Focus on Your Future Grandchildren

And you'll do better by your children.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.

Proverbs 13:22

It is not enough to think about the future of your children. If you are not at least thinking about what you will leave your grandchildren, you are not thinking long-term enough.

Why the focus on grandchildren?

Because traditions must be passed on. The perpetuation of a culture doesn’t just happen by accident.

Creating a good life for your children isn’t enough. If the good life ends at that generation, you have failed. Great fathers create great fathers, and you must forge your sons in a way that they will, in turn, forge strong sons.

You don’t control every outcome, of course, but you can set up habits and systems and expectations that make it more likely your children, and their children after them, will have a good inheritance. Focusing on grandchildren now, even before you have them, helps clarify this purpose.

Once the kids are out of the house and have started creating lives of their own, you don’t get to sit back and wash your hands of the situation. There is still work to do. That is, if you consider yourself a patriarch.

Sure, you can start enjoying some of the fruits of your labor, but you still need to reinvest in your family.

Now that you are old and wiser (hopefully), you are better equipped to mentor younger kids. You have additional gravitas. Your grandchildren will benefit greatly from your involvement.

Your own legacy depends upon it.

It is a poor legacy indeed that only lasts a single generation. Families are trees, with each branch being supported by the limb that came before it. Would you be the weak limb that can’t support more than a single branch?

Aim to leave an inheritance for your grandchildren and you’ll cover the needs of your children just fine. This means you want them to be wise enough to use your inheritance. So plan to invest in them before they even exist.

How do you do this?

• Stay married.

• Stay out of credit card debt.

• Don’t blow most of your money on vacations and luxuries. Build generational wealth. Don’t force your descendants to start from zero.

• Try your best to live close to your progeny. That means you need to have a good relationship with them.

• Plan to offer help, but without being pushy. Let them know days and times you’re available to help out with the grandchildren.

• Don’t wait until you are dead to distribute money and resources. Take advantage of tax-advantaged accounts and the gift exclusion as much as possible. If you wait until you are dead, your children will get far, far less.

Think long-term, and you get more clarity on the short-term.