What is a Living Financial Statement? Why do I need one?

Martin Saenz, one of the founders of Bequest Funds, encourages everyone to have a Living Financial Statement to help your family achieve their goals. You should think of this document as your family’s financial report card.

What is a Living Financial Statement? It is a document that you update on a weekly basis to monitor the progress and health of your family’s future monetarily. Do you have enough set aside to travel? To educate your kids? To retire? What are your goals and dreams? First figure out what those goals are. Write those aspirations down and now let’s get to work to achieve them.

Step one: list all your sources of active income, like paychecks. Then list any passive income, like dividends or rent you collect. Then list your living expenses and business liabilities. The goal is to increase your amount of passive income, so that your family’s financial stability isn’t completely dependent on your paycheck.

Step two: Your statement lets you determine your monthly cash flow. Martin recommends adding your future investments to your statement, even if the amount is zero, to spur results. You can divide your assets into classes that include: savings, passive income, and stored value (like gold or crypto). You may be able to decrease your living expenses, but don’t worry about business expenses that come from investments that produce passive income. The income those generate should exceed the liabilities.

Martin offers this advice: “Manage your expenses wisely; choose your liabilities carefully.” Next time we will delve into how to choose investments that provide passive income.

To get a link to a worksheet Martin has created, go to our website homepage and scroll to the bottom. www.bqfunds.com

You can check out Martin’s educational video on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v2pac8g-taking-back-control-of-your-financial-future-the-living-financial-statement.html