You are to be congratulated. Because living in the “distracted” age, it’s hard to get your message through to the next generation(s). In my conversations with you, I hear stories of your success in teaching them.
With my own eyes, I can see you’ve been able to impart some sound investment advice to your children and grandchildren. You have helped them on the road to becoming fairly rich, exactly the group of investors I’m interested in helping. You have a relationship with them. They respect money. And it’s hard to believe how much you have. Nice.
The thing about teaching about money is you never know which lessons sink in. You can talk and talk until you’re blue in the face about saving money. But, good or bad, nothing is as impactful as your children hearing you talk about money when you thought they weren’t listening. When they were supposed to be watching television, and you and your spouse were having a difficult conversation about future spending or saving. That’s something you can’t teach in a book. It’s a life lesson. And it will stay with them because they know what struggle sounds like. They watched you live it.
And at some point, you need to let them fly. Your Survival Guy is not a fan of managing money from the grave. I don’t like trusts set up to release money on certain birthdays. I think you know when the time is right, and if not, you should be able to leave that decision to the next generation. You’ve done enough. Don’t lose sleep over it.
Because if your kids or grandkids aren’t good with money now, what’s going to change that? More money? Probably not. Good families create good habits without even knowing it. I have a feeling that’s exactly what you did. If they understand the power of compounding, your job is almost done (it’s never done, right?). But it is up to them to keep that compounding machine running for as long as they can.
Action Line: When you want to talk about the future of your money, email ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
