Good Evening
I want to start by saying my parents were Robert and Virginia Crawford. My dad’s mother was Martha Munford. My mom’s mother was Maggie Burnett. All were born and raised in Quitman County, Marks Mississippi. I am proud to be a product of that lineage.
Last week I saw the most gut wrenching humanitarian thing. It caused me to stop for a very long minute and just breathe. It is what prompted me, to want to speak about personal and generational wealth.
Here is what happened.
It was about 8 o’clock in the morning. I was at work. And, I was the only one in the office. As I’m putting my purse away and turning my computer on, I hear raised voices. People were talking in a tense manner. I decided to go check it out.
Now, the building where I work has a good size walkway, about 10 to 15 feet, that leads to the building entrance door. There is an overhang from the roof, that covers the walkway. You know so that you are covered from the rain and stuff as you approach the building.
Now, as you walk up this walkway, on one side there is a raised concrete plant box that has all types of flowers, plants, and rocks in it. This plant box is large enough where you can sit on the concrete portion of the box.
So from my office, I hear the voices coming from this walkway area. So I go over to the window to look out to see what was going on.
When I looked out the window, I saw two people; a son and his mother. The son looked to be about 45 or 50 and the mom looked to be about 65 or 70 years old.
What was so gut wrenching about that?
The son was helping his mom to pull down her pants and to sit just past the concrete on the plant box, so she could use the bathroom. When the mom was finished, the son helped her to pull up her pants. He then helped his mom to sit on the other side of the walkway. Next, he pick-up their clothes from the ground and put them in a duffel bag. Then, he folded up their cardboard box.
They were homeless, and by the looks of things, they had slept in that walkway overnight.
Why am I telling you this story, and what does it have to do with personal and generational wealth? I don’t want that to ever be you, your kids or your family.
You can have a comfortable and wealthy life. And, it’s ok to be comfortable and wealthy.
What I want to share today are some top key things that wealthy people actually do to get, keep and pass their money & assets from generation to generation. Everyday, I help them to do this.
And, I want you to know that you can do the same things.
- They Owning Real Estate. They own their home and rental properties.
Why Real Estate?
- After a period of time, you have no more mortgage payment
- You get residual income from each rental property
- You can sell it and make a profit
- They Leverage Compounding Interest- with Roth IRA.
Why Roth IRA?
- Your money grows tax free
- When you retire, you can take out money without paying taxes
- There are no mandatory minimum distributions
- You Kids may not have to pay taxes on the inherited money
Traditional IRA works too; however, taxes are treated differently.
The goal is to save using compounding interest.
And
- They have a Business
Why a Business?
- It’s an asset you can sell to get money
- It can help reduce your personal tax bill
- You can hire your kids, which can lower your tax bill
Wealthy people still have jobs. They use the money from their job to buy the assets that I just mentioned.
As for generational wealth,
- Wealth people put their assets in a trust.
- They have a pour-over-will in case something gets missed.
- They use the trust to pass assets from generation to generation
Plus
- A trust keeps your assets out of probate.
- It can help you avoid guardianship and conservatorship.
- And it can stop someone from trying to steal your house.
Wealth is relative to what you want, and what life style you want to have. You can set the terms for the wealth you want.
Thank you for listening