If someone were to ask you, "What legacy will you leave?", what would you say?
According to Meriam-Webster's Dictionary, Legacy is defined as "a gift by will especially of money or other personal property" or "something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past". The main point of a legacy is that it does not stop with one person. It is designed and meant to be passed on to others. A legacy can be good or bad. We can leave a legacy that improves or builds up or we can leave a legacy that causes pain and heartache. One way or another, we all leave a mark called a legacy. The question is, what kind of legacy do you want to leave?
If someone were to ask you, "How well do you manage your money?", how would you respond?
More than half of Americans (60%) are claiming they are living paycheck to paycheck according to a recently published CNBC article. Even more concerning, in the same article, seven out of 10 Americans are stressed about finances. With rising inflation on everyday goods and rising interest rates on personal loans, credit cards, auto loans, and mortgages coupled with stagnant wages, it's no wonder Americans are stressed about finances. If that wasn't bad enough, payments on student loans started back this month.
For the last few years I've wrestled with these questions about legacy and money. What kind of legacy am I leaving? How well am I managing my money? Am I becoming a better steward? Most every other area of my life was aligned but when it came to money and legacy, the two were not aligned. I had a choice to make. I could do nothing and continue down the same path and nothing would get better. Or, I could decide to make a change - change how I thought about money, change how I managed money and change how I spent and invested money in order to build a better legacy and become a better steward. I knew that doing nothing was not an option. I could see the path ahead. Add potential stressors like a job loss, health issues, rising interest rates or escalating inflation and I would be like the man that built his house on the sand; the foundation underneath could give way at any time.
We studied, We were coached. We took decisive action and radical steps to change the way we viewed and handled money. It wasn't that I was chasing after things or pursuing shiny objects. It was more of a slow fade and wandering away from the principles of money that I believed to be true. One verse in the song by Mercy Me, "Slow Fade" says,
"The journey from your mind to your handsIs shorter than you're thinkingBe careful if you think you standYou just might be sinking"
It was all a slow fade. The intentions were right but it was the lack of action on my part that resulted in me being like the "wicked and slothful" servant mentioned in the parable of talents in Matthew 25:14-30. I knew I wanted to be like the servant that managed his master’s resources well.
You may find yourself in a same or similar situation. You've allowed society to market to you, tell you how to live on credit to enjoy life, to make you feel less than if you don't have what others have. You've bought into the lie and the myth that to live in America debt is okay as long as you pay your payments every month. You've come to accept that payments and debt are a way of life and you'll have them until the day you die. This is normal in our society today but if there is one thing that I don't want to be in America today, it's normal. Normal is broke, entitled, in debt, divorced, and lives with a victim mentality. I don't want to be normal and I know you don't want to be normal either. Normal knows no bounds on the income brackets. Normal can affect a family earning $50K per year as much as a family earning $500K per year.
This is how Legacy Financial Coaching came to be. We learned to change the way we thought about money. We became debt-free. We came to understand that our largest wealth-building asset was our income. I launched my financial coaching practice because I know many want to break free from the norms placed on them by society and to break free of the slow fade. My vision is to help everyone that I interact with to become a better steward. There is no shame in taking a step in the right direction, no matter how messy your past has been. The alternative is to do nothing and if you do nothing, then nothing changes.
Become A Better Steward,
Greg Carroll
Legacy Financial Coaching
Whether you are financially frustrated or have big money goals, I help you take control of your money so you can live debt-free, build wealth and better steward your resources to create a lasting legacy. Find out what its' like to Work With Me.
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