Teaching Generational Wealth
The understanding of how to build passive income and realizing financial independence in our lives needs to be learnt. We are not born with this knowledge. I believe these wealth tips will start that process for you.
Normally, we all learn about money initially from our families. The formative learnings of wealth are very powerful things and often hard to break out of if those learnings are flawed.
Over several years of self-education of how old-money families maintain their wealth and pass on the lessons and truths about money to their children, I started passing on to my children the basics of what I had learned.
This included amusing little one-liners like “20 percent!” (referring to how much we invest each pay check) or responding to stock market news with “Oh look, stocks are cheap – time to buy up” or weaving statements like “An asset is not an asset unless it earns you money” into conversations. The children rolled their eyes or scoffed and I was convinced I was not getting through.
However, nowadays I hear these concepts being mentioned in conversation by my family and I smile quietly to myself. Some of them now ask me for budget advice. Others of them get me to help set up automated investing systems. Every now and again, they will quietly drop a dollar-figure of what they have saved up or invested or how many dividends they received, and I must admit, I’m quietly impressed.
A Letter To My Children
Some time ago, I wrote this online letter to my children. I’m sharing it here for everyone’s benefit. I think it applies to all of us, not just our children. I sure wish my parents had written me a letter like this.
To my very dear children
How thankful I am to have you all as my children. You are all unique, sassy, well educated, confident and smart. You have survived the bumblings of my attempts at parenthood and despite this have turned out fine people. You all are unique and significant.
There will be many things that I will only be able to look on and encourage you about in life – ultimately you will need to live your life and find your balance. Now as young adults I no longer will be able to brush off a grazed knee or concoct some fanciful notion to cover an ugly life-truth, nor will I be able to figure out how to ward off future illness, sadness or unsavory life events for you. Nevertheless, I intend to be around for a quite while – but not forever.
I commend to you all the power of being gracious, of poise, of times of quietness and reflection. I counsel you all to consider the effectiveness of emotional intelligence and the virtues of being wise as a serpent yet harmless as a dove. Be street-smart but never lose your dignity. Commit to bringing the best out in others as this is a much wiser use of your energy than trying to change others. Be frugal, yet seek quality. Be wise, but humble. Include all, but rely on none. Seek contentment punctuated with occasional bursts of happiness as this is very achievable and is the foundation to a good life. Be unfailingly kind to each other.
I learned late in life the basic rules of wealth and thus now exhort you all to heed these powerful habits now in your early lives. These five habits of wealth cannot be employed later in life with the same astonishing outcomes compared to employing them from the outset of your working lives.
These five habits of wealth are as follows:
1. Invest forever one fifth of every single dollar that comes your way.
2. Actively and openly spend one tenth of your income on your community for its betterment.
3. Spend the rest on living with delight and quality
4. Specialize in your chosen fields of work.
5. Arise with the sun and be mindful of the moon
These five habits will quietly and inevitably make you unostentatiously wealthy, philanthropic, significant community contributors, discerning consumers, indispensable experts in businesses and motivated healthy achievers.
Wealth is an immeasurably important servant for many important factors in life. As a result, these five habits will make you worthy and capable administrators thereof. An unwavering application of these five habits will mean your wealth is inevitable.
I regret having not taught you these things from childhood and embedding them soundly into your psyches – but I simply never knew them to be able to teach you. Nevertheless, all is not lost, as I now hand these five powerful habits across to you – not to talk about, but to do. Your bit is to outwork the five habits into your lives in your own particular ways. I will encourage you all the way.
The beautiful thing about these five habits for you all, is that they will not only make you prosperous but all those around you prosperous too. Wherever you go, these five habits will create growth, significance, empowerment, gratitude, loyalty and improvement for all. There will be astounding outcomes, of this you have my word.
All my love to you my dear children. Of a surety the courage and savviness of our forebears has come alive again in you all – the world awaits you.
All my love. Pa xxxxx
The 5 Wealth Tips
So in summary – and in less affectionate language 🙂 , the Five Wealth Tips are as follows:
1. Invest 20% of every single dollar that comes your way (no exceptions).
2. Spend 10% your income on contributing to society.
3. Live off the remaining 70% mindfully.
4. Get good at your job – be the best you can.
5. Get up early every day and be aware of the cycles of life.
This is a simple, yet profound formula for financial independence and developing a large and meaningful network of quality people in our lives.
Ultimately, this formula will bring us the means to live our life the way we want to live it, whilst being surrounded by great people and having a higher order purpose to life.
These wealth tips are a worthy endeavor. They have been for me and my family, most certainly.
Cheers
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