A question is often asked is, if real estate investing is such a great tool, wealth building tool, then why isn’t everyone doing it?
Well, first of all, great question. Everyone is not going to do it, but those who understand the value, will. If you base your decisions on what others are doing, you are going to be in for a rude awakening. You should forge your own wealth path. That is another topic for another day. Anyhow, I think some people use this question as an excuse to keep them from, you know, the real reason of why they cannot start or won’t start to invest in real estate.
One of the top reasons, “why everyone isn’t investing” is, more often than not, because we haven’t been taught about building true generational wealth. If they knew the real value of real estate with regards to generational wealth, their mindsets would be different. I also believe their actions would be much different too, if they really truly understood what generational wealth means. Let’s create a working definition of the meaning of generational wealth. Generational means it’s relating to characteristics of people living about the same time, parent-child relationship, or collective group of a particular family. It also refers to getting things such as traditions, good or bad, passed down from your grandparents to your parents and then to you. Does your family have a famous recipe that is the “family secret” your grandmother made, and it always seem to appear at family gatherings? it is passed down from person to person. In my family, it is hands down cornbread dressing. Now adays it’s referred to as stuffing. Furthermore, wealth means an abundance of valuable possessions or money. Wealth can be in the form of money. You can have wealth in the form of a knowledge. You can have wealth in the form of material things. So a working definition of generational wealth is wealth in the form of knowledge about how to build wealth or assets of value passed down through a parent-child relationship.
“Everyone” has not been taught about generational wealth. Wealth in the form of knowledge on how to build assets of value, frankly is a huge missing component for most. How about for you? Did you get training on building wealth from your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, or great-great grandparents? I’m in a generation of my family lineage, not sure when it started, but if I trace back to late 1800s, my great-great grandmother was born. You are in a generation of your family lineage too, have you traced it? Let’s say, I start with my great-great grandmother Laura and then up to me, that is 4 generations of traditions, knowledge, possessions that have been, hidden, lost, or passed down. I encourage you to take a look back four generations for this experiment too. What “assets” have you uncovered? Are some good? Are some bad?
If you look back over four generations, ask yourself, what wealth in the form of knowledge was passed down. Drill a little deeper and ask yourself, was that knowledge on how to build assets of value. I asked myself these very questions. I had to face the hard reality that in my family line was the horrors of slavery, the grip of poverty, and the throws of debt. So the struggle to survive and overcome was the main objective. My family was broken. Nevertheless, there was some light. There was some entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency that I’d uncovered. All hope was not lost. How about you? What did you uncover? I can understand and have an appreciation for why generational wealth was not taught. I can understand and have an appreciation of why real estate investing is not at all popular for everyone. Why building any assets of value is not passed down for that matter. Still yet, I am not going to use my past as an excuse not to change my family tree and to do something different, nor should you allow your past as an excuse not to change your family tree.
Your history is your history. Turn tragedy to triumph. You can use your history. You can use some of the knowledge or lack thereof, as a step stone, a step ladder in order to build wealth. To live and reach the lifestyle you want to live. I sure am. I decided long ago I’m the one that’s going change the trajectory of my family line into generational wealth.
I have taken over a 15 year journey and still counting. I am using real estate investing, property ownership as one of my vehicles to build wealth. I am teaching my children about it as well. When it comes to the lack of knowledge about generational wealth and whether or not it was passed down, we don’t have to fault or blame our ancestors. You can use the knowledge they gave to inform your decisions today. You can use it as a way to help motivate you to strive for what you want out of life, strive for the wealth to build within your own branch of the family tree. Then you use that information and pass it down even further. Take the responsibility to pass that down to the next generation.
I chose real estate because it has five reasons of why it is the best bet. Real estate is IDEAL. IDEAL is an acronym I use to explain the benefits for investing. I in IDEAL stands for your real estate can produce Income. The D in IDEAL stands for your real estate can Depreciate. The E in IDEAL stands for your real estate can build Equity. The A in IDEAL stands for your real estate can Appreciate. Lastly, the L in IDEAL stands for your real estate can be Leveraged. These are my “Foundational Five” reasons you can use real estate to not only build wealth for yourself but also build generational wealth.