Life Savings Conversations: Prepping You for the Ten Most Important Money Discussions You'll Have in Life

By Amy Jamrog

Life Savings Conversations

Prepping You for the Ten Most Important Money Discussions You'll Have in Life

Do you avoid talking about money, especially with the people

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Sep 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647463267

Amy Jamrog

Amy Jamrog is an author, coach, and speaker. She has been in the financial services field for more than twenty years. Throughout her career, Amy has helped thousands of families successfully navigate money conversations, create new possibilities, and get themselves into action.

Book preview

A picture containing plate Description automatically generated

Prepping You for the Ten Most Important Money Discussions You’ll Have in Life

Amy Jamrog

LIFE SAVINGS CONVERSATIONS © 2020 by Amy Jamrog.

All rights reserved.

Published by Author Academy Elite

PO Box 43, Powell, OH 43065

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the author.

LCCN: 2020910686

ISBN: 978-1-64746-324-3 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-64746-325-0 (hardback)

ISBN: 978-1-64746-326-7 (eBook)

Amy Jamrog is a registered representative of and offers securities, investment advisory and financial planning services through MML Investors Services LLC, Member SIPC. Supervisory Office: 330 Whitney Ave., Suite 600; Holyoke, MA 01040. The Jamrog Group is not a subsidiary or affiliate of MML Investors Services, LLC or its affiliated companies.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my Dad & Mom.

Dad, thank you for the

life savings conversations we shared as a family.

You were the person who taught me

the fundamentals of financial responsibility.

I have stewarded those lessons and passed them on

to countless people over the past twenty years.

Mom, thank you for showing our family

what it means to be generous.

You taught us to always share with others.

I carry your examples of kindness and love

into every life savings conversation I have.

Love,

AJ

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1:

The Heart-to-Heart to Have with Yourself about Money

Chapter 2:

Talking with Your Children about Earning, Saving & Spending Money

Chapter 3:

Talking with Your Teen about College

Chapter 4:

The Conversation to Have before Getting Married

Chapter 5:

Talking with Your Grown Children before They Tie the Knot

Chapter 6:

The Conversation to Have before Getting Divorced

Chapter 7:

The Conversation to Have before Getting Remarried

Chapter 8:

The Conversation to Help Define Your Philanthropy

Chapter 9:

The Conversation between You and Your Elderly Parents

Chapter 10:

The Conversation to Have before You Die

Final Thoughts

Introduction

It’s rare to come across someone who inherently enjoys talking about money. For most people, the subject is loaded with emotion: worry, guilt, stress, shame, conflict, tension, and powerlessness—to name a few. And most of the feelings associated with money are negative.

But they don’t need to be.

I have been a financial professional for more than twenty years. During that time, I’ve had the privilege of moderating thousands of conversations related to money. Many of them have been with married couples. Others were with an elderly parent and an adult child. Some have even included Mom, Dad, and all the kids in a family meeting. I’ve experienced the discomfort at the beginning of the conversations and the relief that comes at the conclusion.

The hypothetical stories shared throughout the book are meant to give you a glimpse into what individuals, couples, and families deal with at all different stages in life. These begin as conversations centered on your life savings: paying for college, how to handle money in your marriage, or what legacy you ultimately want to leave behind before you die. When handled with respect, transparency, and compassion, these conversations become life-saving:

That conversation wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be! I feel like my wife and I have such a better understanding of our priorities. It’s a relief to know we’re on the same page, and that we also share so many goals for the future. Even though we grew up differently around money, we are now able to create alignment and build our financial plan.

I had no idea my parents would be so willing to talk about their plan with us. For decades, I’ve avoided approaching them about their money because I didn’t want to offend them. Now we all have clarity about what they have and what their intentions are. I feel like a burden has been lifted off all of us. My siblings feel the same way.

I’m so glad we have a plan for paying for college, and more importantly, that our son has a realistic expectation of what we can afford. Now he can be smart about where to apply, what’s reasonable, and how we can approach the process together more practically.

Throughout your lifetime, you’ll be challenged by conversations related to money. Whether you’re speaking with your young children about an allowance or your elderly parents about their end-of-life intentions, these conversations pertaining to some aspect of your life savings can create worry, awkwardness, and anxiety.

That’s why I created this guidebook.

Too often, people jump into life savings conversations without properly preparing. I’ll bet you’ve been guilty of this in the past. You’ve likely launched into a heated subject without warning, caught the other person off-guard, and left them ill-equipped to respond to your questions or ideas.

Maybe you’ve been on the receiving end of these unexpected questions and know how it feels to be taken off-guard. These spontaneous discussions spark defensiveness, insecurity, and typically reach no resolution. My intention is to provide guidance for you and your family so you can prevent this from happening anymore.

In this book, each chapter teaches simple ways to prepare for a specific life savings conversation. My goal is to share creative ideas and techniques, and then demonstrate how you can build skills to create your own clear, articulate talking points.

Being prepared to have a life savings conversation means taking the time to think about your intentions before you start talking. This book was written to help you approach your own life savings conversations with clarity and confidence. It will help you create a plan to have more discussion and resolution with way less argument. You’ll learn how to approach a conversation already having thought through potential feedback or pushback. You’ll