Are you the first generation in your family that has had wealth, and are you trying to teach your children the value of money?

I grew up in a home where we didn’t have very much money. My dad was a schoolteacher and my mom stayed at home. My dad also worked extra jobs during the summer. We didn’t have very much money, but we always had what we needed. My siblings and I always saw that my parents saved money, lived within their means, and were also very generous. My parents taught us these financial concepts more through modeling than through actually teaching us.

Teaching and modeling good financial behavior to your children is important, and the amount of wealth you had growing up compared to how much wealth you have while raising your children makes a difference in how easy or hard it is to teach this behavior. If you’re able to provide your kids with everything they need and want as they grow up, it will be harder to teach them the value of saving and being financially disciplined. 

This will be even harder if you didn’t grow up with much wealth, because you didn’t have the advantage of learning from your parents how to best model living with excess money as opposed to living with just enough. Successfully living with limited means and successfully living with wealth require different mindsets, and it’s hard to teach your children how to live with wealth if you just learned how to do it, too.

No matter your exact situation, the critical thing is to be able to teach and model the value of money to your kids before transferring wealth to them. It would be best to have a plan for how that transfer of wealth is going to occur. In some cases, it might even be better to transfer some of your wealth while you’re alive, which gives you the advantage of being able to see how your kids are going to handle the money.

Passing wealth the right way is challenging, but important. If you would like help doing this, our life-centered financial planning process will help. Schedule a meeting with me below or give me a call at 316-535-0750 to talk about your unique financial story and next steps.