Leaving a Legacy: You Need a Will!

Whether or not you think you have anything worth while, you 100% need a will!

When you die without a will the state dictates what happens with everything that's yours. Your family will be grieving for you, they don't need the added stress of having to fight the state over what happens to you and your things.

There are a lot of common misconceptions about what happens when you die like: if you die with a bunch of debt your family will be responsible for it: FALSE! It's a pretty simple formula, what you owe stands against what you own. Meaning if you have debt but own something, then that thing will be sold to meet that debt. However, if you don't own anything that's it, they can't try to collect from anyone in your family.

Now don't confuse what we're saying, just because legally they can't collect, doesn't mean they won't try! Some collector's will try but there's nothing they can do, it's the law. So think about your loved one's dealing with all this and then have the added complication of having to deal with the state because you have no will and your estate is all messed up!

Do your loved one's a favor and put things in order now, start with getting a simple will. We will give you a cheap specific way to get this done but we want you to know up front that we don't make a dime off of this endorsement. We simple are giving you this option as a help.

For a state specific will and even some other forms you might need, you can go to: http://www.uslegalforms.com/ and for about $30 get what you need (the basics).

This might not be something you want to think about as parents, but it's something that we must think about: death and what happens to our families. The best way for them to go through it is to make sure it's as easy as possible for them, that means have everything organized before you pass away. Make your intentions and wishes clear and have everything in order, also communicate these things with your family while your still alive.

This is one gift that they will be really grateful for when they are at a difficult time, so take care of it today!

What suggestions do you have for any parents out there as far as leaving a legacy? Let us know in the comments:

Leaving a Legacy: Part 1

Whether or not you want to think about it, we are all going to die (wow, that’s a morbid way to start a post!), it’s the truth.

For us as parents we have to think about what this will mean for our children. What will happen to your kids? Who will take care of them? How will that person be able to afford it financially? These questions and this topic is not something we can cover with this one blog post, so we would like the take the next several posts to dive into this subject. We would like to hopefully give you some helpful things to think about, but more importantly then that, to take some action. Look, if you take nothing else away from this whole blog, take this: words are cheap and won’t help anyone; we need you to take action!

So to start let’s go to the beginning: the foundation of leaving a legacy starts with finances.

We know there’s a lot more to it than that but none of it can get accomplished if there’s no money to do anything. In our society today we are taught the principle of live for now and not worry about the future, look our own government operates this way (how’s that working for them?). So the principle of saving for the future is a concept that is completely alien to most people, but as a parent it can’t be. Here’s the question: what do you want to leave your children, a mountain of debt or some money for them to get a jump start on their future? The answer has to be the latter because if you look at the way our government is going they won’t be able to depend on social security (what’s that?). So that means having a plan for your money now.

Now there are many ways to be smart with your money (budgeting, saving, investing) so we won’t get too specific. However we want to point out that without a plan all you’ll be doing is wondering around aimlessly.

• Start with the basics likes paying off your debt; don’t leave your kids a bunch of baggage.
• Next, start putting some money aside, either in a simple savings account or getting into something more complex like mutual funds or stocks. Like we said, we will leave that up to you to do the research and figure out what’s best for your family. The thing is we never know when we’re going to die so it’s important as parents for us to start implementing these things now!
• After you have the basic’s down it’s probably time to start thinking more long term. For our group we are all self-employed. Lately we have all been thinking about our legacy and each of us has decided that we want to leave our kids more than just money. We want to leave them business’s that have residual income. When we die we don’t want our significant others to have to worry about going out and finding a job and finding a reliable babysitter and all that. We want them to take over a business that is already set up and making money, then they can stay home and be with the kids through the difficult time of a loss. You can see exactly what two of us have started here:

 Chaka:  http://tinyurl.com/6hqczyb   Kimanzi: talesofwork.com

As we go through this series we will endeavor to give you some more specific things to look at and think about, this week we want you to sit down and look at your finances. Where can you make improvements to start putting money away? This might mean giving up on some of those things that you really enjoy like eating out or going to the movies. You might not be able to buy that newest I phone or new gadget. As a parent that’s what we signed up for, whether or not it was planned, your number one priority has to be your children and their future!

So looking at your situation right now, what will you leave your kids?

Real Parenting

There are some many different things for your kids to be involved with these days. There are after school programs, school, sports, Church youth groups, tutoring, mentors, Boys and Girl scouts, and the list could probably take the rest of this page. There is a great danger here that we want you to be aware of and that danger is putting your parenting on auto pilot!

These programs are meant to be a help to you, not to raise your kids! They will teach your kids different lessons and things that will help your children later in their lives, but you have to be the one to raise them. It's so easy to drop our children at these places and hope they teach them these things and you think you have the night, week, or month off because of what they learned. DON'T DO IT, IT'S WAY TO DANGEROUS!

You have to guide them with their morals, you have to take these lessons and "parent" them into your children. Your children were a gift and a responsibility for you, so take that responsibility serious and let them participate but make sure you are the parent, not anyone else!

So what has been your experience? You can leave a comment below:

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