The Legacy Engineer Mindset

I remember growing up off of 8th Avenue in a neighborhood called Duval. The picture to the left is me and my dad during those days! This neighborhood is on the east side of Gainesville, where resources are fewer. I would walk home from elementary school and sometimes see what looked like a man dressed in promiscuous woman clothing, and he seemed to be on drugs. I also had a next-door neighbor who became a crackhead, and I think he lost his family because of it. I remember it was nine of us at one point living in a four-bedroom one bathroom home, and I peed on myself, or outside too often because I couldn't wait for someone else to get out of the bathroom. I share all of this because this is a part of my childhood experience that shaped me. I developed a great sense of gratitude by seeing the different situations and learning to appreciate my own. In my parent's words, they were just trying to make it, but I felt like they were doing a fantastic job.. I also remember coming home from church and my dad helping people who broke down on the roadside by gathering my brother and uncle to help him push the car. Seeing that embedded in me a strong desire to serve and help people. I remember my dad returning to school in his 30's to create a better life for us. I remember my dad having the flexibility to get an education and pursue his passion and get in a better financial situation because my Grandma left a house to him to live in that he owned. Then my dad turned around and did the same thing for us as we became adults. I believe a legacy begins with you and the character you exemplify and your decisions to build, grow, and save for your family. Families must stick together because, as families, we can go much higher together than alone. Your situation does not define you; it shapes you. I believe my case humbled me. It taught me to be grateful for what I had. To look out for my family, always, and my dad's example of his relationship with God deeply inspired my relationship with God. And even though my situation may have sounded bad, it was far from it.

In our house in Duval, I remember my parents having a game night every Friday. Because of those game nights, my family has stayed connected, and we still do game nights, and I am 30 years old now. I hope you can take from all my rambling that you are an example, and your children are watching you and others too. I believe because my Grandma left my dad a house, it made it easier for my dad to want to own properties to help his children out, and now that I have children, I want to own multiple properties to leave each of them. Legacy is about the traditions and inheritance that we can leave behind to make the next generation better. Life is too big to only think about paying bills and taking care of yourself. Life should be about creating a loving connection with your family, building, saving, and lifting your children, so they don't have to start where you did and create wealth for the next generation. If I could give you five tips to help you build your legacy, here are what my five tips would be.

1. Get a term life insurance policy asap that is ten times your annual income, and if you do not know where to start, visit www.kiarahall.com for more info.

2. Start a family tradition, maybe a game night like my family did, where you get into the habit of having fun with your family. To start, perhaps it will just be your household. That's how we did it, and it grew,

3. Create a budget so you can see where your money is going and have control over your money

4. Get a will, living will, and power of attorney. Visit https://kiaradhall1.wearelegalshield.com/ to learn more about how you can get a will.

5. Think of ways you can earn additional income and take action today.