September Reading Roundup

Vacation season has come to a close. As the kids go back to school and you return to your normal day-to-day life, now is a great time to revisit your family values, evaluate the legacy you’ve built, and get your estate plans in order.

To start, ask yourself a few questions. What sort of legacy do you want to leave? What family traditions, morals, lessons, and values do you want to pass down to the next generation, your children, or other family members? Here are some tips for crafting your legacy and leaving the world a better place after you’re gone.

Generational Wealth

Generational wealth can ensure your family is secure and financially sound for generations to come. However, creating generational wealth isn’t always easy. If you’re in debt now, working to pay it off is a good place to start. So is creating an emergency fund, cutting unnecessary spending, and even buying a home can help build that wealth.

Once you’re financially sound, you can work to help ensure your family’s future generations are too. Focusing on long-term investments, taking advantage of compounding interest, and keeping out of debt are some possible steps you can take to start creating intergenerational wealth .

Estate Planning

Do you have plans for your home, possessions, and assets after you’re gone? Estate planning can help you build your legacy by ensuring that your estate and possessions are distributed to your chosen family members, trusts, and even charities. Not having an estate plan could result in long legal hiccups and unneeded stress on your family after you pass.

Part of your estate planning could include a financial plan that can help you keep your assets organized and make it easier for family members to track your assets and debts. Life insurance is another way you can help protect your family financially after you’re gone.

Charitable Giving

Is there a cause that’s near and dear to your heart? You can start creating a legacy of giving even before you’re gone. That could be as simple as donating your time volunteering at a shelter or asking relatives to give to charity on holidays and birthdays. Getting married soon? Ask your guests to give to a charity of your choice in lieu of a wedding registry.

For a more long-term charitable move, you could consider creating a fundraising bank account. You can keep the money you plan on donating to charity in such an account, be it from donations solely from yourself or from others as well. This can help keep the money for charity safe, and even earn it interest, until you’re ready to donate it.

Morals & Values

What values are important to you? For many, education is a high priority; however, college is only getting more and more expensive. You can help make college more affordable for your children and grandchildren by investing in a 529 account or even creating an education trust.

If financial independence is important to you, helping future generations understand and appreciate money may also be a worthy legacy. This could mean instilling the importance of frugal living and smart spending into your children or grandchildren, so that they might develop financial freedom sooner in life. Part of that may be teaching them the joys of living minimally and focusing on collecting experiences instead of possessions.

Family Traditions

Intentionally leaving a legacy can help protect your family traditions, too. This could mean passing down a family recipe or practicing a special birthday tradition. Focusing on family time can help instill fond memories in younger generations that they’ll want to recreate with their own future families. It’s never too late to create a new holiday tradition, like building a gingerbread house together, or even going on an annual family vacation that your children will remember even when they’re adults.

Around the Web

Need some more inspiration for starting your legacy? We searched the web for even more ways you can build a legacy and help future generations:

•  40 Fun Family Tradition Ideas to Steal ASAP

•  10 Simple Ways To Leave A Legacy To Future Generations

•  How to Prepare the Next Generation for Their Future—Not Our Past

•  How To Teach Your Kids Good Money Habits

The Takeaway

Leaving a legacy can help you take care of future generations and help you pass down your values, traditions, and even possessions. Whether you start an educational trust or an annual family vacation , a legacy is a great way to protect your family after you’re gone while creating memories that you and your family can cherish throughout your lifetime and beyond.

Need help funding your legacy planning goals? SoFi Relay®, is a budgeting app that can track your income, set up financial goals, and help you keep tabs on your spending.

External Websites: The information and analysis provided through hyperlinks to third-party websites, while believed to be accurate, cannot be guaranteed by SoFi. Links are provided for informational purposes and should not be viewed as an endorsement.

Photo credit: iStock/kate_sept2004
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