How Are You Preparing For Your Family’s Future?

What kind of legacy are you building for your family? In this episode, Austin, Josh, and Jordan unpack the financial and personal steps that shape your family’s future. From life insurance and estate planning to teaching values and creating healthy money habits, they share how small decisions today can make a big impact tomorrow. Listen now!

For the video version, show notes, and transcript, visit thewealthmindsetshow.com/s2e18

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You're listening to The Wealth Mindset Show, where Hixon Zuercher Capital Management's team of finance professionals, portfolio managers, and a life coach come together to tackle complex topics in finance and retirement planning so you don't have to. From investment strategies and wealth management to tax planning, retirement income, and aligning your money with your values and purpose, The Wealth Mindset Show offers the tools to thrive.

Austin Wilson:

All right. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to The Wealth Mindset Show where the Hixon Zuercher team helps you manage wealth, navigate retirement, and make smart decisions for a secure, meaningful future. I'm Austin Wilson, Director of Investments at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.

Josh Robb:

I'm Josh Robb, Director of Wealth Management at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. And today we're joined with one of our other advisors, Jordan Shaw.

Austin Wilson:

Jordan Shaw. What's up, Jordan?

Jordan Shaw:

Hello, hello.

Josh Robb:

All right, before we jump into it, just kind thinking through, our topic today is preparing for your family's future.

Austin Wilson:

True.

[0:54] - Kids Driving & When "Daddy" Turns to "Dad"

Josh Robb:

And one of the things I don't think I'm mentally prepared for is my son's getting ready to drive. He's got his temporary permit. Going to get his license. I don't think I was ready for that. And there's a lot of assumptions I have when it comes to driving that I think is common sense. But I have to think back to when I first got my license that you have to learn some of these things and things I take for granted are not there. For instance, turning right on red. In Ohio, you can turn right on red, but you should only do so when a car's not barreling at you at full speed.

Austin Wilson:

You don't have the right of way.

Josh Robb:

Yes. You don't have the right, you just have the ability to. So those little things that I take for granted. So anyway, that is preparing myself for my family's future, I think, mentally.

Austin Wilson:

In our house, I recently was called dad for the first time.

Josh Robb:

Oh, boy.

Austin Wilson:

Instead of daddy.

Josh Robb:

Oh, man. Right to the heart.

Austin Wilson:

And it was heartbreaking. I was not prepared for that. Must like Joshua.

Josh Robb:

He's like, who's that?

Austin Wilson:

I know. My mother-in-law said something like, funny, my kid did. I did something for my kid or whatever. She's like, oh yeah, thanks dad. And my two-year-old said, yeah, thanks dad. And I'm like, stop it. No, I'm not there yet. So then she's like, no, no, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. To try and make her say it again. She hasn't called me it since.

Josh Robb:

So I'm hoping she's more of a repeat.

Austin Wilson:

I'm hoping it stays that way.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, just repeating the sound. Not so much as changing your name.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, I'm not ready to be a dad yet. I'm just Daddy.

Jordan Shaw:

Nope. I'm just daddy.

Austin Wilson:

What about you, Jordan? What's going on in your world?

Jordan Shaw:

Yeah, my two-year-old, same thing. It's daddy or nothing, it better be, but she's like, lately whenever I come home, I get the most broad range of emotions from her when she sees me. It's either, oh my word, daddy's home, we're going to play and go outside and all this. Or just the other day she ran up to me, didn't say a word, and just whacked me with both hands and ran away. I'm like, there you go. Okay. I don't know. Or she'll just have a mental breakdown when she sees me, it's all over. I never know what I'm going to get. It's fun.

Austin Wilson:

I mean, coming from another person who has only daughters, I think that we're in for wild cards. You never know what you're going to get when you walk in the door. Right. It could be anything. So yeah, today we're going to be talking about that topic that hits close to home. Thinking about your family, thinking about your family's future and taking care of them. Obviously this looks very different at one end of the spectrum when you have a young family or when you are at the other end of the spectrum and maybe you're taking care of some aging parents or thinking about what sort of legacy you want to leave on the other end of all this. It's a big deal. So we're just encouraging people to start thinking about it now. Hopefully this episode will prompt you to start thinking about it and everyone would better off because of it. So I guess let's talk about what does the term like your family's future mean for you guys?

[3:34] - What Does “Your Family’s Future” Even Mean to You?

Josh Robb:

When I think it's changed over time as well. It's like if you would've asked me that 10-15 years ago, I would be like, oh, I want to make sure I set them up to be successful. Now it's more about habits, mindset, values. I think it's changed more towards less on the training and more on instilling the right concepts and values for you. And so when I think about preparing my family for the future, it is instilling my values for them and showing them that less so of I need to open an account, I need to start saving. Those are all important things, but it's less that for me now than it was before.

Jordan Shaw:

Yeah, I would second all of that and add to it with, I tend to think of who are the people that they're going to be pouring into. So setting them up to build those connections and have that network of people around them. It is less about the financial aspect in my mind, thinking about that in particular. Those things are important, but I worry about, or I try to think of what's the legacy there? Who's those next people that they're going to be pouring into or connecting with?

Austin Wilson:

And I tend to even take that one step further as I'm looking into the next generation of my kids. So when my kids get older, I want to prepare them to be, of course an exceptional workforce member contributing to society of course. But I also want them to be a very valuable spouse to someone if that's the direction their life takes. And there's a lot of moral thoughts and stuff that go into how we can raise them up to do that and hopefully show them a good example of that over time as well as financially as what we talk about a lot here is how can I set them up to just have a really good head start, don't want them. I'm not ever going to be able to provide everything they could ever want in the entire world. There's not room in my backyard for that many ponies, but we can set them up and take some steps to prepare them for the future.

[5:33] - Start with Protection... Then Build from There

And most importantly, things about preparing or not preparing them, but taking care of things in the event something would happen. And that's one of the things we're going to be talking about today is let's just understand what's important to us and how we can plan for that. So let's just take one action step for all of our listeners here and say, Hey, maybe you haven't really thought much about this. This is a great opportunity to step back and go, what matters to me and my family? How can I think what I want their future to look like and how can I plan for that today? So starting number one, protection. So this is where we're going to talk about things like insurance. So Josh, talk a little bit about why maybe even before you think about planning ahead in terms of growing your money, protecting your income, particularly to make sure your family's needs are covered is super important.

Josh Robb:

You can create all these plans for what you want them to do in the future, but if something were to happen to the primary earner in your family that really disrupts those plans.

So what you want to do is take that risk and insurance is just having someone else take the risk for you. You're paying them that premium, that cost monthly or whatever annually to take risks that you had and pass it to them. So in the form of life insurance or disability insurance to say, in my case, if I'm the primary earner, if something were to happen to me, what do I need to have so that my family can continue towards that legacy, that goal that what I'm trying to achieve with this planning. So life insurance and disability, those are the two key ones. And you just got to figure out what will they need. Financial advisors are great for this. Insurance agents can help as well. Just calculate how much do I need to replace what that cost would be.

Austin Wilson:

And this is where you can also get into the nuance of, well, statistically speaking, you're more likely to get disabled than to actually need life insurance by death. So that's where things like long-term disability insurance are so important to look at to make sure that you and your family are protected from that.

Josh Robb:

Because passing away, which is tragic, there's no ongoing costs, but if I'm disabled, I'm still around. I have ongoing costs as well as losing my income. So you're right, that is a death penalty for the family.

Austin Wilson:

It's likely, yes.

Josh Robb:

You have a higher probability-

Austin Wilson:

Becoming disabled is more likely than dying early.

Jordan Shaw:

And it's less talked about. People don't think about disability insurance. Life insurance is all over the place.

Austin Wilson:

But on the life insurance topic, we have full dedicated episodes of this and we probably will again in the future. But just at a very high level, making sure that your liabilities are covered and hopefully your income is protected for a while to prepare for your family while it's needed. Now, this changes as your life stage changes. As you get a little bit older, maybe you have a little bit more assets, you kind of be more self-insured, but early on, especially making sure that your, in our cases, wife and kids would be taken care of if we were to untimely pass as good. But this is also where we could get into the little rabbit trail of whole life versus term life insurance.

And we'll say right here that both products may have benefits in certain cases. Generally speaking, for the majority of people, more of a term insurance policy would be what we would recommend. There are instances where whole life can have a value there, but that's a whole different topic for another day. But those are different routes. You can go about that. Then you have to start thinking about how those tie into uh-oh, estate planning. I think we talk about estate planning every episode.

Josh Robb:

Wait, a lot is important.

Austin Wilson:

Your lawyer and your CPA are your best friends.

Josh Robb:

They should be.

Austin Wilson:

And your financial advisor.

Josh Robb:

Yep.

Austin Wilson:

There are those three. That's the trifecta. But this is where it's really good to have a lawyer that you trust who can draft all these documents and make sure that you've got things like, yeah, power of attorney, you've got a will. You got all your guardian's name for your children if something were to happen to you and your spouse. So those are check marks. You should probably be checking off as you're listening to this. Not while you're driving though, that would be extremely dangerous, but please make sure you have those things figured out.

It's not expensive to do those things either. The earlier you are and the more simple your situation is, the cheaper it is and the easier it's to get that done. And then of course, thinking about planning ahead here, so talk about a little bit about just at the very high level, planning ahead for college expenses or education in general.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, I mean if you're looking at this idea of planning for your family's future, one thing that may be in the future for your family is at your kid's age, continuing their education into college. And so how do you pay for that? College is not cheap. There's many different ways. There's scholarships and grants and all these things, loans, but how, and this comes back to like you said, sitting down and saying, what is our philosophy as a team? Do me and my spouse want our kids to accomplish?

And how do we want to help them or support them through that? So maybe it's setting aside some money. 529 plans are investment plans that work towards college education. We have talked about this before, just a lot of tax advantages, but what do we want to do to save for it? What do we want to do to help prepare them for that? But yes, education is probably one of those pieces when you look about the future that you want to have a plan. You don't want to just stumble into it when they turn 18, oh, I didn't realize this was coming. You want to have a thought out plan for it.

Jordan Shaw:

And it's challenging too, if I could just sit my 2-year-old down and she could tell me where she wants to go to college and I could call that college up and ask how much they're going to be charging in 16 years.

Josh Robb:

You're all set.

Jordan Shaw:

There'd be no problem. But there's so many unknowns. And that's where this really comes into the conversation where clients will have competing priorities and it's like, how much do I prioritize college? I don't know if my kid is going to go to college or what their thoughts are yet they're only in fifth grade. But when you have some of that extra cash flow, it can make sense to at least put some in a 5 29, it'll grow. You'll get some tax benefits and there's a lot more leeway now with those types of accounts that even if they don't go to your standard for your institution, there's other ways that you can access that money for them too.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. Have you ever thought about how your financial choices reflect what truly matters to you at Hixon Zuercher capital Management, we believe that integrating your values and dreams with your financial future is key to achieving peace of mind and confidence. When you engage in deep conversations with us, you'll start to see how your money can support the things that matter the most in your life. Our holistic approach means that your financial plan is more than just numbers. It's a personalized blueprint that evolves with you. You'll have a dedicated team of professionals tailored to your unique needs, all focused on crafting an investment portfolio designed to help you achieve your specific goals. Plus our on staff retirement life coach offers guidance to empower you toward a fulfilling retirement that goes beyond just financial security ready to transform your relationship with money. Join us at and let's embark on this journey together.

[12:17] - Legacy Isn’t Just About Money: Instilling Values & Lessons

Now back to the show. So that is a couple of the aspects of starting with the protection side, the insurance side, things we can plan ahead for. But let's talk about the non-financial side of legacy planning here. And this is something that we're very passionate about here at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management is the non-financial side, particularly of retirement. There's a whole non-financial side of life, and this is the things that we kind of briefly hit on, but we can delve into a little bit further. But this is things about our legacy that we want to pass along to our children and people going forward. So talk a little bit about the values that you want your children to carry forward.

Josh Robb:

When you think about a legacy and how do I want to be remembered and that if we're talking family in this instance, how do I want my kids to view and remember me? And when we talk about finances, what do I want them to see from me? How do I treat money? How is it used within our family? And depending on their age, there's different ways you approach that, right? For my 7-year-old, there's a different conversation than with my 15, almost 16-year-old to say, how do you look at money? What is it for all these different principles?

And so this essence of instilling these values, I think changes over time. But even the littlest ones, you can start by just how you interact with them and how you show them. They absorb a lot more than you realize just by watching the two parents, are my wife and I, we argue or get stressed about money? Do they pick up on that and does that carry on? How does that kind of change their worldview by how they saw us react to it? So that's the starting point, I think is just based on their age. Even little kids can comprehend. My 7-year-old understands money to the extent that you need it to get things and that different things cost different amounts.

Still, it's kind of hard for her to comprehend a house costing hundreds of thousands. It's just a concept hard for her to understand versus that pack of gum she bought for 75 cents or a dollar. There's a difference there, but she doesn't quite get how big of a difference those two numbers are. But we can have that conversation if she says, oh, I want this gum, but we just buy something yesterday, you're going to have those conversations to help them out. Then my 15 old, my 16-year-old, okay, hey, you're going to start driving. How much gas costs if you fill up this tank, do you know roughly how much that'll be? And how do you have to work to pay for that gas? Absolutely. They can comprehend more of that as they get older.

Austin Wilson:

Jordan, what about you, and what do you want your kids to take away from your legacy?

Jordan Shaw:

Yeah, it does. In my mind, it's going to change so much as they grow up too, just like you're saying Josh. But even starting as simple as kind of harping back to the relationships piece of it. My 2-year-old, we were just reading a book last night where I was reading it to her and the book was all about, you're so special and you're unique. You're amazing. And all of the animals in this book was singing your name and things.

And I'm like, you know what? I don't know if my 2-year-old needs the message that everything's about her being told to her. She's already got that in her brain. So it's really thinking about how do I help this young soul, this young mind begin to relate more to people and start to learn to give towards others and plan for the needs of others and things like that. I think that's something that I want to carry on or I want to pass along to my girls as they age is the world can be made a better place with you in it, especially when you're impacting others and you're thinking about the needs of others and then acknowledge that when they do those things.

Josh Robb:

So my 10-year-old for Father's Day, he came up with the idea to, a friend of his was having a garage sale and they were selling some baseball cards. So he talked to my wife and said, Hey, I'd like to go there and find a card for dad, and I want to buy it with my money. And so that was awesome. It was really special for me. He was like, Hey, dad, who's your favorite player? I said, Ken Griffith. And so he went and found a Ken Griffith Jr. baseball card and then had it for me for Father's Day.

Austin Wilson:

That's pretty cool.

Josh Robb:

But then afterwards I wanted to, and so the next day I pulled him aside. I'm like, hey, buddy, that meant a lot. You took the time and thought through this whole thing and used your own money. You didn't say, Hey mom, can you go buy this for dad? You said, hey, I have some money that I've got and I'm going to go do something special with it. And to acknowledge that and in a sense say, hey, awesome. That was really cool of you to do that. Right? And it goes to that legacy of using your money for others. One of the things I want them to know is one of our jobs and roles is to take care of others and use our resources to help others. And so just to show him that, Hey, that was really appreciated. You did something special for thought wasn't last minute. Oh, what do I have? Type of thing. It was, hey, here, look at this.

Austin Wilson:

I tend to take this even in a much less financial route when I think about my legacy and I want my kids to grow up thinking, yeah, dad was a pretty cool guy. Of course they are going to, that's the funniest, funniest guy I've ever known. And he was really cool.

Josh Robb:

He comes up with the best jokes.

Austin Wilson:

So obviously they're going to think that. But on a more serious note, I really want them to look at me and say, Hey, what was important to him was what's important to me. We're aligned on our values going forward. And those are things like our faith. If I do instill my faith in my children growing up, I have failed. I can't control them once they're out of the house. I understand that. But if I from a young age cannot teach them about what I believe and why I believe it, I failed. That's the most important thing in my life.

But secondly, I want them to look at my wife and I's marriage and say, I want that. And thirdly, this is where the pressure comes. I want my daughters, because I have three daughters, I want my daughters to look at me and say, I want to marry a guy like him. And if they knew what I knew about myself, which is that I am jacked up and imperfect and make mistakes, all that, they just see that I don't make mistakes right now, but I do. I'm like, no, I want you to marry someone a whole heck of a lot better than me.

But those are the three things that beyond a financial sense, I want my girls to know about me as they get older and then add to that hard work. They may choose a different career, but what I hope to instill, and I know you're the same way and I know you are as well, Jordan is just you're a hard worker. You show up, you do your job, and you go beyond that. And that's what I try instill in them is like, look around. Can I help? It may not be exactly what I'm supposed to do, but does somebody need help? And just if I'm somewhere and I see something, for instance, we're at the baseball fields like last night, and it's like, hey, there's trash on the ground. It's not yours, but pick it up. Let's leave the dugout clean When we walk out, there's a bottle there. Pick it up, throw it in the trash. The little things to say, Hey, that's your job. That's what you're supposed to do.

[19:17] - Have Conversations & Talk About It (Even If It Feels Weird)

Austin Wilson:

So you're right, instill those pieces into it, and I guess where it all kind of ties together is whether it be from the financial side or the non-financial side, when you're having these legacy long-term thinking thoughts about passing things along to your children, you have to talk about.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, you can't assume they absorb it. Like my story about driving, if I don't tell him, turn right on red. When it's open and clear, you have to have that conversation. You don't assume they understand it.

Austin Wilson:

So that's why, and this changes as kids get older too, because like you said, yeah, your six-year-old, seven-year-old and your fifteen-year-old, very different understanding of money and life, but you can tailor all those conversations and have little lessons about money and little lessons about life as they get older, so that by the time they're 18, 19, 20 years old and they're kind of doing their own thing, they at least can not get hit by a car when they walk across the street.

Or they know, oh wait, I should probably think about the tax impact of this job I'm running right now, or all of these certain things. So those are things I just think it's super important to be on the same page about. And then like I said, as they get older, it changes also for money. You can talk about saving, but that can go from a piggy bank to a bank account to an investment account, and then even one step further as they get a little bit older, this is where you can talk about your wishes for the long-term thinking, bring your kids in on your discussion of your estate, your will, your plans for things over time, and that's really going to help things go along. Don't wait until you die for your kids to find out what's going to happen.

Josh Robb:

But don't talk to your seven-year-old, hey, when mom and dad die, there's a balance there. There's a balance there. There's a balance there. Yes. You're right.

[20:53] - Life Changes & So Should Your Plan

Austin Wilson:

Absolutely. So I guess as we kind of hit on this last topic, guys talk a little bit about how life changes. So your planning should change and everything really should be impacted with where you are in life. So talk a little bit about that.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, we've talked about this in general, your goals, your plan in general does adapt and flow as life goes on. So why shouldn't also your teaching, your plan for your family legacy also adapt to that? There may again, right now, my kids are great, but at some point they may get married and have grandkids. How does that affect my legacy, what I want to values and pass on? So yeah, it adapts over time. You also need to adapt to what they're like, right? Each of my four kids have a different mindset personality. They make different decisions. So how do I adapt what I'm trying to teach them to each of them so that they comprehend and understand it the best way?

Jordan Shaw:

And really to thinking specifically of your legacy later in life and passing that on through your assets financially and things like that. That's something that as life changes, that needs to be reviewed periodically. And I think for a lot of people, it's like, oh my goodness, I have to look at that and update that and meet with that person and pay that fee or whatever it is. It can be like hindrances. It's really no one, 10 out 10 people would not want something to happen after they died that wasn't part of their plan or their ideas of passing it on. So it's a matter of retaining control. Yes, it can be a little bit of a headache. If you do it more frequently, it's probably less of a headache because it's just little tweaks here and there that you have to make. Not usually a whole lot changes every year. So it's really about retaining control and saying, okay, I have confidence that if something happens to me, when something happens to me, I know how everything is going to be settled out.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. Perfect. Any final thoughts, guys, on talking about legacies? Financial, non-financial.

Josh Robb:

Financial, financial. Don't try to do it on your own. Especially if you have a spouse, make sure you're on the same page with that. Absolutely. But look outward. Are there people that you look up to that have done a good job of this and ask them how they've done it? Right? Hey, for instance, hey, you have grown kids and I noticed you've kind of had this great relationship where they're on board with that. How did you start that conversation? Don't try to reinvent the whole wheel. If somebody's done a good job, ask them, hey, how did you approach this? And just maybe use some of that. If there's great people you look up to, they probably have a good process and they may say, well, I just stumbled on it. Well, I'm glad you stumbled on it so I can stumble on you.

Jordan Shaw:

I can just follow along with it.

Josh Robb:

Yes.

Jordan Shaw:

Yeah, and part of that too, the situations and those conversations that you're having that is so nuanced and so specific to each family, there's three different ways for each of the three families that are represented in this room to handle those conversations with your family. So it's not, some people are like, just tell me what I need to say and who I need to say to. It's like, depends on how your child handles money or what they want with their life later in life. Do they understand your desires in giving some of your estate away to charities? Are they going to be offended by that? How do you bring that up? There's so many different things that can come into play there, but it doesn't mean the conversation shouldn't happen. 99% of the time a conversation needs to happen, at least one conversation, if not multiple, so that everyone's on the same page.

Josh Robb:

And I'll say the last piece, we didn't talk much about this, we were looking downward, but if you are a kid for an aging parent, you could even initiate that conversation and say, look, I don't need to know all the details, but can we kind of get a feel for what you'd like? Right? Maybe it's you prompting that conversation upward to your parents to just start that test so you understand. So then you don't have to try to guess later on what would they want me to do with this? Right? You could have that conversation upward. You don't have to be the parent going down, but you could be the kid up and say, Hey, you don't have to tell me numbers, but for where you're going, what are your hoping to have happen? What are some of your values and goals?

Austin Wilson:

And frankly, I think that numbers should be discussed more frequently.

Josh Robb:

At some point. Yes.

Austin Wilson:

And don't wait too late though, because things can happen on mentally really quickly for aging parents and stuff like that. So as soon as your children are, they have, they're stable, they have a good mind of what's going on with money, and you understand estate planning in general, I think it's a really good time to have that conversation. Don't wait until it's too late for this is main point there. For sure. Yeah. Well, thanks Jordan. Thanks Josh for being here today. If you enjoyed this episode or it sparked some thought about estate planning, long-term planning, leaving a legacy, don't forget to hit that subscribe button because we'll have more coming on that sort of thinking going forward.

And then make sure you follow us on social media because we're pretty active on there and we'd love to connect. And if you're ready to invest with Hixon Zuercher where we work here, you can head over to Hzcapital.com, check out our website, check out what we're about, and maybe we can be a great fit for one another. Otherwise, thanks for listening and we'll see you next episode. Talk to you later. Thanks. Bye.

Thank you for joining us at The Wealth Mindset Show where we tackle the complexities of finance and life planning to help you align your wealth with your values. We hope today's conversation provided value and clarity as you navigate your financial journey. Your hosts work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. All opinions expressed by them or any podcast guest are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions.

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