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?