GENERALITIES - WHAT REALLY MATTERS

In times of disaster what you want to protect more than anything else are your contacts with friends and family. In good times what you want to build more than anything else are those conditions that permit you to form and maintain happy relationships with friends and family.

Often this means having lots of money, because often money provides the means and can free the time necessary to be with friends and family. But never let yourself become so engrossed in earning or protecting your money that you do not have time for friends and family. If you truly enjoy your children, then it is better that you send them to a poor school but have time to be with them and teach and expand their learning at home, than send them to a good school while you have no time for them. Of course, if you really don't enjoy spending your time with them, or simply have no talent for it, then having the assets to arrange for people who are good for them becomes more important.

Likewise, with your own children there is often a time to let go, a time when they must break free of you, and you must be prepared for that also. It will surely come before you think it should. But if you have protected you assets to pass on to them, perhaps in a manner that continues to protect those assets during their wilder, younger years, you will certainly feel far better about letting them go. Perhaps even look forward to grandchildren.

So know your assets, diversify and protect your assets, and learn to enjoy your life. These are the subject we shall be covering in the following chapters.