 'owned' by a small group of limited liability corporations. Profits from those corporations are invested back into them on a quarterly basis and for now the schedule is that on that same quarterly schedule, some of those profits can be returned as dividends to the shareholders. You are the only shareholder, so the LLC group will divert whatever amount is needed to refill your personal account back up to that fifty million level."

"So I could spend fifty million dollars every three months and not run out?" he nodded. I gulped.

"How much of that is involved in the FiberDyne investment?" I asked.

"Ahh, FiberDyne," Michael ran his hand through his hair again and took a large swallow of iced tea. I suddenly realized my throat was a little dry myself and followed suit. "I will let the fiberDyne people talk to you about what your investment with them means, but for the moment it is treated as an unrealized investment, so it is effectively off our balance sheet and not something you need to declare until such time as FiberDyne assigns a value to your share of the company."

"I'll be meeting their president, Lloyd McCoy Tomorrow morning. Edwina Ibarra tells me that my parents were close friends of his."

"They were. They met on the flight out from New Jersey when they first moved out. They just hit it off and were friends immediately. Lloyd's a good guy, you'll like him."

"So far I've liked everyone my parents knew here in Santa Rosa."

We both sipped our iced tea again for a quiet pause.

"So, where do I go from here?" I asked once we'd both set our glasses down again.

"It really depends on what you want to do with your investments. Right now they are still running under long term guidance provided by your father. Those instructions are only good for a few more months, and every week they become slightly less effective because he is no longer here to fine tune them in reaction to changing markets and economies."

"What would you recommend?" I asked.

"I'm not the genius your father was, but I'm considered to be one of the best of those of us who wished we were him. I think I can do at least half as well as your father was doing and that would be some better than most. Your money's here already, which means its earning me money too."

"I'll check with people I trust, but I think you are exactly where I need to be, financially." I said, reaching out my hand. We stood and shook on that.

"Come back in early next week and we can get everything signed. That will give you time to do some due diligence on me, and give me time to get a fresh set of papers drawn up and over to your lawyer for review. You're keeping Darius Booker, I assume?"