When we talk about “generational wealth”, we usually consider historically rich families; like the Rockefellers, the Carnages, or the Kennedys. In future years we will be comparing the even greater generational wealth of Jeff Bezos ($131 billion), Bill Gates ($100 billion), or the Bernard Arnault family ($94 billion).
As strange as it may seem, however, you also are listed among those experiencing generational wealth. Whether you are a seasoned career specialist, a budding tech genius, or a faithful worker at McDonald’s, you are involved in the phenomenon of wealth. Even if you are a person living on the streets with two stolen bicycles, one stolen grocery store shopping cart, one high-tech tent from REI, a down-filled sleeping bag from Salvation Army, and a waist-band stash-belt filled with all your most precious valuables – you are involved in the wealth experience.
This blog is going to be a little bit different from the over 500 previous weekly blogs shared with you from this author:
Today, we are going to engage in a vitally important exercise in generational wealth. The results are strictly for your eyes only. In fact, you don’t even have to write anything down, if you don’t want to. But at this point in life, and at this point in our slippery culture, it is going to be very necessary for you to at least walk through the process mentally and crystallize where you have been, where you are now, and where you will be in the future.
Our exercise is divided into three parts. Be as thorough as you need to be; be more candid than you thought you would be; be open and receptive to more possibilities and options than you thought you ever had before, regarding the future.
GENERATIONAL WEALTH
1. Wealth Accumulation:
What was your game plan for your personal wealth accumulation when you first started out?
How did that work out for you?
What would you do the same if you had opportunity for a “do-over”?
What would you change about your original game plan?
Why?
2. Wealth Preservation:
Are you presently gaining or losing your accumulated wealth?
What is your present strategy for preserving what you now have?
What is your present strategy for adding to your present accumulation?
Why?
3. Wealth Distribution:
What is you plan, if any, for dividing up or restructuring your accumulated assets?
What is your exit plan for distribution of your total accumulated wealth?
Why?
I hope that this little exercise caught you at exactly the right time. I have become convinced that the true fulfillment of a person is not to be found in what kind or how much wealth he or she has accumulated, but rather in the person’s integrity and ability to positively affect those around them.
“The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?”
(John D. Rockefeller)