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By Thomas Morrone CFP®, CPA

I always seemed to be obsessed with fire. My dad used to burn trash in our back yard in a small cinder block incinerator that he built. No clue as to why I would like to watch things burn, but I did. My father had a poker that he would use to move things around so the items would burn more evenly. This poker was simply the broken handle of a shovel or rake and would burn down and become smaller and smaller and eventually end up in the fire. There was always a replacement that could be found somewhere in our garage. Not until I was much older could I burn things unsupervised. My parents had a fireplace in the house so burning was not limited to the outside incinerator. What was unique about their fireplace was it was open on two sides so there were different seating options for viewing and warmth. This made fire building a little more difficult, but I loved the challenge of having the perfect fire on both sides.