Gen Xer D.D. Wood has lived many different lives. She has been a teenage mom, a rock star, a military wife and a schoolteacher. As her life has changed through the decades, she says the work ethic she inherited from her parents keeps her grounded.
When she was in her mid-20s and receiving six-digit paychecks from a recording contract, instead of splurging, she used the money to provide for her family.
“It’s not easy living off your music, but we did well, and when we got record deal checks, we budgeted and planned,” Wood said. “We set it aside so it would last, so that we could focus on our music and the kids and not take on extra jobs. We weren’t penny pinchers—we took the kids to Disneyland—but we didn’t go crazy with the money.”
Wood, who is 54 and was born just a few months after the end of the baby-boom generation, has lived in her childhood hometown and worked as a high school English teacher for the past 28 years.
What did you learn about money from your parents?
My parents were hard-working people, born and raised in Southern California, and my father worked several jobs to make sure me and my siblings had what he wanted us to have. He worked in the Coast Guard and served in World II, the Korean War and Vietnam. I remember he took a second job to buy us a television.
There was a sense of community to earning and sharing what we had. We all had fruit trees, and we had a lemon tree, so we’d make and sell lemonade on our sidewalk for 5 or 10 cents. This was the early 1970s. If we saw that a neighbor needed help moving the trash cans or trimming the lawn, we chipped in.
How did you handle money as a rock ‘n’ roller?
My second husband and I were fortunate to be successful in the music business in our 20s. I signed on to Hollywood Records, which was Disney’s label, and my husband, Joe Wood, who was in the band True Sounds of Liberty, signed on to Atlantic. My first paycheck from Hollywood Records was more than $100,000. This was in 1990, and my album “Tuesdays Are Forever” came out in 1993. I also earned another $75,000 for selling song rights.
I was in my mid- to late-20s then with two kids. I had my first child at age 18. Joe was on the road a lot—sometimes earning $500 to $1,000 per show. We were flush, but we also knew the music industry has its ups and downs, so we used the money to support our family. When I got my record deal, there was no internet, cellphones or YouTube. You had to build your name by constantly touring, and I didn’t like being away from the kids so much. Eventually, I turned to teaching because I knew I would love teaching the next generation of young artists. Plus I could have something close to home and consistent that came with a pension.
How would you describe your generation’s attitude toward money?
“I think my generation has a strong American dream work ethic—that if you’re born without a lot and you work hard, you can get ahead. I think the American dream still exists. Maybe a traditional American dream isn’t available anymore—like the house and car and all that—but I look at millennials who are pushing boundaries in innovative ways, and their American dream is flourishing, like some of the young chefs or young musicians I see here around Long Beach who are using the internet to create their platforms.
What do you like to spend your money on?
Not surprisingly, we own a ton of instruments. We basically have a recording studio in our house, filled with guitars, pianos, synthesizers, you name it. And we like to go to shows, at the Pantages or Segerstrom or The Wiltern or special events at The Broad.
Recently, we bought a second historic cabin in Big Bear, California, near our first historic cabin, that we’ve been renovating. So now we have two that we’re restoring, and this is something we can share with our children and pass down to them.
What’s a money move you’re most proud of?
My dad died suddenly from a heart attack when I was 19, so I also helped out my mom. I moved back to my childhood home in Long Beach and was eventually able to buy our house from my mother, giving the family more financial security. I’ve been living in this house on and off since I was 19 and then bought it 10 years ago. The house will be paid off before I retire, and it was a good money move for my family because the real estate market in our area is very stable and once again, this will be an asset for my children.
Katrina Woznicki is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her reporting and essays have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, AFAR, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and U.S. News & World Report, among others.
Inset photo courtesy of D.D. Wood.
Read more from this series: Generations Talk Money: Gen Z's Caroline O'Reilly.