Prepare Your Kids for Financial Independence
Your children turned to you for support all their lives. When they were babies, you provided them with food and shelter, and throughout their childhood, you guided them and led by example. But if you’ve continued to provide them with financial support into their adulthood, the lifestyle shift that comes with your retirement might come as a surprise to both of you. If your children are still dependent on you for financial support, it’s important to have a conversation about what might change with your retirement. It’s time to consider how your well-intentioned support will affect both of your futures.
Diane Harris, a personal finance journalist, explains, “If, instead, you saved that much cash every year in a tax-deferred account averaging 6 percent annual gains, you’d have close to $100,000 more for retirement within a decade.”
MAKE A PLAN
Once you consider what you’re contributing to your child’s lifestyle, you need to find out how it’s going to affect your ability to retire. It’s time to have the tough conversations. Before you talk to your kids, meet with your financial advisor and discuss your retirement goals. Your advisor can give you a reality check if your goals are not in line with your current lifestyle and tell you what needs to change to get them there.
CONSIDER THE COSTS
THE TALK
A study by Merrill Lynch and AgeWave found that, on average, parents over 50 gave their children a total of $6,500 a year. When you compare that 6K to your current income, it might not look like much, but consider what that amount could do if you invested it into your retirement.
After your meeting with your advisor, it’s time to talk with your children. Explain how your retirement plan is going to affect them. It’s best to be honest and transparent. Let them know that this isn’t about your feelings for them and give them time to process the information.
EXTREME OWNERSHIP: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
Gary and Laurel are no strangers to “Extreme Ownership” and employing these winning leadership strategies. They have even interviewed one of the authors, Jocko Willink, on their radio show. Effective leadership is the most important key to success, and to say that “Extreme Ownership” will empower you as a leader is an understatement. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin use their experiences as former U.S. Navy SEALs to provide a backdrop for their views on leadership. Their stories drop you right in the middle of the action, both on the battlefield and within the confines of corporate America, in order to teach you invaluable leadership lessons. The book is divided into three main points and designed to make it as easy as possible for you to apply extreme ownership in your own life.
are no bad teams, just bad leaders. They use examples from the battlefield and the boardroom to show that all failures can be traced back to poor leadership.
LAWS OF COMBAT
Simplify, prioritize and execute, and decentralize command. Applied to an office setting, these combat strategies show how simplifying plans and organizing priorities will improve your operational efficiency. While there is a need for clearly designated leaders, junior leaders must be empowered to make their own decisions — and their own mistakes. To drive their point home, Willink and Babin provide a plan for how to implement and sustain the concepts of extreme ownership. They highlight the importance of decisiveness and show you how to create planning checklists that enable your team to operate like one fluid unit. SUSTAINING VICTORY
“Extreme Ownership” differs from other leadership books by emphasizing that there can be no leadership where there is no team. Its main points revolve around the importance of teams, not just individuals. Leaders who embody extreme ownership don’t just take the blame for mistakes — they own them.
WINNING THE WAR WITHIN
Leaders are responsible for everything and everyone within their purview. Willink and Babin make the bold assertion that there
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