Are your children prepared to maintain and enhance the family wealth? You’ve tried to prepare your children intellectually and emotionally, but have you taught them financial responsibility? Financial literacy should start early. Age-appropriate learning starts with handling money, managing an allowance, opening a bank account, and understanding how money is used. Expose your child to how you earn money, where you spend it, and why you invest it. Some people don’t like to talk about money, but making your wealth a regular topic and relating it directly to your children’s lives helps them incorporate money into their thinking.
Be honest about the challenges you’ve had to overcome and the lessons you’ve learned from financial mistakes. Your children can also benefit from understanding the importance of living within your means. Share the family budget with them, explaining the trade-offs you’ve adopted. Knowing the difference between needs and wants, and between assets and debts, will help your kids prepare to manage wealth responsibly. Even as your children prepare to set out on their own paths, you can help them understand how to leverage their wealth through thoughtful use of investments, annuities, trusts, and charitable gifts. Helping them understand the importance of conservative stewardship can pay dividends for generations. It’s truly never too early for professional advice. I can show you and your children the right tools needed to manage your wealth.