TRUTH: Intellectual Wealth always Precedes Lasting Financial Wealth

Check out the results of a recent study of lottery winners:

“According to a 2010 study by researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Pittsburgh, the more money you win in the lottery, the more likely you are to end up bankrupt.

The authors divided past lottery winners into two separate groups: Those who had won cash prizes between $50,000 and $150,000, and those who had won $10,000 or less. What they found is that those who had won the more sizable sums were more likely to have filed for bankruptcy five years later. Similar research from the National Endowment for Financial Education estimates that 70 percent of people who had unexpectedly come into large sums of money ended up broke within seven years.

Now just imagine what millions could do…” (Yahoo Finance contributor – Golden Girls Finance)

In light of last week’s post about leaving money to your kids, this study has important implications. We need to consider what our generosity is really doing. We all love our children. We want them to succeed. But we need to take into consideration the consequences of our actions as well as our intentions.

What is your plan for helping your children build wealth?

And does it start with intellectual wealth?