[Sportschosun Reporter Ahn Ji] Lee Jong-beom, known as the "Son of the Wind," revealed that he used his signing bonus to repay his father’s debts, leaving him with a zero bank balance even when he got married.
Lee Jong-beom appeared as a guest on the seventh episode of tvN STORY’s "Namgyeoseo Mwohage."
Lee Jong-beom recalled the difficult period he went through. He said, "I used my signing bonus to repay my father’s debts. After paying them off, I had no money left. I had no money even when I got married."
Lee Jong-beom said it took him five years to repay all the debts. Recalling how he had to support his family despite being the youngest of seven siblings, he said, "I started making money after I went to Japan. I’m the youngest of seven children. My father was 43 when he had me. I’m someone who rose from humble beginnings."
"I felt that my family would not make it unless I worked hard," he said. "I was in the first year of middle school at the time. I never went through adolescence. I just worked hard." Pak Se-ri responded, "I never went through adolescence either."
Lee Jong-beom said he received a signing bonus and an annual salary of 82 million won in 1992. "In today’s value, it would be worth about 1 billion to 2 billion won," he said, surprising the others. He added, "I could have bought half of Gwangju’s land," drawing further astonishment.
After hearing this, Pak Se-ri said, "As soon as I started making money, I repaid the debts and told my father, ‘You must buy land and keep cash on hand.’" She continued, "He bought land in Daejeon, but it was land whose location he didn’t even know. The costs of buying the land were greater than the price of the land itself," she said with a sigh.
Lee Young-ja said, "I heard that my father bought land in Taean County. He took me there to see it, and it was all sea. We could even buy the sea because we could catch seafood and collect seaweed there."
However, Lee Young-ja expressed regret, saying, "But it wasn’t even a place where seaweed grew. You could only see my land when the tide went out. There was an uninhabited island across from it, and I heard that sand used to make glass could be found there. He should have bought that instead. But he avoided that area and bought this land."
anjee85@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
