Personal Financial Life Planning & Ethical Wills II

Personal Financial Life Planning & Ethical Wills – Part II

            From Part I, the first pass at the WITSEC, Yom Kippur, & Mission-Vision exercises should have already been completed. The following is an outline of an ethical will (with one example: Lessons I Have Learned)

1. Philosophy of Life
2. Values I Hold Dear
3. Defining Moments
4. Lessons I Have Learned (example from my Ethical Will)
5. Legacy – 1^st Attempt
6. Those I Don’t Wish To Thank (herein you’ll find values you distain – by answering why?)
7. Those I Wish To Thank (herein you’ll find values you admire – by answering why?)
8. Values I Hold Dear (second attempt)
9. Legacy (pass #2) – what you have will have left behind for loves ones and others
10. WITSEC exercise – second pass & refine
11. Yom Kippur Exercise – second pass & refine
12. Mission/ Vision Exercise – second pass & refine

Once finished, here is the final exercise: Action Plan.

Given the above, what steps will you now take living? Per each action step delineate in sequence in writing:

·         The Action Step

·         Start

·         Finish

·         Who is needed

·         Cost

·         How to prevent or minimize the action step going wrong?

·         Contingency if the action step goes wrong

By doing the Ethical Will – you will have a living mission - blue print to exercise your will now – so get started!

And of yes, here is my example of Lessons I Have Learned:

Lessons I Have Learned Part 1

Here’s a few of the things I’ve learned with the help of my dogs:

• We are here to continue to complete the incompletions of our character and soul (‘the soul curriculum’ – Alan Morinis’ phrase). This life is a ‘character pit stop.’ We are NOT YET – that’s why we are here but if lucky, we are NOT YET in the company of dogs during classes.

• We each have a chalek (portion) to develop – which is an inside out job/an inner scoreboard – not a comparison race with others

A story about the great Rabbi Zusha relative to chalek: "When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?' Why didn't I fulfill my potential, why didn't I follow the path that could have been mine."

• When the game is over, both the pawn and the king go in the same box. It’s all about character.

• Forget certainty, continuity and permanence – except for the love of one’s dogs.

• The meaning OF life is a flawed pursuit better to find the meaning IN one’s life.

• ‘Be your message,’ as Gandhi said and ‘better done than said,’ as Franklin wrote (besides your dogs can smell a 14kt phony)

• No good deed goes unpunished – but do it anyway for inside out reasons (chalek) and you won’t be disappointed. Remember God and your dog(s) know!

• Be fruitful and add/multiple is about procreation – not just of progeny but what you leave behind, influenced and developed ‘inside out’ of yourself (Tikkun Atzmi). I would not be who I have become and aspire to be (‘a man of dog’) without Moolah, Buddy, Ricki, Nicki, Max, Elle, Moses and yes, even Rolling Thunder Goodie.

• The longer the stain sits, the harder it is to get out (even with Resolve ® or Simple Solution®). Re-member the 4 Rs: early recognition, regret, resolve, and even more critically -restitution – making it right – works. Merely saying I’m sorry is a 5 letter word that falls between sniffles and suffering succot(h)ash in the Daffy Duck Dictionary.

• Clothes don’t get clean without an agitator in the washing machine. “Where there is no man, be a man” (Talmud) and “don’t stand idly as your neighbor bleeds” (Torah) or your dog(s) are over vaccinated. PS “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,” Franklin and ‘the wicked flee (escape) when none pursue’ (Proverbs).

• The only people that like change, per Don Robinson, is wet babies – so expect  being called ‘difficult’ and the following sequence, ‘being ignored, then rebuked, and finally, having not only the idea accepted but claimed with ownership by those who ignored and rebuked you.’ It don’t matter, God and your dog(s) know.

• Forget impact on 100’s, 1000’s or millions saving the world, if you save a life, you save the world (Talmud) – one dog at a time (Schwartz)

• More, better, now becomes less, worse, later (except for dogs – subject to noise restrictions, laws, and ability to love and provide proper care).

• Money is a means – ‘enough to live on, enough to live for’ and to buy premium raw dog food, toys, and the best of care for your dogs

• Even though both great Rabbis Hillel and Shammai agreed that man should not have been created (though Hillel said, ‘well, he’s here let’s work with him’) gam zu la’tovah (this is for the best). Besides God created dog as an apology -So--- ‘make your lives new again, as they use to be’ Lamentations 5:21 (get a dog!)

• Dog is God’s echo – and I’ve been blessed with 8 so far - and if you are lucky enough to have been in their company now (and hopefully again) you have been touched by the divine – now go give them a cookie.

• If all else fails, you’ll understand when you are older – but in the end ‘In God & Dog I Trust.’ (‘plus tendons’ barked Goodie with paws on my shoulders licking my face.).