How do you build generational wealth?
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Here's the key: Be consistent and reinvest.
When my husband and I started, we had regular jobs and saved diligently for our first down payment. Many people make the mistake of stopping those saving habits once they buy their first property. You need to continue saving while reinvesting everything your property earns into more real estate.
We’ve never spent a single dollar of our real estate income on personal expenses—it all goes back into building our portfolio. This disciplined approach allowed us to grow a substantial real estate portfolio in under a decade. Real estate is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on long-term gains and reinvest consistently.
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When my husband and I started, we had regular jobs and saved diligently for our first down payment. Many people make the mistake of stopping those saving habits once they buy their first property. You need to continue saving while reinvesting everything your property earns into more real estate.
We’ve never spent a single dollar of our real estate income on personal expenses—it all goes back into building our portfolio. This disciplined approach allowed us to grow a substantial real estate portfolio in under a decade. Real estate is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on long-term gains and reinvest consistently.
To build generational wealth, invest whatever you can, be wise with your investments, really dig into what you're investing in, and know what you're investing in. Even if you are working with a financial advisor, I encourage questioning everything. Think, "where is my money living"? A lot of financial advisors these days are using mutual funds and ETFs. You could pop some of those ticker symbols into Yahoo Finance or Morningstar and see what that holding spread really is. Again, making sure you know what you're invested in. And make sure it's you're dealing with ethical companies, things that have, you know, some longevity, and although you can never guarantee anything, look for places to invest that offer some real demonstrated growth.
Also, if you find yourself in a position to start putting away some wealth for the next generation, make sure you're properly utilizing trusts. Different investment accounts can live within a trust, and you can clearly iron out who gets what amount at what time and specify things the way you'd like. You can create a clean, customized legacy that way.
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Also, if you find yourself in a position to start putting away some wealth for the next generation, make sure you're properly utilizing trusts. Different investment accounts can live within a trust, and you can clearly iron out who gets what amount at what time and specify things the way you'd like. You can create a clean, customized legacy that way.
In my opinion, one of the biggest things people can do to build generational wealth is to work on their "money stories". Try to understand your psychology and how you make decisions around money. For example, once you realize, "Oh, I am actually sabotaging myself because I am too afraid of risk. I am holding too tightly to things, and not investing in whatever it is I need to help me grow my business/advance in my career, because I just view everything as an expense", you can build awareness. Or, another example would be someone who is spending too much, who needs to cut back, and who has a completely different money story.
Getting an idea of what the definition of generational wealth is for you, and what is "enough" for you and your family, is also really important. Then, it's important to understand if that's realistic with what financial steps you are taking. If somebody comes to me and says, "I want to build generational wealth so my kids never have to work, and I need $50 million to do that", I'll go, "That is great, but how are you going to get there from where you are now"? It is possible to get there for people, but you have to change how you think and the decisions that you make.
In fact, in my personal opinion, I do not necessarily want to build generational wealth. Look at the TV show Succession as an extreme example of this. Money is a tool, and it can do weird things to people when you have too much. As a parent, I think most of us want our kids to have it a little bit easier than us, but if you give a child a "frictionless" life, they may not know how to do anything! In my mind, if your kids will have access to money, you want to make sure they have the tools and knowledge of how to handle it. Not only that, you'd want them to understand the value of it and have gratitude for it.
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Getting an idea of what the definition of generational wealth is for you, and what is "enough" for you and your family, is also really important. Then, it's important to understand if that's realistic with what financial steps you are taking. If somebody comes to me and says, "I want to build generational wealth so my kids never have to work, and I need $50 million to do that", I'll go, "That is great, but how are you going to get there from where you are now"? It is possible to get there for people, but you have to change how you think and the decisions that you make.
In fact, in my personal opinion, I do not necessarily want to build generational wealth. Look at the TV show Succession as an extreme example of this. Money is a tool, and it can do weird things to people when you have too much. As a parent, I think most of us want our kids to have it a little bit easier than us, but if you give a child a "frictionless" life, they may not know how to do anything! In my mind, if your kids will have access to money, you want to make sure they have the tools and knowledge of how to handle it. Not only that, you'd want them to understand the value of it and have gratitude for it.
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