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Tiffany Vaught
Tax Accountant
Tiffany Vaught is a Tax Accountant.
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Forum Comments (1)
How do you build generational wealth?
In my opinion, one of the biggest things people can do to build generational wealth is to work on their "money stories". Try to understand your psychology and how you make decisions around money. For example, once you realize, "Oh, I am actually sabotaging myself because I am too afraid of risk. I am holding too tightly to things, and not investing in whatever it is I need to help me grow my business/advance in my career, because I just view everything as an expense", you can build awareness. Or, another example would be someone who is spending too much, who needs to cut back, and who has a completely different money story.
Getting an idea of what the definition of generational wealth is for you, and what is "enough" for you and your family, is also really important. Then, it's important to understand if that's realistic with what financial steps you are taking. If somebody comes to me and says, "I want to build generational wealth so my kids never have to work, and I need $50 million to do that", I'll go, "That is great, but how are you going to get there from where you are now"? It is possible to get there for people, but you have to change how you think and the decisions that you make.
In fact, in my personal opinion, I do not necessarily want to build generational wealth. Look at the TV show Succession as an extreme example of this. Money is a tool, and it can do weird things to people when you have too much. As a parent, I think most of us want our kids to have it a little bit easier than us, but if you give a child a "frictionless" life, they may not know how to do anything! In my mind, if your kids will have access to money, you want to make sure they have the tools and knowledge of how to handle it. Not only that, you'd want them to understand the value of it and have gratitude for it.
Getting an idea of what the definition of generational wealth is for you, and what is "enough" for you and your family, is also really important. Then, it's important to understand if that's realistic with what financial steps you are taking. If somebody comes to me and says, "I want to build generational wealth so my kids never have to work, and I need $50 million to do that", I'll go, "That is great, but how are you going to get there from where you are now"? It is possible to get there for people, but you have to change how you think and the decisions that you make.
In fact, in my personal opinion, I do not necessarily want to build generational wealth. Look at the TV show Succession as an extreme example of this. Money is a tool, and it can do weird things to people when you have too much. As a parent, I think most of us want our kids to have it a little bit easier than us, but if you give a child a "frictionless" life, they may not know how to do anything! In my mind, if your kids will have access to money, you want to make sure they have the tools and knowledge of how to handle it. Not only that, you'd want them to understand the value of it and have gratitude for it.
