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Sometimes helping a child we love means supporting the child’s parents. Most parents would love to provide their children with every possible opportunity. However, parents are now raising children during a period of falling income and rising expenses, and many parents are unemployed or underemployed or experiencing cuts in pay or benefis. Successfully raising children in this environment requires a much greater investment of time and money and greater risks than originally anticipated.
In these circumstances, it behooves all members of the family to appreciate the responsibility parents are taking in raising the next generation, and helping when and as we can.
One of the critical issues for a child is a stable home environment. Where sufficient financial wealth is available in an immediate and extended family, refinancing a family mortgage or helping a family finance the purchase or rental of a new home subsequent to foreclosure or other loss may be an important step toward creating a stable home base for the children. This is a significant commitment for one family member alone. However, in families where a number of members are willing to participate by syndicating the mortgage or loan among themselves, such investments become easier to afford. Given what is happening in the economy, families organizing to invest in housing for members of their family who are having business or health difficulties can be a sound investment in both real estate and for current and future generations.
Our favorite book on family wealth, Family Wealth—Keeping It in the Family: How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Human, Intellectual and Financial Assets for Generations by James E. (“Jay”) Hughes, Jr., puts forth the concept of a family bank, where members of the family dedicate a portion of their savings to gifting and investing in family members’ dreams and business ideas. This is terrific because it combines the knowledge and networks of numerous members family for the purpose of building one another’s success. You can hear Jay describe this idea on our Solari Report Digest #6.
Whatever the particulars and opportunities in your family, supporting the children we love invariably requires involving and supporting the whole family. Reducing a parent’s stress lightens the burden of the child; and a child whose needs are satisfied is a child whose parents are less stressed and better able to parent effectively than they would otherwise be.
Read the full article here.