Roberta and Silas signing the documents.
You never know what you’re going to get when you have children, and apparently ten years ago almost to this day, I gave birth to Family Ties Alex P. Keaton, minus the suit. Joe and I are left-leaning and I’m particularly un-business minded, to the point of fault. But Silas, our son, is obsessed with money and how to make it. He might have voted for Reagan. The other day, he asked me how much he could sell his room for.
Conversations with Silas revolve around the price and reward of pretty much everything: He unabashedly haggles over his allowance, he’s a Monopoly ninja, he wants to know how much I make a year, how much our car cost, and though he likes our house fine, he’s also said that he wouldn’t mind living in one of those “big houses” in Pacific Heights where he wouldn’t have to share a room with his brother.
So, Joe decided it was time to channel this energy into something positive—a lesson learned about investing. As of last week, Silas is now Tacolicious II’s first official investor, having ponied up $100 for a .0023-percent return. Joe took him to the Financial District to visit to our lawyer Roberta Economidis’s office to sign the paperwork and make it official. I stopped Silas today as he was on his way up to play video games and asked him a few questions.
What kind of return are you going to get out of your $100?
What do you mean?
Like how much money will you be getting back from this?
$5? I’m not sure.
Why do you want to invest in Tacolicious?
Because it’s a good place and the first one is already doing good so I bet the second one is going to do good. And it’s downtown [ed’s note: ahem, the Marina] and a lot of people like tacos. And it’s like a family restaurant.
What’s your favorite thing on the menu?
The spicy beef taco.
What was it like at the lawyer’s office?
It was cool. She made me sign my name. She made me do stuff on the piece of paper. I got a Kit-Kat.
What will you do with the money?
Save it for college or something. Or, no—I’ll use it for a parrot.
Silas Comfort Phipps: Baller.