Ensuring Generational Family Wealth in Retirement

In this latest vlog as a retired couple, we talk about our personal finance and financial planning, and as retired expats, how we (hope we) changed our family's financial future for generations to come.

Transcript

The beginning of the year as we all know is a great time to reset and restart and we wanted to do that with our finances as well. It's a great time to check in and see how things are going.
  
Welcome to Track Us Down! If you're just finding us, I'm Monique, and I'm Doug. On our channel we make videos about retiring early, moving abroad, and living a ‘better second half of life.’ After over 25 years of working hard and raising our family, we retired from our careers, we sold everything, and we began our ‘second half of life.' We make our base here, on the beautiful island of Madeira, Portugal. Stay tuned to the end of this video, we have something really special that I think you might want to see if you have tax implications already in Portugal, or, if you want to check out your tax situation before you move to Portugal, so stay tuned to the end and check this out. It's free!

In this video we want to share with you something we did with our family that hopefully is something that you might consider doing with your family.

So to begin with, we are not financial experts by any means. This is not financial advice. But I think you're going to want to hear what we have to say because it's so important to you, and it's important to your family, just like we found it was for us. So what we have done in terms of financial literacy, is we have read many books and we're going to get into what books we've been reading, and how are family’s implicated in what we're talking about right now. We’ve made many other videos, not really financial videos, but videos about what it meant for us retiring early to have enough, and a little bit more, and obviously that's different for everybody. But we know what that means for us, and you can check out some of our other videos on how we figured out what we needed and what was just that little bit more for us.

But it's not just about us. Like us, many of you have a family, an extended family of kids, probably adult kids, and a financial future is very important to them as well. Once you get yourself settled in your ‘better second half of life,' you can start looking at a bigger picture for your entire family. And that's what we did over the holiday season here on Madeira, when our boys came to visit us, and it was so much fun, it was so productive and we're very glad we did it - we can wait to tell you about it.

So one of the things I keep in mind that we, Doug and I, have talked about is that schools do a really poor job and this is coming from a teacher in the public school system for almost 30 years. Schools do a very poor job preparing children to become adults who are going to have jobs and deal with money, and how to make money and invest money, and have money throughout their lifetime. So that really does fall on the job of a parent, and in order for us to have a ‘better second half of life,’ we need to know that our boys are settled, and that they have the knowledge they need to go forward. That's part of our ‘better second half of life,’ helping them in their first half of life.

And I'm really surprised that the school systems, especially at high school, it should be mandatory in grade 10, 11, or 12 for sure, to have financial planning classes that are almost mandatory, about making change at the store, about how to save, about compound interest - that would just be so important for anybody starting out the world. It would have been great for us, not only did we not learn this in school, but our parents came from a generation where we did not talk about money at all. We never learned anything beyond putting anything in a savings account and I think we really missed out.

So if you're like us, let us know in the comments down below: did you come from a family that talked about money and shared money tips and secrets and that kind of thing, or were your parents like our parents - very hush hush? It's at the point I didn't even know how much money my parents ever made. They never shared any of that information and when I grew up and Doug and I are together, we had no guidance in that way. So giving that to our children who are adults now in their 20’s or children in their 30’s, that information that you can only know from a lifetime of living in your ‘second half of life.’

Right, and not only did we not have any guidance, we were at the mercy of mutual fund managers. That was the big thing in the ’90’s, and we went through that era of very low interest rates, borrow from the capital gains of your home, and I just wish we would have done things so much differently. And now that we're stabilized, I guess, we got out of it early enough that we were smart enough to figure it all out, we want to make sure that we pass that information on to the next generation. Because one day, even though they're in their first half of life right now, one day they're going to be looking at their own second half of life and that time comes along a lot quicker than you think.

So, what did we do over the holidays that was different? We decided that we were going to hold what we call a family summit. That meant that as the months to the holidays came closer and closer, we started talking to our sons about the fact that we're going to sit down and we're going to have a real honest, just on the table, conversation about money. About finances. Sharing our finances, taking a deep dive into their finances, their plans, what they know, what they have, and you came up some with some really good books for them to read before even we met, right?

Just a simple Google or from other reading leading to other books, there's all kinds of books you can read on financial literacy. I put a list together and sent it out to the family and we just wanted to start off with just one book that we could all read and be on the same page. Because, again, this is something that we have never done as a family, so we came kind of, blindsided them, and came at them with this.

We did promise snacks and drinks during the family summit, which was really important. Yeah, we had the typical eye rolls and, but it was well received and it was a lot of fun. We just started with one book: Tony Robbins - “Money. Master The Game.” If you haven't read that book, I would highly suggest reading it, it is an eyeopener and it is a great kind of family book that you can all read and put you all on the same path. It's a good starting point.

And like any good teacher will tell you, having four people read the same book and coming to a table talking about different parts of it, it really did give us a basis to start talking and to have some of the same language going forward talking with our two sons.

We were completely newbies coming at it this year when we sat down to have this meeting, Monique and I had a huge financial literacy “awakening” in about July of 2020, about a year and a half before we moved here, retired early and moved to Portugal, and it was an eye opening and it changed our life. We were able to retire early, a year and a half later at age 50, and moved to this beautiful island and it was simply from following a lot of these steps that many of you probably already know about, but it's surprising how many people like us don’t. Starting with: stop spending, start investing.

Right, and we've made some videos about downshifting, downsizing. Part of the secret obviously is wanting less, because that fits into this whole downshifting that we've got going on here. So, wanting less and really getting to know your money, and that was something that we really worked on, so we're not totally newbies like Doug said, but there's still so much more for us to learn and the book really did set the tone for what we did, called the family summit.

And I have to say, I sure don't feel that we have less. We have so much more since we moved abroad in retirement here. I mean our life, our quality of life, is way better than it was back in North America. The weather's better, the people are nicer, the food is better.

And we're also living debt free now which is one of the keys in your ‘second half of life,’ it is so nice to be debt-free and to understand fully what we're doing here.

So let's get into it! Let's get into it!

So, what exactly did we do? We had three separate meetings over the Christmas holidays.Yes we celebrated New Year's and the fireworks here in Madeira. Yes we went out for Christmas. We even played some games and went out for dinner, but we may time for this important family summit. We all sat down at our big table back here and, we had drinks, we had snacks, and with this backdrop of this book we had read and our knowledge already today, it was very important to make sure that our boys were set out on the same financial path. So we just went around the table, one by one, just kind of going over things like net worth, investing, retirement, whether you have a pension or annuity, or all sorts of other tax benefited accounts versus non-registered account, registered accounts, things like that. Things that really a lot of younger generation just do not know about if they've never been spoken to about this before. It was such a productive meeting. The first meeting was just kind of an overview, so they knew where we were going with all this, kind of putting it out there giving them lots of things to think about over the next week or so, and we came back to it about a week later. Everybody had time to kind of do their own little research and think about everything so that it settled in, and that next meeting, the second one, was even longer where we just hammered through each point, bit by bit, for each individual one of us, so we knew where we wanted to be going forward. For Monique and I, we’re kind of, obviously as a couple, our money has always been together. The boys are different, they have individual circumstances right now, so we went through that, each of that, with them and it was very very productive. We felt so good coming away from that. And then we had one third meeting just before they left where we actually had a list on our notes, shared notes between the family, actionable items that they can do moving forward. I think 2024 is going to be a banner year for them, I'm so excited for them.

So part of what Doug’s talking about is that action plan, and how important that accountability is to get things done in the New Year. So it was important for them, but it's also important for us because with our boys we did share everything. As a family it's important if you are asking your children to share their income with you, their net worth, their plans, their investment, their strategies, and what they've learned from different sources and pull that all together, it’s important that we be really transparent and share our situation and what our plans are, and what we're hoping for in the future with them. So we also had an action plan as did they. And some of the actionable items were done right there at the table and that kind of accountability actually gets things done. Both our boys walked away feeling really good. One of them did not have an investment account open and that was done right at the table, money was moved right at the table, and everybody feels like they're on a path.

And of course we started those meetings with the problems that we faced growing up, raising them, as far as financial illiteracy, and the struggles that we had later on when we had to rectify all that, and when you come at it from a background like that, it's so much easier to start from the beginning. We wish we could have started at 24, 25, 26, going forward like they're able to.

And in our ‘second half of life,’ part of what we wanted was also to have our boys really set up. And they still need guidance in their 20’s, in their 30’s, and that's what we have the time now to think about these things and to put those things into place. So the family summit was really a way of pulling everyone together. It was mostly about finances, but we did drift into job situations, we drifted into different living situations, and future plans for all of us, and it was really nice to have that kind of open communication with our sons and set us up for another family summit in the future and where maybe other items are also on the table beyond finances.

I can't wait for the next one, whenever that is, 6 months from now, a year from now, to see all the progress and changes that have been made. I can't emphasize this enough how important this is. Not only for you or yourselves, but for your family as well. Get your kids, your adult kids, on the right track early, it is so important and they will thank you later, I guarantee it.

If you have grown children, pick a date, pick a time early in this year and sit down and have a family summit. We had finances on our on our list as well as the living situations and job situations and that kind of thing, but you can have whatever you want on a family summit. We kind of made it a little goofy I guess by saying it’s, you know, it's a big important meeting and that kind of just lightened it a little because finance is not exactly a thrilling topic. But it actually got kind of fun.

It was so much fun, and I would say it was more and more thrilling once everybody's on the same page so, it was fun and it was maybe goofy at first while we're just kind of laying the the framework and rolling out our idea to the family, but the next meeting and the one after that I would say was much more serious, they were so into it, and it was really good to see. Highly recommended, you got to do this with your family.

If you've seen some of our other videos, and you like our videos, or maybe if you just like us please, remember to subscribe to our channel and give us a thumbs up. We were looking at our stats over the holiday break and we noticed that a lot of our viewers are still unsubscribed. It's super easy to do, you just hit that subscribe button. It's free to you, we make the videos, all you have to do is hit subscribe. It's a gentleman's agreement, or a lady's understanding. So if you're interested in a ‘better second half of life,’ please join us.

So that brings us back to you. Your plans for 2024, and beyond. It is a changing world out there right now with changing interest rates and tax schemes are coming and going. Many of you may have had your hopes dashed, or thought you had your hopes dashed about moving to Portugal. It's not all doom and gloom though. There are other things that will probably take its place and we believe that Portugal is still a great place to retire abroad or to have something like a holiday home here on Madeira especially.

So if you are an early retiree, considering retiring, or have just retired like we have, then this is something you might want to consider doing.

We still think that Portugal is a great idea, a great place to retire. It's not all about taxes. We know there are many people who are paying Portuguese taxes here, and with the healthcare savings, and the cost of living savings, and just the quality of life, they are far ahead of where they would be in the United States or in Canada - it is still well worth it. And that brings us back to you, and your plans for 2024 with regard to potential tax implications here in Portugal.

So as you probably know if you've seen our previous videos, we have worked with Fresh Portugal in the past. This is not a sponsored video. It is just something that we want to share with you. It is a free webinar coming up where you have the opportunity to be online with Fresh Portugal and hear what they have to say about the tax situation.

This is a tax lawyer, tax accountant business that we've used before and we highly recommend them. We are still using them, we have many others that we've recommended to them that are using them. They have U.S. tax lawyers on staff, they have Portugal tax lawyers on staff, they do amazing work. They're based out of Lisbon but they have offices in Tel Aviv, in London, and in the U.S.

So if you're interested in joining the webinar we will leave a link down below. It's absolutely free and get the information that you need as part of your action plan for 2024.

And the date for that is Monday, January 22nd, 2024 - a free webinar listening to their experts talk about potential tax changes or the tax changes that are happening here in Portugal in 2024 and tax implications. I guarantee you you're going to love it.

Let us know down below if you plan on attending the webinar, and also if you would consider doing a family summit with your grown children.

I think that's the best part, please let us know. We sure loved ours, I can't wait to hear about yours.

Thank you so much for spending some of your day with us, and as always, check back in, and, Track Us Down!