A Veteran’s Legacy: Worth More Than Gold
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Veteran’s Day: America takes a brief moment in the year to honor a different kind of wealth: the kind that can't be measured in portfolios or balance sheets.
As someone who's spent decades helping people build and preserve financial legacies, I've learned that true wealth is really not counted in dollars. Most of the time, it is measured in sacrifice. In service. In the willingness to sign your name on a dotted line that might take you thousands of miles from home, away from the people you love most, sometimes into the heart of a battle that you do not know if you will return from.
The Ultimate Investment
Our veterans made an investment that Wall Street could never quantify. They wrote a blank check to the United States of America, payable up to and including their lives. They didn't get to choose their commander-in-chief. They didn't get to pick their assignments or negotiate their terms. They simply served through changing administrations, shifting policies, and uncertain times.
Talk about commitment to a mission regardless of market conditions.
A Legacy That Outlasts Wealth
I often talk with families about their legacy planning and estate strategies. We talk about what they want to leave behind: their values, their lessons, their impact. Veterans have already answered that question through their actions.
A Veteran’s legacy is woven into the fabric of our freedom. Their legacy can be felt in every peaceful morning we wake up in our homes. It is in our ability to gather around tables with our families, to build businesses, to dream about our futures.
People like the Vanderbilts had fortunes that were once the largest in America, and were squandered within generations. But the legacy of those who served? That endures. That compounds across time in ways that interest rates never could. They inspire their own family members and others around them to serve as well, their service is contagious.
Stewards of Freedom
At Bullish Babes, we talk about Biblical stewardship: managing what we have been given with wisdom and gratitude. Our veterans embody this in the most profound way. They stewarded our freedom, often at great personal cost. They managed the most precious asset we have as Americans: our liberty.
They did not come for money or recognition, in fact, most of my Veteran friends are uncomfortable with it. They served because some things are worth more than gold.
Honoring Their Investment
The heroes we honor today understood what it means to lay down their lives for their friends, even for strangers they’ll never meet.
To every Veteran reading this: Thank you. Your legacy is measured in the freedom we experience every single day. You gave us the foundation upon which we build our dreams, our families, and yes, our financial futures. You deserve a lot more than our gratitude and the pittance the US Government compensates you (and sometimes fails to pay you in budget negotiations).
That's a return on investment that's truly priceless. You are quite literally America’s heroes.
To all who served: We honor you. We remember you. We are grateful for you.
-A deepest thank you from this Bullish Babe today and every day.
Military Ceremony at Fort Cavazos, Texas (formerly Fort Hood)
