Proverbs 13:22 says that “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” That has always been kind of a pie in the sky scripture to me. I’ve been of the mindset that I just hoped to leave any inheritance at all to my own kids, much less the next generation!
I have seen, however, how transformative this kind of generational blessing can be.
My Grandaddy Joe was a good man. He was a hard worker, a good provider, and a generous giver. I’d say he was somewhat of a Renaissance man. Having lived through the Great Depression, his first instinct was never to go out and buy something he needed. In fact, one of the things I remember him saying the most was, “I could make that!” And indeed he could. From doll furniture to stained glass windows, he could make just about anything he set his mind out to do.
Grandad went to work at his office every day well into his eighties. He would come home each day at lunch and take my Grandmother to lunch…usually at Wendy’s or Mr. Gatti’s, because they had the best lunch specials. He was also an avid golfer and snow skier. I remember that on one of his last ski trips with his buddies, at age 88, he came home with an injury. I asked him what happened, and his answer started with, “Well, I was coming off this jump….” A ski-jumper? At 88??? He jokingly gave me a piece of financial advice once that I've never forgotten: "When you're on vacation with friends or family, always offer to buy breakfast. It’s the cheapest meal of the day…and then someone else will have to offer to buy lunch or dinner.” What wisdom!
He worked in the oil and gas industry, and one of the most amazing things he ever did was to take out some shares of Exxon stock for each of the grandkids when we were born. He turned those over to us when we graduated from high school with no strings attached. What an incredible gift!! Most of us used it for college tuition, but I was blessed to have a full basketball scholarship. Now, all these years later, we’ve been able to tap into the “bank” of sorts that my Grandad gave me to do all sorts of things. It has helped us to secure financing to buy a house, pay medical bills from an emergency heart surgery, and many other things. It has continued to grow and pay dividends, and is something we can draw from to this day. What a game changer that has been for our family!
A well-designed life insurance policy built for the Infinite Banking Concept can leave the same type of legacy to your children or your grandchildren, without the ups and downs of the stock market. You can, in effect, leave a tax-free “bank” to the future generations that they can use throughout their lives. Your grandchildren might never have to darken the door of a commercial bank to get a loan! It's not about a "gravy train"...it's about teaching principals of sound money and good stewardship to create a lasting legacy that is continued on through the generations.
That piece of wisdom found in Proverbs doesn't seem so unreachable to me anymore. Once I discovered the power of the Infinite Banking Concept, I realized that I could achieve that goal simply by storing my money in my own "bank", and then when I "graduate" (isn't that better than die??), the financial buckets are refilled for the next generation. My parents are also now funding policies on my children, and are very practically setting into motion a system that will be a blessing to our children and our grandchildren. It's a system spanning four generations, and leaving an inheritance to our children's children.
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