Crafting A Family Legacy: A Financial Plan That Protects What Matters
Two couples walk into my office. Both are wearing the same brands of clothing, and are comparably dressed. Each pairing has roughly the same age, race, and educational background; from all appearances, you could guess they were clones of each other. And yet, when they each sit down to talk to me about financial planning, their situations could be miles apart.
Anyone can come up with a basic financial plan that works for a family just by following common sense. But if you want something different—a blueprint for creating a legacy—you must take a different route. Start by asking yourself one question:
Why?
Those couples who hypothetically walked into my office may look the same, but their financial backgrounds and experiences can also be vastly different. This means their reasons for seeing me can be just as unique. So while I can give you a financial plan that explains how your future can be what you envision, the more important question I need answered is why.
When you know why you want financial planning help, you can determine how to create that blueprint. Your reasons are going to be unique to you and your family. It could be about building generational wealth for your descendants so they can have financial freedom, or for ensuring your kids have a head start on their future, but your wealth does not fully subsidize it.
Asking yourself why is a huge part of the process. The other part comes down to a topic I discuss extensively in my book, Values Over Valuables.
What Are Your Values?
Think for a moment about what having a legacy means to you. The word itself in its noun form is defined in a few different ways, but only two apply here:
With the first definition, yes, your legacy is the wealth and goods you pass on to your family, and that's something I work on regularly. As for the second, this is the key. Your legacy can be the values you pass on to the following generations. This builds into something bigger than you or any stockpile of cash ever could become, and that's special.
This also requires you to do some self-examination. What are your values? How do you share them with your family? Do you follow them all the time and use them as filters when you make decisions?
Finding the answers to those questions will set you down the path to truly crafting a family legacy.
How to Find Your Values
This is oversimplifying things a bit. While it's easy for me to say you should go out and find your values, actually doing so is a little bit more complicated.
I have a worksheet in my book that can help with the process. The first step is to find ten words that resonate with you. They're words like Balance, Independence, Humility, Respect, and so on. Once you find them, you should expand on those ideas. Why are they important to you, and what makes them valuable? Write all of this down on a piece of paper.
Now have your family go through the same process. See what words you all have in common, and create a family values list. You can create core values out of this as well, which are the ones that, above all else, your family will always stick to.
This is an enlightening process. By discovering the values you have in common with your family, you build a framework for how you live your lives. As your children grow, they will take these values with them and repeat the process with their own families. Some of them will take root and stick. Others may fall by the wayside. The result is a system unique to your family.
Standing the Test of Time
You've created a legacy—one that can last for decades, if not longer. It's a bit introspective, and it can create some friction. But in the end, your legacy is more than about money; it's about ideals and values. There's nothing more valuable than that.
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