The plan failed. Apparently, Encyclopedia Brown didn’t teach me how to make a map. I never found my treasure and have no idea what happened to the map. Perhaps a group of kids will come across my map someday, like in The Goonies, and embark on a far-fetched adventure in search of my 15 cents. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Thinking about this though, led me to a couple of analogies about treasure maps.
Leaving a Treasure Map for Your Heirs
Think of your will as a treasure map that you will leave for your heirs. In most people’s case, this would be their children. If you make smart decisions and do well with your finances over the course of your life, you should leave a small fortune to your survivors. Even the Bible states that, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his childrens children...” (Proverbs 13:22 NKJV) The inheritors need instructions though on how to divvy up the wealth. This is known as a will. Think of the wealth as a treasure, and the will as a map on how to get that treasure.
A will only tells who gets the money though and how much. After you die, your inheritors can do whatever they want with the money you leave them. You may want to consider leaving further suggestions (or instructions) on what you would like them to do with the money you’ve left them. This can also be applicable to life insurance settlement money that loved ones may receive as a result of your untimely death. In my case, I left instructions for my wife upon my death via a blog post. She knows where to find it if I die. This post is, in a way, a treasure map for my wife. It guides her in detail on what to do with the money after I die in order to create an income without depleting all of the wealth.
The Internet Super-Highway as a Treasure Map
If you’ve read any of my previous Rambling Road posts, you know that I think of Rambling Road as the path, or side road, that I take off the internet super-highway. As I browse the internet each week, I compile all of the stuff that I like or think has some value. On the weekend, I put that compilation of information into a Rambling Road post in the form of links. Think of these Rambling Road posts as treasure maps. They lead you to some of the best information on the internet. Specifically, my Rambling Road posts concentrate mostly on personal finance blogs. By reading these, you will gain a wealth of information. By putting the information into practice, you could gain actual wealth.
Other bloggers do similar posts, commonly referred to as round-ups, or round-up posts. Here are a few examples from some of the blogs I regularly visit.
- Len Penzo calls his Black Coffee
- Married with Debt features Best Personal Finance Writing
- DQYDJ publishes one called The Weekender
- 101 Centavos always has a different and entertaining theme- here is a recent one called Funny Girls and Stand-Up Dames
Random Ramblings and a Carnival
As far as I know, I only made it into one carnival last week. I forgot to do my carnival submissions on Thursday night like I usually do, and didn’t get to it until Saturday morning. At this point, I think I was past the entry submission deadline for most of the carnivals I usually submit to. Here is the Yakezie Carnival Mardi Gras Edition » Financial Success for Young Adults.
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I really didn’t spend very much time reading blogs this past week. Here are a few articles though that caught my attention:
- Take It Easy, Just Go For a Walk | 101 Centavos
- Amanda at Frugal Confessions tells a story about how she recently watched her car get stolen in the parking lot of a Subway. The interesting part is, she didn't panic and even had a feeling of contentment.
And here are some good posts from the future:
- Can I Pay My Credit Card with Another Credit Card | The Pay Off Credit Card Network
- Passive Income Opportunities for 2013 | Dumb Passive Income
I also need to send a shout-out and thanks to a few sites that have been referring traffic to this site this week. Show some love and go visit these sites:
