Out of Debt Christian recently received a great question from one of our readers. He asked for advice on the topic of spoiling the child versus inheritance. The Bible is clear about not spoiling our children; however, that doesn’t apply when it comes to leaving your children with what they need when you are no longer here.
For help with this topic I turned to my church’s Pastor of Financial Planning Joe Sangl. He and his wife had some words of wisdom on the topic and first quoted Proverbs 13:22 which says “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.”
“I believe God wants us to bless the next generation,” they said. “God did not call us to be broke.”
He and his wife, Jenn, put an interesting twist on it saying that the trick is to teach your children how to handle money properly. They discussed their personal life and plan on leaving an inheritance for their daughter and they are teaching her how to be aware of money. “She had a conversation with our friends the other day and was outraged at the prices of smoothies at our church coffee shop. She gets it,” they said.
This summer Joe tackled the issue of Estate Planning on his blog and discussed an article from Money Magazine on the topic. The article tells readers to ask themselves five questions:
Give Now or Give Later? Giving money to your loved ones now may be an option to help avoid higher taxes later.
Equal or Fair? This tackles the issue of how you should split your money among your offspring.
Simple or Complicated? A simple will or living trust are what is discussed under this question.
Want to Give to Charity? A traditional IRA is the best way to donate some of your estate.
When Should You Revisit Your Plan? Things change quickly, so make sure you contact your attorney every three years or so.
I felt it was important to contact a financial advisor when it came to this type of issue. I hope this has helped our readers to understand estate planning a bit better.