Funding Family

Posted on May 8, 2012 at 9:38 am

Salt Lake City is a community of convictions.

There are the obvious ties to religion, but it’s not just that. That’s the easy observation. No, there’s more than just the obvious here in the city by the salt lake. It’s truly a community. A city this size could easily take on the personality of a big city with somewhat distant denizens and flashy architecture.

However, amazing and beautiful Salt Lake City is, the real example are the people.

The streets are clean. The neighborhoods are organized. In fact, it’s somewhat difficult to get lost since the center of the city is where all the roads spread out from the center, the temple. It’s actually like this in much of Utah. Every small town we passed through seemed to have a Center and Main. It’s this uniform structure that make it easy to get around Utah.

The center of Salt Lake City isn’t just the temple. No, the core of people certainly do think about the future. In fact, some would say it’s at the forefront of the groupthink. The ideas of legacy are strong here.

The legacy of beliefs and family motivates the future. That is retirement.

Think about it for a minute. You’re a hard worker. You put your assets away for the future. You create investments and future savings. You plan, if even on the smallest level, to preserve yourself and your ideas. The money is really only a means to the end, but there’s more to retirement than money. The idea of legacy isn’t what your money can buy you in the last chapter of your life.

The idea of legacy is what you leave behind when you’re gone.

The idea of family is different for everyone. However, in Salt Lake City, it’s a cornerstone of the value system. Your assets may not consist of loads of cash, but of your spouse, your children, your brothers, your sisters. Those who listen, share and empathize with your views on the world. They share your views, thoughts, and ideas with their immediate families. Then, your legacy becomes bigger than you. Not something small like the building of monetary savings.

It’s not uncommon in many other cultures for the parents to eventually move back in with their children in order to be taken care of. However, in our society, it’s a sign of weakness or burden, that their parents didn’t do a great job of saving or have simply become sick. It’s true that it takes a village to raise a child, but not necessarily our parents.

What’s more fundamental to legacy than family? Who carries your words of wisdom? Maybe our real heritage lies in the people we “save”, not the assets.

I’d love to think this was the answer, but we have to come together as a community to make that work.

More to come…