This is an awesome interview and everyone should listen or read the transcript! Jonathan, thank you for your candor and your insight. I especially loved (and relate to) your thoughts on sharing some wealth with your family (kids and grandkids) while alive rather than bequeathing it to them in your and your wife’s will. The happiness these gifts bring should be experienced with the family to see the joy and lessons it provides. It’s something we’ve been fortunate to be able to do in several ways with our family. Now we will have to work on the estate discussion next.
So much heart, common sense, and wisdom in this great interview with our humble editor.
I especially liked this section (copied from the transcript):
But it’s only by making gifts during your lifetime that you can see how financially responsible your children are. You can view it as a test, give them some money and see what they do with it. But I would also say that there’s a lot more happiness to be had by giving away money now rather than waiting until death. It’s nice to give money to your kids and see the smiles on their face and see that you can give them a sense of financial security today. And while we’re talking about family here, the same holds true for charity. There’s great pleasure in giving money to charity now, much more pleasure than waiting until death and not really having the fun of writing that check and getting the thank-you note from the charity and so on. So, to the extent that you can give with a warm hand rather than cold one, I would encourage you to do so. But it really depends on who you’re dealing with.
As I written before we gave a significant amount to our two children as a final present from my parents the Christmas after we inherited money from them.
This went AAA (against advisor advice). Before telling the advisor I preferenced the statement with, “I know your going to counsel against this but…”. I also stated that if we could not live on the resultant balance in our portfolio (increased by an unexpected 50%) there was something wrong with us.
I videoed the opening of the card with the check. I watch it from time to time for the joy it gives me. This amount of money has made a significant difference in their financial lives despite being only 20% of what we received.
BTW in the five years since we did this we have earned back the full amount of their gifts.
Thanks for this wonderful idea, David, which I know you told us about in a recent comment. I’m going to consider doing this as I continue on my own “money journey” of planning my estate and being better organized with my giving. I love the idea of video taping the giving and receiving moment.
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Very nice interview. Thanks for posting, Ben. As Jonathan said, life is indeed full of small pleasures!
Thanks Ben. A worthy read. To have such a positive influence on so many lives as Jonathan has, and his desire to continue giving is a wonderful gift.
Ben. Thanks for the heads up. I always enjoy the Long View and this episode especially.
This is an awesome interview and everyone should listen or read the transcript! Jonathan, thank you for your candor and your insight. I especially loved (and relate to) your thoughts on sharing some wealth with your family (kids and grandkids) while alive rather than bequeathing it to them in your and your wife’s will. The happiness these gifts bring should be experienced with the family to see the joy and lessons it provides. It’s something we’ve been fortunate to be able to do in several ways with our family. Now we will have to work on the estate discussion next.
Ben, thanks for the heads up on the interview. I look forward to listening to and/or reading it.
So much heart, common sense, and wisdom in this great interview with our humble editor.
I especially liked this section (copied from the transcript):
As I written before we gave a significant amount to our two children as a final present from my parents the Christmas after we inherited money from them.
This went AAA (against advisor advice). Before telling the advisor I preferenced the statement with, “I know your going to counsel against this but…”. I also stated that if we could not live on the resultant balance in our portfolio (increased by an unexpected 50%) there was something wrong with us.
I videoed the opening of the card with the check. I watch it from time to time for the joy it gives me. This amount of money has made a significant difference in their financial lives despite being only 20% of what we received.
BTW in the five years since we did this we have earned back the full amount of their gifts.
Thanks for this wonderful idea, David, which I know you told us about in a recent comment. I’m going to consider doing this as I continue on my own “money journey” of planning my estate and being better organized with my giving. I love the idea of video taping the giving and receiving moment.
Wonderful interview in every way.