Laura Meier - The Family Nest Egg: The Complete Parents Planning Guide for Building Wealth and Preparing for the Worst

Copyright 2021 by Laura Meier

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

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Diversion Books

A division of Diversion Publishing Corp.

www.diversionbooks.com

First Diversion Books edition, January 2021

Paperback ISBN: 9781635767483

eBook ISBN: 9781635767490

Printed in The United States of America

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Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data is available on file

This book is dedicated to my parents, Allen and Christine King. Thank you for being incredible role models for me, Ben, Sara, Kelly, and Will, and teaching us what really matters most in lifefaith, family, service, and of course, warm homemade chocolate chip cookies.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Years ago, I sat at a small, seaside gathering with my whole life ahead of me. I was in my senior year of college with big plans to go to law school, start a successful career, get married, have a family, make great money, and accomplish big things.

As I sat there listening to the speakers message that morning, I soon found she had a much more realistic take on what life would bring. She spoke of how the storms in life would come, and she asked her listeners how wed get through them and how wed be prepared.

I remember hoping I wouldnt have such storms in my life. I want to be like that woman in the J. Crew catalog, with her family looking posh in their khakis and the grand white walls and rustic beams behind them. Theyre not freaking out about their bank account balances or having to change careers.

Fast forward years later and here I amhere we all are nowwith our rising rents and mortgages, kids, careers, and financial obligations, all caught together in the most unexpected storm of the century, a storm of such magnitude that it brought the entire world to a screeching halt and transformed our daily lives.

COVID-19 hit, and it hit HARD.

One morning we were rushing out the door in work clothes to drop the kids at school, and the next sheltered at home in total shock and sweatpants, trying to help the kids log onto Zoom.

Our conversations changed from who was driving the kids to practice today to those bigger questions we had been putting off when life was so bustling and busy: How will we get through this? Is my family prepared?

The truth is that most of us were not.

Before COVID-19 even hit:

• 89 percent of us had debt;
• 77 percent of us did not have at least six months worth of living expenses saved in an emergency fund for a crisis;
• 70 percent of us did not have our will or trust set up, or a legal document designating guardians to raise our kids if something happened to us;
• 50 percent of us did not have any money saved for retirement.

And, may I add, 100 percent of us were not prepared for homeschool.

Too many of us did not have our finances in order nor the protections we needed in placenot for this pandemic, nor for any other misfortunes or challenges in life we hoped would somehow magically skip our family, like someone losing their job, someone walking out, someone getting sick, or even worse, someone (even ourselves) passing away.

Too many of us were not financially prepared for the good things in life either, like buying a family home in the neighborhood where we want to live, maximizing our money so we can work less and earn more, or realizing a personal dream like starting our own business, taking a dream vacation or retiring early. Important life milestones were merely hopes rather than plans.

And we knew this. We knew we should stop sending our financial advisor to voicemail or skipping those 401(k) lunch-and-learns. We knew we should put together a game plan to help finance the future we wanted. But it wasnt because we were being bad parents or giving up that we didnt have these plans in place; we were just busy, overwhelmed, and unsure how to tackle such daunting tasks. Between work demands, carpools, soccer games, and housework, we, regrettably, did not make building our wealth and securing our future the priority it needed to be.

Many of us also felt demotivated. Its not easy buying a family home where we want to live when housing prices are through the roof. Its not easy starting our own business or changing companies when the economy is volatile. Its not easy saving for our kids colleges when we still have our own student loans to pay off. Its not easy saving for retirement when theres a million other pressing financial needs we have to deal with right now. And were definitely not comfortable thinking of the what ifs in life, like: what would happen to our family and finances if something happened to us?

And for all of us happily married couples out there, well, it is not always easy getting in sync and making these decisions with our spouse.

So putting things off just seemed easier.

But lets be honest. We know now that we dont have that luxury. Life is happening and it has its unexpected ups and downs. We saw what happened to a lot of families during COVID-19families who lost their jobs, families who had someone get sick, and families who did not have the basic finances or protections in place to get through even a week of furlough.

For those of us who were not severely affected by COVID-19, we know we dodged a bullet that could have easily taken us down because we know we were not prepared.

Are we going to be the parents who must move our family out of our home because we got furloughed?

Are we going to be the parents whose finances will tank if the stock market dips?

Are we going to be the parents who cant eventually retire because we got wiped out during our working years?

Are we going to be the parents who end up on the GoFundMe page because something bad happened and we didnt have the financial resources or proper insurance in place?

I dont know about you, but I dont want to be a statistic. I want to be the other guy!

We all want the best for our families, especially our kids. We spend most of our everyday life just trying to make theirs better and happier. We want to wake up knowing that we are in control of our finances, rather than our finances being in control of us. We want to hit all those important life milestones, like buying a home, taking our dream trip, or funding our kids colleges without having to worry about money. And we dont want to just grind it out in life, we want to have a purpose and achieve our family and personal dreams. And we definitely want to make sure our family and kids are totally protected if, God forbid, anything unexpected should happen to us.

We want to know how to build wealth and secure our familys future, and we want to do it as soon as possible.

And that is exactly what this book is all about!

Through how-to steps and inspiring real-life stories of everyday families, I will show you how the Three Ps for ProsperityPlan, Protect, and Playerswill help your family build wealth and secure your familys future, no matter what life may bring.

Together we are going to understand:

• The easy If Life Were Perfect technique that will help you stop basing your everyday financial decisions on your circumstances or limitations, and instead on what you really want in life.