If you ask a hundred young people in their early twenties what they want for their future, almost all of them will say they want a life of abundance, financial freedom, and happiness.
Yet, the reality is starkly different. By the time those hundred people reach retirement age, most will be merely surviving financially. Perhaps one or two will be truly wealthy and financially free, and maybe ten will be financially comfortable.
Why does this happen? It is not because most people lack intelligence or the capacity to create financial success. It is because we repeat the patterns we learn. We inherit the successes and failures of the people we are surrounded by. If our environment is filled with people who hold the wrong ideas about money, we repeat those ideas as if we were programmed.
If you want to build true generational wealth, you have to break that programming. And more importantly, you have to ensure you do not pass it on to your children.
Unlearning the Money Taboo
While I was growing up, I did not receive any formal education about money, business, or how to become financially free. But you do not need formal education to learn about money; you simply absorb the beliefs of your parents, teachers, and the people you respect.
In my home, money was a source of stress. My parents were hardworking entrepreneurs, and they held the belief that you had to work relentlessly just to keep a business afloat. Although we had enough, the underlying message was always that earning money was incredibly difficult.
Furthermore, my cultural environment taught me to be suspicious of wealth. I absorbed the idea that if someone had a very nice house or a luxury car, they were probably doing something illegal or were a crooked politician. Being financially successful was not something to look up to; it implied you were a bad person.
I wish someone had told me when I was a child that striving for an abundant life is honorable. Money is simply an amplifier. If you are a good person with good intentions, you can do much more good with more money than with less.
Because of my own upbringing, the first thing I chose to do differently with my three sons was to remove the taboo around money. We talk about money as something completely normal—just like we talk about food, exercise, or health. It is a vital part of the society we live in, and you need it to build the life you want and to help the people you want to help.
Why We Stopped Giving Our Kids an Allowance
We made the decision to take our kids out of the traditional school system. One of the main reasons is that we know the people who surround you influence the way you think. We want to ensure they receive a solid general education, but we also want to heavily influence them in the areas that matter most to us: health and financial intelligence.
When it comes to finances, our core lesson is simple: to create income, you must provide value. You have to figure out how to solve other people’s problems.
We used to give our sons a weekly allowance, but we stopped. We realized we were inadvertently training them to have the mindset of an employee—receiving money simply by waiting for it. Now, they earn money by completing specific projects or by starting small businesses.
Recently, my youngest son decided to pick some oranges from the garden where we live. He set up a couple of boxes outside with a sign saying he was selling oranges for 50 cents each. Even though there are hundreds of orange trees in our area, he still managed to sell his oranges.
It was not about the amount of money he earned. The most important lesson was the realization that if he has an idea, takes it seriously, and takes action, he can create money. Money is everywhere; it is only waiting for those who take action, believe in themselves, and create value for others. There is enough money for everyone if you focus on solving problems.
The True Meaning of Generational Wealth
When people hear “generational wealth,” they usually think of trust funds and inheritances. But true generational wealth is about much more than passing down a bank account.
I believe that poor people live day-to-day in survival mode. The middle class lives paycheck to paycheck. Rich people also live paycheck to paycheck—it is just a bigger paycheck. Only wealthy people are in a position to think in strategies that span more than ten years.
Once you start creating wealth—even if it is not a huge amount—you must start thinking in generations. You can structure your wealth in a way that supports you throughout your life, and then supports your children, and their children.
However, the financial structure will fail completely if your children do not have the right mindset. If their mindset is rooted in consumerism and spending, there is no amount of wealth you can build that they cannot blow through in a couple of years.
The most critical aspect of generational wealth is educating your kids to view money as a tool. It is a tool to finance the life they want, but it must be preserved. They must learn to make the tool work and live only off the proceeds of their investments or businesses. If you spend the tool itself, you have nothing left.
Investing for the Next Generation
When you think about investments with a generational timeline, you make entirely different decisions than when you are investing for the next year.
If you are investing because you need to pay a bill next year, you are forced to seek short-term returns, which are rarely the best opportunities. You might be forced to sell at a loss, diminishing your working capital and stopping your growth.
Generational wealth requires a long-term focus. When you invest for the long term, the chances of success are significantly higher. You are not hoping for a quick return; you are building a sustainable system.
We also make sure to model this for our sons. We show them that our investments work for us, giving us a highly flexible life. We do not want them to associate wealth with stress, giving up family time, or sacrificing health. We want them to see that financial freedom provides alternatives.
We are still learning and growing ourselves, but what we know, we teach them. Generational wealth is not just about leaving money behind; it is about leaving behind the mindset required to keep it, grow it, and use it to live a life of freedom.
If you want to break the financial programming you inherited and start building a life of true freedom, the first step is education. The Modern Wealthy programme is the resource I use to continually refine my own wealth mindset and build the systems that support my family’s flexible lifestyle.
