@Steve Vaughan thank you for the shout out! I started REI with the intent of generational wealth, that included passing knowledge on to my children. I wasn't looking to build wealth for myself, I wanted to build a foundation where my children could build real wealth. It just turned out that I have been able to create a pretty good life for my family along the way.
I started off with subtle clues for the kids from a very young age. Every month I would layout the "mailbox money" on the dinner table and get things ready to deposit. Eventually, they got to the age where they would ask what I was doing and I would explain where this money was coming from. Time would pass, but they remembered the idea of "mailbox money". When other families were buying new cars or going on vacations, I would reference "mailbox money" and explain to them the difference between assets and liabilities.
When my kids were a little older, I started taking them for short periods of time to some of my renovations. Not to work, but to have fun. My thought was that anybody can do demo. One of my fondest memories was taking my 10 year old son and 12 year old daughter to do some demo on a kitchen. It wasn't about being efficient or doing it right, it was about making it fun. I put eye and ear protection on the kids and handed a hammer to my daughter and an old baseball bat to my son and told them to go to town. At first they didn't understand, but I took the bat and took a full swing at a cabinet. After that, they were booth hooked on demo. Another time, I told them we were going to paint some "graffiti". We went into a unit, and I handed them paint brushes and a bucket of primer and told them to paint what they want wherever they wanted. Teaching like this slows down the renovation process, but when the goal is generational wealth building, a week or a month delay is nothing.
They were never obligated to help and I never forced them to do work. They just naturally migrated to it as they learned the difference between assets and liabilities and how sweat equity can accelerate the process of wealth building.
During the covid lock downs, I had them read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and write a report for me. They got paid to read it but they came away with a good understanding of the base concepts. Now whenever we go on vacation or I take time off mid-week to do something with them, I explain to them the reason I can do that, but many parents cannot, is that I own my own business and we own assets with reasonable liabilities. My goal has always been to raise my children to have time freedom and I tell them that cannot be done as an employee.
Now that they are in their 20's I am stepping them through the process of buying properties. The first property I find and negotiate for them. They are their through the entire process and learn by watching. My son is on his first property, but my daughter is on her second. In the second step, we discussed what type of attributes she wanted and I found several properties. It was her decision to make on which property to purchase from the "short list" and what the offer price would be. I advised on the negotiations, but let her make the final call. The third and final step will be when they do all of the foot work. I will again take an advisory role, but they will drive the project from start to finish.
Through the entire process we discuss financing and the banking process. I understand to many on BP the goal is to replace income with "mailbox money." But I explain to them that having a W2 at the beginning is a good thing. It is needed to get loans, and early jobs are good places to learn what not to do. Hopefully, they will transition to owners of businesses and then eventually to investors.
As a final tool for knowledge transfer, I use social media as a living archive of what we do in real estate as a family. I don't post for likes or followers, I post so that my children and hopefully my grandchildren can see how the wealth was built over time. They can see the progress they have made over the years and hopefully it will help build confidence in them for those dark days all real estate investors eventually encounter.
@Jim K. I hope that my journey helps you and anybody else that stumbles upon my post.
