Sibling support for our kids in the future….

Sibling support for our kids in the future….

In the past generation, there were several children in a family. The number of children in a family was close to 10 about 70 years ago. Slowly it reduced to 4 or 5 children 40 years ago. Today we normally see couple have one or two per family and rarely three children. It may be due to several good reasons. But think of the sibling support that we get. Our brothers and sisters do not think twice to come to our rescue in case we need them. The coming generation may not have that kind of support from siblings.

What do we do?

One easy and good way to overcome this is to have our children considering the cousins as close family members. To make it happen

o We should take every opportunity to meet and spend time together
o We can have parties with our cousins as we do with out friends/colleagues that will bring the next generation closure
o Let them mix well and get comfortable with each other
o We should also instill the bonding in their mind
o We can also make the older kids realize that they consider themselves responsible for their younger cousins.

It is not difficult to do so. We require little more communication and get-together with our cousins. More importantly, we should remove the notion of “relatives means problems….”. As you all agree, days are gone where we keep complaining about our relatives with ego. We already have very friendly relationship with each other why not we give the same feelings to our kids about their cousins.

Ok, where is the party tonight :-) ?

If you agree, disagree or have comments please feel free to post your comments in this blog that would help bring a healthy discussion.

Your Asset Information Recording -- YAIR

Your Asset Information Recording -- YAIR

 

A casual discussion with a financial advisor made us realize how much we ignore on our own asset details. If it is not documented and given to the right person, it is as good as lost, when we are not around.

 

“Jeevan ke saath bhi; jeevan ke baad bhi (While you live and after you live)” – well said. It is a Life Insurance Corporation’s slogan. But makes us think. It is a good idea to list out all the information on the asset and leave a copy with trustworthy persons. We are not talking about the will/estate planning. That is different. Don’t tell me, my wife/husband knows everything. We travel together most of the time. If both of us are not there, no one will know what we havehave and where.

 

With the information compiled and kept in the hands of others, in case of any unexpected event we will at least know, oops! they will at least know where and what is available. We need not have the value of the asset in the document. But at least keep the necessary information that would help them accessing it. With this action you take today, our dependents (mostly our children) will not suffer.

 

Encourage your parents to do the same. It is the hard earned money.

 

For example, we can mention the following:

 

1. Name of account holders: Mr. Raja & Mrs. Rani 
1. Account Bank: 
2. Account Number: 
3. Branch/Address of bank:
2. Life Insurance: 

1. Name: 
2. Policy No: 
3. Start date and maturity date: 
4. Beneficiary: 
5. Procedure to claim – claim form attached 
2. Property: 

1. Address 
2. Land details 
3. Owners: 
4. Location:
5. Document copy attached 
6. Important note: It was purchased with power of attorney 
3. Stock holding information

1. Name and account number
4. Details of credit card 

1. Most of the credit cards provide life insurance. Get the details on them and document. Attach the claim form and procedure. Why not?

Prepare the list with all the details. It should contain copies of all the supporting documents and a summary at the top.

 

You have to do the following right away:

 

1. If your bank account is not a joint account, make them a joint account immediately. Without that we have to go through the procedure before getting access to that. 
2. Provide beneficiary/nominee to all the accounts. If minor is the beneficiary there should be a way out for mentioning guardian 
3. Compile assets information (AI) and make at least 3 copies and keep one for your reference and give to two people who will know about you all the time 
4. Any change on the info on assets, update the info on assets info record (AIR) 

Label your thoughts

Labeling is a good way to control your own thoughts. In short, label your thought as GOOD, BAD, GROWTH, DREAM and so on. For instance, when negative thought comes to your mind, label it as BAD and change your thinking. Similarly when you have free time while waiting for someone or something, bring the GROWTH thought from your thought list and it will help you to think about your GROWTH or DREAM.

More details can be found at: http://www.swamij.com/witnessing.htm

It is a good website.