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Ever have one of those moments? You you’ve been reading HumbleDollar for a couple years and your 26 year old son calls and says “Dad, work is going to start kicking in %5 for a 403(b), what should I do?” “Well, son, let me tell you about low cost index funds…”
Anybody else had softballs teed up like this ? 🙂
I tell my kids they can play with stocks a little bit but all retirement savings should go into index funds — and NEVER touch it until you retire!!!
One thing that sometimes works for me is leaving a book or magazine (like Kiplinger’s Personal Finance) around the house. I just purchased Ron Lieber’s The Price You Pay for College but didn’t urge either the visiting adult son or my grandson (his son) to read it. Sure enough, one of them asked if he could borrow my book. Jonathan’s How To Think About Money has been a big influence on the grandson, for which I’m very grateful.
I recently sent my 30+ year old youngest a link to the article penned by Kristine Hayes titled Up and Away about a lower cost way to eliminate PMI that Jonathan had featured in the Second Look portion of his newsletter.
I am happy to share the sincere Thank You I received with Kristine and Jonathan.
I’m sort of in the opposite situation. I always tried to set a good example for my daughters. Then my oldest married a financial advisor and my youngest married an estate attorney. So now I find that I’m the one teeing up the softballs. My sons-in-law are both great guys, I suspect that I will be the one benefiting the most by their help going forward.
Thanks, Dan. My daughter seems attentive when I talk about the qualities of a good husband. You helped me narrow my list!
Ed, it is important to have those talks with your daughter, but something tells me She has a living example of what a good husband and father should be—in you.
Those are kind words, but I confess I sometimes provide poor examples—and we talk about those as well.
If you were perfect, you wouldn’t be half so interesting!
After my daughter got divorced and moved from the east coast to start her new life on the west coast she called me to ask for help cleaning up her finances.
I helped her roll over multiple 401Ks into an IRA, and set up her current 401K contributions, and a HSA.
I also conferred with her about her general finances.
Recently I spoke with my fee only advisor and asked him if he knew someone in California who would be a good resource for her as I am not familiar with California taxes. After giving him a broad outline of her financial picture he said he felt that I had covered all bases and that it would not be good use of her funds to hire a fee only advisor.
My daughter had free consult with a financial advisor through her work at a Fortune 500 company recently and he confirmed that she has a good financial plan.
Now she is excited about learning about finance, still every year when she is completing her taxes we go do a quick review.
It gives me great pleasure that I have the financial acumen to help her in her journey to financial independence.
David, I’m also impressed with your advisor’s honest response. It’s like when a mechanic tells you that your brakes and shocks are still in good shape. He/she is a keeper.
And that she appreciates and listens to your advice! Often our biggest challenge is thinking that we don’t need help (in any area) or not being “ready” to follow what we know is good advice.
Great job, David!
Thanks for sharing that great parenting moment. My 18-year-old has had the benefit of hearing and participating in family discussions about money for the last decade, so she’s already tuned into retirement planning before she has her first job. Do you feel like you’ve checked off an item from your pearls of wisdom list to pass along?
I found myself having to hold back and try to keep it to one or two points.
Per Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” at our stage in life we tend to be “full of wise saws and modern instances”. To be heard, you have to keep it short. That’s hard sometimes.
True, but let’s keep talking while we can, before we’re “sans teeth…sans everything.”
Unfortunately I have a tendency to get very excited, rather loud, and go on a little to long when talking about financial matters. I can just feel my wife saying to herself, oh no here he goes again!” Asperger’s perhaps?
I wish they would. But not so far.