FPU Lessons In Legacy

I have been thinking about this idea of generational legacy and the more I ponder, more questions come to mind. As usual, I am not able to wrap my mind around this. I had mentioned in the last post that Lara has started Kindergarten which helped begin my thinking about my assigned space in history and how that is integrated with the previous generation.

The other prompt to this line of thinking was this Financial Peace University course that Hilary and I are taking. Through the lessons about becoming financially responsible we're learning the implications of financial peace for our kids and then their kids. We are in our fourth week and I have received so much more than I had anticipated. I expected this course to be 13 weeks of formulas and spreadsheets. Instead, we are having our financial world view re-ordered.

Getting back to this whole family tree thing, I am learning that Hilary and I have the power to heavily influence the next generation simply by becoming better guardians of our finances. And I don't mean building wealth so that our kids "have it made." No trust fund babies here. And I don't mean building wealth so that I can obtain lots of stuff otherwise not available. Neither of those outcomes are valuable to me. What I am learning and now want to accomplish is to provide a financial stability so that real opportunity is available to myself and children. Not the kind of opportunity that I grew up believing. The kind of opportunity that would magically appear with hard work and dedication. You know that old adage, "You can do whatever you want if you work hard enough." Not that hard work and dedication are invaluable and not capable of producing achievement. Remember the generation view. My hard work and focused dedication can only get me so far. In my life I have found that those things on their own, although advancing by nature, have not produced the expected results. As life continues I form new expectations based on the treasures left behind from the previous generation welded to new values and points of view shaped by my experiences. All this with my eye on the future, wondering and hoping that my productivity can be of worth to my children.

From lesson two of FPU Hilary and I were reminded again of the power of compound interest. I suppose this concept could be used to understand the generations and how legacy is developed or destroyed. Basically it's this: Taking what I have and investing it, as opposed to ignoring it or stuffing it in between my mattresses. When I carefully plan and make investments with my money or in my life the end result is multiplication.