Today, my youngest child will graduate from eighth grade. On Sunday, my middlest child will graduate from high school. In February, my oldest child moved out into his own apartment with a roommate.
My children’s life milestones are impactful to me because I have the long-term perspective of their helpless infant selves locked in my memory. They don’t remember those days when they completely relied upon my wife and I for their every need. We have been slowly setting them free to become their own person since they learned to crawl.
Now I find myself asking if we have done enough to prepare them for the next steps. I think we have provided them with the faith, life skills, and hands-on experiences to be successful in their next endeavors, but I have nagging questions on whether they will make the right decisions at the right moments when we are less involved in their day-to-day activities.
From their perspective, I sense they are a bit nervous but feel ready to move on to their next steps (or at least ready to be done with their current steps).
In life you are given the opportunity to learn valuable lessons in two ways. You can either learn in advance or in arrears.
Learning in advance requires actively seeking advice from people with experience and wisdom and thoughtfully applying the cumulative acquired knowledge in the right moments. This is really tough because learning is not the same as doing, as do-it-yourselfers can attest (even with YouTube videos to help out).
Learning in arrears requires actively making mistakes, suffering the consequences, and applying the painfully attained knowledge to similar situations in the future. While this strategy is more effective from a learning standpoint, it can be tough on individuals as well as their parents. It can also be quite costly due to missed opportunities or major setbacks.
IAG Wealth Partners has the unique perspective of helping people make wise financial decisions for 39 years. We have guided our clients on their path through high interest rates, global pandemics, booms and busts in technology and real estate, and market corrections too numerous to list.
We have twelve different financial advisors with twelve different life experiences, twelve different skills sets, and twelve different strengths. What does not change is our passion for helping people make the right decisions to work toward their long-term goals.
If you or someone you care about would like help developing a thoughtful plan for their future in advance, please share us with them. We are happy to use our knowledge and skills to develop their next steps. It is a joy for us to help members of our IAG family through their life milestones and on to their next steps.
Quote of the week: Shane Parrish: “The biggest generator of long-term results is learning to do things when you don’t feel like doing them. If you let excuses or emotion drive behavior, you’re cheating yourself. Put aside the excuses and start doing what you need to do.”
Photo Credit: The Scott Heins Family
