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“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Family Bank PhilosophyBuilding financial wealth is a goal for most families. Yet, while money is important, family wealth is more than money. Family wealth revolves around the happiness of your family, your attitude toward life, the mind-set to help others, and yes, your financial assets. What is the ultimate foundation of family wealth? It is your values.
Your values set the tone for everything that follows.
We created the Family Bank as both a financial planning concept and a unique and robust set of processes to make sure that your family is operating on a sold, values-engaged foundation.
Ultimately, we want to make sure that: (1) you build long-term financial stability and financial wealth, (2) your children and grandchildren come to understand the value of money, to respect it, and to manage it, and (3) your family and community relationships are enhanced through a family-involved approach to charitable giving. Building WealthIf you want to build wealth, then you know that capital is critical.
Why? It's simply a math calculation. Larger amounts of capital allow you to potentially earn larger DOLLARS of interest, even when the returns are low. The key point is to focus on how many DOLLARS of interest are being generated as opposed to the RATE of return being earned. For example, would you rather have a 100% return on $100, or a 2% return on $1,000,000? Again, capital is critical. What prevents so many people from accumulating capital? Well, in an effort to avoid paying interest, many people consistently spend down their savings when making capital purchases. This is often a mistake. Imagine that you have $100,000 in an account earning 6.5% interest per year. If you were to keep the capital intact, that account would be worth $352,365 at the end of 20 years. 
If you were to spend the capital down however, and if it took you 10-years to rebuild the account to $100,000, what would happen? As the graph shows, the account would only be worth $187,714 at the end of 20 years.
The opportunity cost of the decision to spend down your assets was $164,651. That hurts! Through the use of the banking tactics made available through the Family Bank, you can avoid this problem. In the process, you can build significant financial wealth for yourself and the generations that follow. Financial AcumenAmerica is an amazing country. We have freedoms, economic opportunities, and a standard of living that very few nations in the world can match. Yet, in a strange way, our affluence is changing the very culture that allowed that success to occur.
Consider these statistics:
Many people observe these problems in their own families.
They recall having worked during high school and college. They recall being proud of buying dinner - with their own hard-earned money - for their parents. They remember the quite pride of learning the importance of hard work, thrift, and the need for discipline to pay bills on time. Those same people are concerned about what their own children and grandchildren are NOT learning. Through the Family Bank, we help you create traditions that foster financial knowledge and a respect for money in your children and grandchildren. We also use strategies that link the access to the financial assets in your Family Bank to the values you want your children and grandchildren to adopt. That is a great start to any legacy. Making a DifferenceCreating traditions that support family relationships is difficult. This is particularly true in our increasingly competitive and global world. As children and grandchildren get older and move away, what will keep them anchored to you?
To answer that question, look to human nature. Remember 9/11? Remember Hurricane Katrina? Remember the tornadoes and the fires? Think about the soldiers coming home from war, the ALS ice-bucket challenge, the cancer walks and Girl Scout cookies. While the human race is far from perfect, it is inspiring to see how we come together in times of trouble. You can leverage the natural desire to help others in a time of need to create traditions that keep your family together…even when you are far apart. There are plenty of disruptions that create the need for charitable help. Wars and sickness are still with us. Here at home, our massive federal debt will eventually affect the social safety net. Technological innovation has the potential to be a true game changer. Who knows how machine-learning and artificial intelligence are going to disrupt the economy and society at large. You can make a difference. And you can teach your children and grandchildren how to make a difference as well. With a focus on the gratitude you feel for the things you have been blessed with, you can create a family tradition around charitable giving that ties your family together for the rest of your lives. It is a tradition that will connect you more closely to your community, too. Most importantly, it is a tradition that you will be be proud to pass down to future generations. The Family Bank can help you make this vision real. Contact us to get started. |
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