There are some individuals in life who we know well because they have made substantial contributions to the world. They dedicate their lives to the greater good of society and we all benefit from it. With that sometimes comes a great deal of sacrifice on their immediate families because they now must share time not with just each other but also with causes, communities, followers, and fans. There are other individuals who you will probably never hear about because they dedicated their lives to their families (unless that person is in your family, then you know of their heroics very well). This comes at a sacrifice too for the individual where they may have to trade off better health, finances, personal goals or career achievements.
The same dilemma can come with inheritance, how much is enough to leave for your children to make sure they are ok vs do you have enough to make a difference to a community, cause or group? Bill Gates and Warren Buffet created a Giving Pledge to encourage their fellow billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth. I had a debate with a family member who was adamantly against the concept and felt like the children should be the ones to decide whether to give it away or not. There are a lot of families who struggle because of a lack of inheritance, shouldn’t the effort be put into teaching families how to preserve and increase their wealth, so they won’t lose it? Wealth preservation is important but what happens if your source of wealth comes at the cost of a community around you? The Sackler Family (who owns Purdue Pharma) found a great source of wealth for their family with the creation of OxyContin but at the cost of sparking off an Opioid Crisis that is still affecting many communities today.
When looking at the Billionaires of the world the decision may seem more straight forward for what is considered enough and what should be done to make an impact. When it comes to most families, the choices are a bit harder. Answer these questions for yourself:
- How much money do you need to have in the bank (or how much passive income monthly) do you need to have to feel like you could stop working?
- How much money do you think your family will need to have a positive impact on their lives?
- How much money would you need to make a positive impact in a community?
If you don’t have enough money for work to become optional then your focus should be getting there first and having life insurance for your family.
If you get to the point where work is optional then life insurance could become optional and some of that time should be spent on making sure you make a positive impact in your families lives by equipping them with the knowledge and tools to be able to the point where work is optional for them too.
If you have more than enough time and money for all 3 then I would suggest putting a portion of funds in a doner advised fund or setting up your will to make sure that both your family and the community are positively impacted.
Saving your family and the world don’t have to be mutually exclusive if you have a passion and ability to help both.