Generational Wealth and the LGBTQ+ Community

[00:00:00] Calan Breckon: Today’s episode is sponsored by Kit, Formerly known as ConvertKit, the email marketing platform for creators. I’ve been using Kit for years because I found that it is the most efficient and easy to use out of all the email service providers. Kit simplifies your email marketing by combining powerful automations with an easy to use interface. I love the Visual Automations builder because I am a very visual person and it really helps me to organize all of my automations in a very simple, simple and easy way. And let’s face it, automations is a must have in order to succeed in any business today. Kit also integrates with all of your favorite ecommerce platforms, lead generation services, and much more. The best part about Kit is that it runs on a sliding scale for payment so that you can get started for free while you learn all about Kit systems and how to grow your email list. So to get started today for free, head on over to calannbreckon.com/kit or just click the link in the show notes. Now let’s get on to today’s episode.

Welcome to the Business Gay Podcast where we talk about all things business, marketing and entrepreneurship. I’m your host, Calan Breckon, and on today’s episode, I have financial coach Marcus Brown. For over 20 years, Marcus has been involved in growing and sustaining many successful small businesses and increasing wealth for his clients. He’s an experienced financial coach specializing in financial advising, financial, financial management, wealth building, strategic planning, and fiscal responsibility. Today, we’re going to be talking about generational wealth, why it matters to the LGBTQ+ community, and what you can do today to create a better financial foundation for yourself. So let’s jump in with Marcus.

[00:01:46] Calan Breckon: Hey, Marcus, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing?

[00:01:50] Marcus Brown: I’m good. How are you, Calan?

[00:01:52] Calan Breckon: I’m doing very well. I’m really excited to dive into today’s topic with you.

[00:01:57] Marcus Brown: I’m excited as well.

[00:01:59] Calan Breckon: Okay, so with that, how about. Let’s just jump right to it. What is the definition of generational wealth?

[00:02:07] Marcus Brown: So, the formal definition is financial wealth and assets that are passed down from one generation to the next. Now some examples of generational wealth or financial wealth, which is money, savings, investment. Whereas assets are concerned house, real estate, collectibles, precious metals, gems, business ownership, intellectual property, charitable foundations, and like, endowments. Now, over the years, working with different clients, I’ve developed a different understanding of what generational wealth really means. Consider this, even if you are able to pass down $10 million to the next generation in your family, it won’t get them very far if you have not passed down skills to identify and manage stress, navigate relationships, heal and enjoy experience joy. So for me, financial wellness is generational wealth. Because generational wealth is about learning and practicing the tools to not only attain and retain wealth, but it’s about how to enjoy it and use it to unlock your dreams and, and to look after your well being.

[00:03:19] Calan Breckon: Okay, so I hear, I heard you say skills in there for the next generation, which is really, really important because I’ve definitely seen instances. A lot of the time you see the rich people and then you see their kids and they’re kind of, I don’t know how to say this nicely, screw ups. Because they didn’t. They kind of just lived the easy life and then they’ve, they’ve seen studies where it actually goes back and forth, where it’s like, one generation will make it, the next generation kind of loses it or really screws around with it. And then it’s the generation after that that sees their parents screw up, that they go, oh, no, I’m going to go back to what grandma did or what grandpa did.

[00:03:57] Marcus Brown: Yeah.

[00:03:58] Calan Breckon: And then like, figure this out again. And so can we dive a little bit more into the skills part about passing those skills on?

[00:04:06] Marcus Brown: Yeah, yeah.

Again, it’s really important because we learn from our parents, we learn from our grandparents, the adult is in our life and how they function around money. And so even when money is passed down to us, if you don’t know how to sort of manage that money with knowledge also looking after certain other things. Right. Because there’s money, there’s your emotional, emotional health again, your relational health, and there’s your physical health. All of that goes into looking after your generational wealth. So again, you need skills that you will have to learn from somewhere. If you didn’t get it from your parents, you have to reach out and access help. Financial coaches, again, financial service reps and research.

[00:04:59] Calan Breckon: Yeah. So it’s, I mean, it’s no, it’s no shocker that the LGBTQ community hasn’t necessarily always felt welcome in these kinds of spaces, financial spaces you walk in, you maybe have a different lifestyle or version of a life with somebody and you don’t know how they’re going to react to you. So maybe that prevents our community from going into these kinds of services. Why does this matter so much for the LGBTQ community? Creating generational wealth? And what will that mean for us as a community?

[00:05:30] Marcus Brown: Well, as a community right now, in a world where there’s increasing violence and intolerance towards our community, discussing and training about generational wealth is vital. Having generational wealth allows you to have financial and emotional security. You can pay for your education so you can get a better job. Your wealth can allow you to access more choices in life such as freedom to quit a job and pursue an interest. It supports your ability to look after your mental health and well being.

Again, it pays for your transition. If you’re transitioning right. It allows you to better balance your financial wellness, which again involves your financial, your emotional, your relational and your physical health. Right. Also, when you’re passing down generational wealth to others, again, it helps to multiply that wealth. This is called wealth snowball where the wealth continues on from your relative to you to the next generation. So passing down generational wealth can also have a positive impact on our marginalized communities such as the two LGBTQ community.

In addressing inequity, generational wealth creates the means for individuals to provide financial support to their local economy, communities or charities so that future generations can obtain financial stability and opportunities. So this is why it matters to our community.

[00:07:06] Calan Breckon: Yeah. And can we talk a little bit about how the lack of generational wealth in the two SLGBTQI community has really affected us and like what you’ve seen those effects do to our community?

[00:07:22] Marcus Brown: Well, the biggest threat is the lack of financial stability. For example, if you cannot pay for your education, it could lead to lower paying jobs making it harder to break the cycle of poverty. Other impacts are fears about investing and growing your wealth. For example, a lower number of 2SLGBTQI+ community members own homes or are opening businesses. So we are not as involved in the economy and shaping it to support our unique needs. Another concern is just feeling stuck and unable to live freely and safely. We have a major food insecurity concern in our community. Folks are struggling to maintain housing and sometimes staying in dangerous situations because they have nowhere else to go and cannot ask family for support other folks aren’t able to have or they have to delay their gender affirming surgeries. Also, we may be living paycheck to paycheck, so we’re not planning for our retirement, which puts us at further risk.

Again, many of us do not have family support and some of us don’t have children that will look after us in our older years. Finally, there’s the wealth gap. Unequal access to LGBTQ+ financial security. This limits the opportunity to pass down anything to the next generation.

[00:08:43] Calan Breckon: Yeah, I can definitely resonate with the fact that like a lot of us didn’t grow up with generational wealth. I did not come from that kind of a family. I definitely came up very poor, very working poor. And I recognize that in my life. In my life now I’m 37. It’s taken me so much longer to get to where I see other people who are part of a generational wealth kind of family, that they get there so much sooner than I did, that they’re like in their early twenties doing what I’m only doing now because it took me that much longer to get to where I needed to be in order to move forward. And many people in our community don’t even get to that point because we get stuck in those systems of oppression. And poverty breeds more poverty. Because once you’re down in the hole, it’s so hard to get out of it sometimes. Like, absolutely. It’s insane what a government, especially here in Ontario, thinks, what support looks like. Like, is it $700 for Ontario Works or something? And you’re just like, who can pay their rent? I’d like, you know, so that it. It adds to it. So it’s really important to learn these skills. So, okay, so I want to shift gears a little bit then, and talk about what can we do as a community, as a collective, and also on an individual level that we can shift this for our community. So maybe let’s start with, like, what are three essential tools for creating generational wealth for oneself or a business?

[00:10:18] Marcus Brown: Okay, so the three essential tools that work for personal finance but also help. It’s helpful for businesses as well.

So I’d start with your net worth. One, you need to know your net worth, because in order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you’re coming from. You need to understand where you’re at. So your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities. So it’s what you own versus minus what you owe. And that will tell you what you have, right? Once you see what you have, whether it’s a negative, if it’s a negative, we need to bring it to a positive so you know what you’re working on.

Your next step is having a budget. And a budget works for personal, and a budget works for small business. You need to budget your resources. And a budget gives you a snapshot of what’s coming in, what’s going out. Because on your budget, you’re listing your assets, your liabilities, your income, right? So you can use that as a snapshot, right? You set yourself a budget first. You do it to see what it looks like, then you make it fit, and then you stay within that budget. So that’s your first essential item towards generational wealth. Your second is basically have a plan and support to address your financial wellness. Now, financial wellness involves financial, emotional, relational, social and your physical health. So again, no keeping those in balance. So it’s not always just about money, it’s also about those items as well, looking after those as well in order to meet your get to your generational wealth.

Your next one is long term investments. Again, when it comes to long term investment, never underestimate the power of compound interest.

Consider this. With a 10% return on investment, you can turn $100,000 to 1.6 million in 28 years.

Long term investment also has reduced risk as short term investments are more susceptible to market volatility.

Depending on your financial situation, it’s recommended to invest 10 to 15% of your annual income yearly and so sorry. Ideas for investments include GICs, stocks and bonds. But also consider business ownership as a long term investment.

And then I want to add one.

The last one is estate and succession planning.

Estate meaning life insurance and wills and succession planning meaning.

Sorry, that’s not good. Yes, meaning where succession planning is concerned. Start to look at your business. Are you going to pass it on? Are you going to sell your business? Either way, you need to standardize your business with templates, procedures, processes. And so if at the end you want to sell the business, the business is ready to move to someone else. If you want to transfer it to a family member, it’s up, it’s available, they know how to run that business. So estate planning and succession planning and do those early, don’t wait till late to do a will because again, we don’t know what’s going to happen to us and when. So write a will as soon as you have your assets. Right?

There are many templates online to fill a will. You can write it yourself and there is processes for you to just write it, record it and have someone witness that.

But life insurance as well is important because life insurance is one of these things where you get it when you’re young. And the amount that you get when you’re young is not the same amount you’ll get when you get older. As you get older, the requirements for insurance are more sometimes it requires a doctor’s visit. So this sooner you have insurance, keep it, pay the premiums and keep it up because it is an asset. And when you pass, this money goes to your family, right? It goes to your estate and helps with general. Helps with passing down generational wealth.

[00:14:29] Calan Breckon: Okay, so there’s A couple things that I want to dig in here because I got really, really excited, especially when you brought up the business ownership and estate planning and passing those things off. So when it comes to passing along a business, because we are living in a time when a lot of baby boomers and folks who own small businesses, the things that drive our economies are going to be passing away. They’re going to be, you know, retiring and all that. All those businesses need to go somewhere. But there’s this kind of thing that happens where a lot of the time they just are like, well, the business is going to go away. Where if they just could, you know, like you said, set up the systems to pass that along.

[00:15:14] Marcus Brown: Yes.

[00:15:14] Calan Breckon: That would be so, so, so important. So one of the things I actually have and one of the things that I want to talk to the Canadian government about is setting up better systems for us in order to buy into entrepreneurship. Like young people who don’t know what they necessarily want to do, but they maybe they want to be an entrepreneur, a way to collect all these businesses that are going to be retiring and such, and then set it up so that maybe it’s, you know, owner finance, so that you don’t need to physically have the money, but the owner basically buys themselves out of the business, passes it along to you. There’s many different options. Can you dive in a little bit into this topic if you know anything about it?

[00:15:56] Marcus Brown: I think that, you know, your idea is a great idea, whereas, you know, you have your business and it would be great to have a place where you can start to add that into your section, your succession planning. Whereas can I make my business available in this form? I know currently there are places online where you can see folks who have their businesses up for sale and are willing to negotiate a way for you to come in and sort of contribute or take over ownership or purchase. So there, there are folks already putting out their businesses for sale. If you search business for sale, whether it’s a restaurant or whatever business you’re looking for, there are few folks out there that are putting up that they have their business. This is what it looks like. This is what the rent is. This is how much you need to buy me out. But I think that that can be improved.

[00:16:50] Calan Breckon: Yeah, there definitely needs to be better structures put in place for, for that kind of a thing. Because if you want to buy some boring businesses, you don’t need to be the tech billion entrepreneur for entrepreneurship. You can buy some boring businesses that do really, really well and create a sustaining life. I also Want to talk about back to your number one, number two, the net worth and budgeting?

[00:17:12] Marcus Brown: Yes.

[00:17:13] Calan Breckon: What would you say to folks who are in debt, like maybe let’s say 30, 40, $50,000 in debt. And they’re hearing this and they’re going, yeah, but I’m so far in the hole, like, I’m just trying to get by.

What is this going to do for me? Like, I just need to survive. How do we get from that point to this other point?

[00:17:37] Marcus Brown: Okay, well, the thing about a budget is, you know, and I know it’s. It’s sometimes this. It can feel discouraging because you feel like you know what’s happening already. Okay, I know I have this debt, but there are things that are coming in and going out. And as a business owner, owner, you want to try to not keep too many things in your brain. You want to try to put things down on paper, which then takes it out of your brain, relieving you of some of the stress. Because it’s written down. That’s what the budget does. So you know that you’re 30,000 in hold. But where is the money going? What’s coming in, what’s going out, what the budget does, it breaks it down. So if it’s going, say, you know, you’re spending on toiletries or you spend it. So writing those down and then looking at the budget itself, seeing that, okay, I am spending this on expenses. I have this coming in as income. I owe this, right? So now you get everything on one paper in front of you as opposed to in your mind. I have the 30,000. Last month I wanted to spend maybe 5,000 on expenses, but I end up spending 6. You might not notice that, right. When you put it down on a budget, now you see what is coming in, what your debts are and what is going out. So you can start to control. Because sometimes what’s happening is you are purchasing the same things in different places. Say, for instance, you have Internet and you have your cell phone, right? You are paying for Internet on your cell phone. You are paying for Internet in your business or at your home, Right. Do you need both? Right. In a time of crunch, you could get rid of the one at home, or you could get rid of the one on your phone, right. Or say, for instance, streaming. If you’re streaming in different places, you have cable, but you’re streaming, right.

You could get rid of the cable and start to use YouTube. You’re not going to notice those things all in your mind. But if you put them down on the Budget. You’ll see. This is where my money is going. Oh, I’m paying for YouTube. Oh, I’m paying for this. These things do the same thing. So now you can consolidate all your expenses, what’s going out, and then you can have a snapshot of what’s coming in and see right away, you know what, I need to increase my income. Because my income is low. It doesn’t matter. I’m at the budget, whereas my expenses are concerned. I brought everything down, but I’m still falling behind. Your income is low. Right. So somewhere there, no matter what you do, you’re going to have to add some income.

The budget shows you that in a snapshot, as opposed to you focusing on the 30,000 that you owe.

[00:20:28] Calan Breckon: Yeah. So I’m guessing you have some sort of spreadsheets and things that you work with that help lay all of this out, right?

[00:20:37] Marcus Brown: Yes.

[00:20:38] Calan Breckon: Yeah. All right. So if somebody. When somebody works with you, is this kind of what you walk them through is like, these budget spreadsheets and, like, how to use them and how to template things out. Because, like, I love me a template.

[00:20:52] Marcus Brown: I do, too. I love a template as well, because I feel like you do it once you use it, maybe you update it, but templates are good. So you’re not doing the same work over and over again. Because that’s how our brain works. Our brain always wants us to be comfortable, and anything that causes stress, our brain tends to pull away from.

So when you put on a template, it stops you from doing that, going through that fear over and over again. It’s done. So now you’re just working with your template. So that is what I do with my clients. You know, our first sessions are about goal setting. What are we trying to achieve?

And once we set those goals, we always pick about three goals that we’re trying to achieve. And then we look at a budget, we fill out a budget. Because in order to help my clients, I need to know your entire financial picture. Right. I can’t just know one piece and then proceed to help. I need to know where everything is. Your savings, your investments, your. Your debts. Where are those? Any inheritance? So the budget helps us to get all of that on paper. Once we have all of that on paper.

One of the things that I do as a financial coach is I’m about teaching you about your finance. I’m not about doing it for you. We’re doing it together. But I want you to understand why I’m doing this, what decisions are, and you’re making decisions. How do you feel about that? So we do a budget. And then what I do is I change that budget. I scrunch that budget down. So I bring it down to your basics. And I do ask you, can you do without this? Can we do without that? Can we try this? So I bring you a new budget, bringing you right down to the bare minimum. And sometimes look at the budget and it’s, I have to tell you, you have to get more income. Or I’m saying, let’s get rid of this, let’s try this. So I give my clients ideas on how we can make things better and how we can achieve the goal. Because sometimes the goal is investment, sometimes the goal is paying down debt, Right? Sometimes the goal is basically getting the down payment for my business or down payment for a house. And so whatever those goals, this is how we gear how our work’s going to be done. But everything begins with a goal setting and a budget. And so that when we get to the end, those three goals we’re going to revisit and you’re going to leave with a plan for all three. You’re going to probably complete the first ones before you even leave me. And the second and third we are going to continue to work on.

[00:23:31] Calan Breckon: I can only imagine that inadvertently, there’s a lot of shame conversations that you have to work through with folks who, like, I can only imagine somebody brings you everything and then you’re like, no, this isn’t adding up. Like, what’s, what’s not there? And it’s like their shame that’s hiding in the corner of like, oh, I have this debt, or I have this, this. Is that a definitely a part of the work you do?

[00:23:54] Marcus Brown: Yes, it’s a part of the work we do. My wife, Tania Brown, is a psychotherapist, so we have a service called Financial Trauma. So while I’m working with a client on their finances, my wife works with the client on their mental health. So we do financial wellness. So I do the finances. She looks after the emotional, the relational, and the physical. Because we believe that, you know, in order to get to generational wealth and look after your financial wellness, you have to exercise, you have to look after your mental health, and then you look after your finances. Right? But they all need to be looked after in order for you to be functioning. Right? Because it’s one thing to have money or not have money, but again, you need to look after your mental health no matter what, in order to earn that money, to be there to earn that money, you need to be Social, you need to have supports. Right. And physical, you need to move your body. Right. So I see the clients at different points and my, my wife sees the client at different points and work through the shame. And the shame we get rid of right away because there is no shame in where you are, whether your finances are up or your finances are down. It’s a learning process for all of us. All of us were never taught in school. I had to learn all of this by first making mistakes and running up my credit cards and then paying them off and running them again and paying them off. And so this is how I’ve learned. And so with my clients, I’m very honest with them and I try to remove shame. There’s no need for shame. All we’re doing here is just figuring out how we’re going to fix or achieve these goals that we’re trying to achieve.

[00:25:47] Calan Breckon: Definitely. Well, where can folks go to find out more if they’re interested in working through these things like building generational wealth and working through the shame of maybe being in debts and all those other things?

[00:26:00] Marcus Brown: Yeah. So one, I’ll say. I believe that the key to generational wealth is financial knowledge and financial wellness. It’s about learning and practicing good financial habits and setting up the right support with folks who have a similar lived experience and or background. At Brown’s Consulting, we have helped many individual couples and small business owners to identify financial wellness goals and then create a plan of how to achieve those goals. Budget templates and budget apps are available online and on your phone and on your bank’s website as well. So those are some things that can help you definitely recommend working with a financial coach.

Again, we do not work for an institution as a financial coach. We work for you. So all our advice is to support you as opposed to the financial reps they have at the bank. Their focus is again, has to be first the bank and then you. Right. So what we do is we help you to set up everything. So when you go into the bank, you’re just producing. You’re asking for what we’ve already discussed. You know exactly what you’re asking for, you know exactly what’s going to happen when you go in. So you’re prepared and you’re prepared by us. Right for you. So our company also has 2SLGBTI+ registered therapists and we specialize in addressing the financial trauma and just providing a safe space to ask questions so you feel more confident and in control of your finances. Some other ideas are to do research, check out YouTube videos and podcasts from trusted financial experts with similar lived experience.

You can always contact us at our website. It’s at www.brownsconsulting.com or you can find me on LinkedIn. Marcus Brown under brownsconsulting.com I mean, at least under Brown’s consulting.

[00:27:57] Calan Breckon: It’s good. I’ll make sure to have all those links in the in the show notes for everybody. Marcus, this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your knowledge with us.

[00:28:07] Marcus Brown: Thank you for having me, Calan. It’s been wonderful. Thank you.

[00:28:10] Calan Breckon: Thanks for tuning in today. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, I would love a star rating from you. The Business Gay Podcast is written, pr, produced and edited by me, Calan Breckon. That’s it for today. Peace, love, rainbows.