My Generational Wealth Inheritance

From the tales of my grandparents’ modest corner store and a Coca-Cola delivery truck in Guadalajara to the stark realities of my life today, the notion of generational wealth has been both a distant dream and a stark reality. My grandparents, born around 1909 and married in 1926, were on their way to establishing a lasting legacy. They might have been viewed as financially prosperous for their time—had tragedy not struck with the ruthless force of poliomyelitis, claiming my grandfather’s life and my grandmother’s just a month later in 1952. This cruel twist of fate left behind not wealth, but three orphaned children, including my ten-year-old mother.

Growing up, the shadow of financial hardship was ever-present. My mother and her sister managed through sheer grit, taking menial jobs to fend for themselves and their siblings. My own journey began in 1960 in Guadalajara, and soon after, life’s currents swept us to Los Angeles. It was there that my mother, never one to bow down to fate, scrubbed and ironed her way through life’s adversities, even as we lived from one paycheck to the next.

I write this not as a registered agent or financial advisor, for I am neither, but as someone who has lived through the perils of financial illiteracy and witnessed its grip on those I hold dear. Our family history is a testament to the harsh reality that without the right knowledge, financial prosperity, even if once held, can slip through one’s fingers like grains of sand.

I didn’t truly start learning about finances until the year 2000, when I entered the world of financial brokerage—a world that promised much but revealed a landscape where often the interests of the clients were secondary to those of their advisors. The industry was tough, especially for someone like me, who is naturally shy and introverted.

Today, I run the Y Not Wealth blog to share the crucial message that financial education is not just a necessity but our responsibility. In schools, we learn to work for money, but not how to make money work for us. This lack of education is not an oversight but a systemic flaw that keeps many from realizing their potential and breaking the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.

Through my blog, I aim to be the bridge for those seeking to transform their financial destinies. Let’s embark on this journey together, learning from the past and building a future where wealth is not just for a privileged few, but a possibility for all. It’s up to us to seize the opportunity to educate ourselves and lay the foundations for not just surviving, but thriving.

Join me in turning the page from financial fragility to financial empowerment. It is never too late to start building the generational wealth that our ancestors could only dream of. Let’s honor their memory by accomplishing what life circumstances denied them the chance to complete