Leaving a legacy is important

Dean D

We agree on a lot Richard, including your thoughts on this issue. We have two children in their late 20’s and neither are married yet. They are early in their careers. Our focus to date has been on ensuring they didn’t graduate with any education debt and then educating them on being responsible with their finances and saving for the future. It included a discussion about the importance of taking advantage of retirement savings accounts to the fullest. If we had been able to do that from the beginning of our careers we would be much better off today, though we have pensions and savings beyond our expectations and are now in a very similar situation to you I think, though I’m 20 years younger.

Our financial help so far has been to give the kids enough to ensure they can max out their IRAs and TSPs. They still contribute their own funds to both — we just help them get there and be able to still meet their expenses and other savings. The agreement is that this help is to build long term savings for their retirement. Buying stuff and saving for down payments on bigger stuff is on them for now.

The idea is to share now to reduce stress in their lives and avoid dumb debt like credit cards and help even more as we see them continue to be responsible with money. None of this will reduce any of our plans or quality of life. I’d like them to do the same with their kids and leave them with about what we end up leaving.

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