Building Inter-Generational Wealth

Welcome To My ‘School Without Walls’

Important Note

I, Lloyd A Vermont Sr, am neither a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) nor Securities Analyst. Everything on this website, in my ‘School Without Walls’ and in this, and other Newsletters, is for Educational Purposes only. I am not a Securities Salesperson. I am not licensed for selling anything, anywhere in the world. I merely want to share my passion for using the stock market to build, and transfer forward, a little personal and family wealth. I invite you to join me on this journey.

Newsletter #1

Philip A Fisher, widely respected, and admired as one of the most influential investors of all time in his book “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits” said

“Within the lifetime of most investors and within the period in which their parents could have acted for nearly all of them, there were available, scores of opportunities to lay the groundwork for substantial fortunes for oneself or one’s children” page 7, “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits“

I am Lloyd A Vermont Sr₁I am building a ‘School Without Walls‘ (For Those Who Want To Build Some Wealth For Themselves and their dependents but feel intimidated because they think doing so is more difficult than the experts say it is)

Key Takeaways 

#1 What is my School Without Walls? (Show & tell awareness)

It is an online forum dedicated firstly, to 

1. encouraging and building the awareness that we can build some wealth for ourselves  and, secondly,
   
2. helping more people from more parts of theworld, from the equator to the north and south poles, to use the stock market to generate a little more of its wealth (the world’s) for themselves, and thirdly,
   
3. to set up a platform for their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and those great grand children’s children to do the same i.e., get more of the world’s wealth by building it for themselves versus waiting for someone to hand some of theirs, to them. The ‘School’ will do this through three major ‘show and tell’ lessons-immersions.

First, by explaining the wealth-building secrets and strategies of the stock market. Second immersion will show how the (wealth-building) mindset of billionaires allow them to see money as a tool to be directed versus as a commodity to physically work for. And Third, it will explain how, and why, the stock market, one of man’s best innovations, is an ideal place for putting money to work while you, and I, sleep well at nights. 

Against this background, the School will teach ‘my students’, meaning you, how to cultivate your own wealth-building mindset so that you, too, can see, and use,  the same ‘open secrets’ of the market that the billionaires use to grow their wealth.  The lessons, and strategies, which we will copy from them are being documented in a Book I am writing entitled “The Stock Market: Route To Inter-Generational Wealth (For those who want to build some but feel intimidated)” Essentially, it means ditching the formula we were taught to rely on i.e. ‘go to work’ all our lives for money and, instead, do what the billionaires do i.e. ‘send our money to work for us’ versus us leaving home every morning at 8 ‘to work’ for it. 

NOTE CAREFULLY: This is neither saying, nor implying, that you and I should not have a career, business, or trade, and get paid every week, or every month, for the intellectual or physical work’ we do! Instead, it is saying, that when we get that payment, we must put aside, and invest, some of it to work for us so that it generates what the investment trade calls a surplus, and or capital gains, (which we will cover in detail a little later.) It is this process of generating surpluses which the billionaires use to create their personal and family wealth. We may not have as much money as the billionaires’ parents left for them to start their investment programme but, if you and I start investing now, with what little money we have from our job or career, who knows, it could build up, over time, to a nice sum for us, our child, grandchild, and great grandchild. This is the purpose of my ‘School Without Walls’. It  is the process of Building Inter-Generational wealth.

In summary, our ‘School Without Walls’ is to ENCOURAGE MORE OF US, in more places, to become aware of, and believe in, our own capacity to transform our own lives through our own actions.

#2 The purpose of our ‘School’

It is “To enable MORE Families,  from MORE countries,   to use the strategies of Inter-Generational  wealth-creation, through the stock market, to create MORE wealth,  for MORE family members, on a revolving basis. This means; 

1. changing MORE minds from ‘working for money’ to ‘putting some of our money to work’ for us; 
2. becoming shareholders, and thus part owners, of dividend paying companies whose products and services we use; and, 
3. as dividend receivers, learning how to re-invest all, or some of it, to  grow our share count, so that, 
4. over time, we increase the value of our investment by relying on the wealth-building powers of compounding and time (as measured in decades) even if we did not add any more money from our pocket. 

In pursuit of this, the School, (and Book) will focus on five of the main wealth-building concepts and explain the strategies through which to engage each. The five concepts are:

1. Put what money you have to work for you (just as the billionaires do) instead of you alone doing all the work, all your life, to get some
2. Compounding, and time (as measured in decades) are two of the best wealth-builders on earth. Put both to work for you
3. The stock market, one of man’s best innovations, is one of the best platforms on which to put your money to work
4. Don’t let your income stream ‘die’ (stop) when you die. However small, have an investment base that continues to ‘throw off’ some income, such as dividend, beyond your own lifespan
5. Don’t compare yourself with billionaires in terms of absolute amount of dollars invested. When a billionaires’ $1B becomes $2B, that is a 100% increase in his wealth. When your $1,000 become $2,000, that is a 100% increase for you. The stock market is both impersonal and impartial (fair.) Focus on percentage return vs absolute quantum of dollar you invest. 

Billionaires are billionaires because they put these five concepts to work for them. We will explore each many times because, individually, and collectively, they are foundational to you getting your fair share of the wealth of this world. 19/8/21

#3 For whom is our School intended?

While our ‘School Without Walls’ is intended for everyone, everywhere; 

1. Who has felt the need for more money for personal upliftment and general life enhancement, 
2. It is specifically intended for Great grandparents (Silent Gen) grandparents (Boomers) parents (Gen X and Millennials) who want the generations that they engender to live richer, and better quality lives, than they did.

But, our ‘School’ is also for readers in any, or all, of the following four cohorts:

1. Those, of any age, who have always wanted to enter the stock market to earn more income for personal development but needed a little ‘handholding’ to do so 

1. Those who never thought they could understand how the stock market works but always wanted to know so that they,too, can build some personal wealth from it

1. Those who never thought about entering the stock market) even though they have an idea how it works because, they thought it was only for wealthy people and their wealthy friends who have lots of money, but will do so, if they are persuaded, that the market works the very same way for those with small amounts of money as it does for the billionaires 

1. Those millennials just entering the “World of Work” who, despite being many decades away, are informed enough, and financially literate enough, to knowthatthey can use the future decades in their lives as a multiplier to build their own retirement nest egg while they pursue their career and sleep well at nights.

Quick Point: 

There are mainly two sets of ‘investors’;

1. Those who are not interested in the ‘mechanics of the trade’ and are happy to just give their funds to a broker and are satisfied with what the broker buys for them
2. Those who are very interested in the mechanics and want to graduate to point of understanding the concepts and knowing the mechanics and strategies of building wealth. These, I encourage to start out with a broker and mentor initially to ‘learn the ropes’ so that, eventually, they can do their own stock selection and lay the tracks for personal, and inter-generational wealth building.

Our ‘School’ is for all categories of investors but mostly for those at (b) who want to design and build their own wealth platform and pass some down to their children, grand, and great grandchildren. 

#4 The BIGGEST ‘Open Secret’

Here is one of the world’s ‘biggest open secrets’ that we, too, ‘see’ but do not ‘recognize’; Billionaires don’t physically work for money! What they do is “Put their MONEY TO DO THE WORK for them”. This enables them to live ‘high on the hog’ and leave billions for their children when they (billionaires) die. This means that their money does not ‘die with them’ Usually, there is a lot tied up in investments, waiting to be inherited by their children.

We, on the other hand, spend the decades of our lives going ‘To Work’ for money and die without accumulating enough for retirement, and none to leave for our children and their children. Unlike with billionaires, our source of income ‘dies’ (dries up) when we die.

Our ‘School’ wants to help you, our readers, to rectify this arrangement, and shows you how to do it, starting with the ‘permanent residents’ in your own home, and, with whatever little financial resource (money) you have. The idea is not to stop billionaires from making their billions but, instead, for you and I, to join them in making our money work for us (while we, too, sleep well at nights.) 

#5 What will we teach in ‘our School?’

In two words, Financial Literacy. 

But, for each of us to get the best value for ourselves, there is a major misconception that we need to throw overboard. This is the view, fed into our subconscious that, in order to grow some wealth from the stock market, we (you and I) need to be experts in finance and investment theory. This is a major fallacy that is helping to keep many of us financially poor! No! That is not true. All of us (you and I included) need not be experts too. What we want to do, is read up on the theories, insights, strategies and recommendations of some of the most acclaimed experts on both subjects and, with this insight, build our portfolio, with the help, and guidance,  initially, of our own investment advisor, and mentor until, we feel informed enough, and comfortable enough, to do so on our own. One of my ‘own experts’ is Prof Jeremy J. Siegel of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 1994 he published one of his landmark books entitled “Stocks for The Long Run” and, among the many transformative insights he has shared with us, his readers, at page 76 is this, “Winning with stocks requires ONLY PATIENCE, not foresight!” Expressed roughly another way, any of us, who are lucky enough to live long lives, are potentially able to build some stock market wealth for ourselves. In these Newsletters, and also in my Book “Building Inter-Generational Wealth”, much reference will be made to this concept of patience when we speak of TIME (as measured in decades) Not months, or a few years!

It’s not possible to mention all the specifics in this 1^st Newsletter. Suffice it to say, we will speak to the most transformative investing concepts and encourage you to use them in building wealth for yourself and set the stage for your children to continue doing so on an inter-generational basis. Some of these concepts will be;

1. Demystifying the stock market to bring it to you as a tool for you to use for your own self enrichment
2. The transformative difference between investing your money vs saving it
3. The magic of compounding and how you can use it to grow your wealth while you sleep well at nights, and
4. The power of time (as in the decades of your own life) to multiply any investment that you make.

As you might suspect, these are the four ‘pillars’ upon which billionaires and financial institutions build their wealth and, in the case of the latter, keep us, as customers, paying over our salaries to them whenever we take a loan from them. So, ‘Our School’ wants to teach you how to join the billionaires by copying their strategies and, in the process, ‘switching the formula’ on the banks and financial institutions so that they work for us, too, (you and I) even if we still have to borrow, and pay back to them, multiples of what they loaned to us (in the form of mortgage interest for our houses or as car loans 

Important Note: You and I can copy the billionaires’ strategies with what little money we have! The focus is on percent change in what we invest. Not so much on the number of dollars (by comparing ourselves against billionaires!)

#6 What’s in it for you?

 Answer: ‘Introduction to the strategies to create your own wealth’. (see at Takeaway # 2)

Especially if you fall within the “For whom intended” cohorts,we* will 

1. build your knowledge of, and 
2. confidence in the stock market, to the point where you want to invite the wealth advisor of your choice, 
3. to start making stock market investments for you, your children, and grand grandchildren, wherever on the planet you live.  (This, until you learn how to do it yourself! Remember the title of my Book!)

To expand a little on the four points for emphasis, the primary objective of our ‘School’ is

1. to enrich our own life, (yours and mine) by teaching ourselves how to put some of our money to work for our benefit while we work at our chosen career and sleep well at nights. 
2. You will be introduced to the wealth-building secrets (strategies) of the market so that you understand how to get the best deals when

1. share prices are going up, 
2. when the market is said to be moving sideways, and, most importantly, 
3. how to multiply the best deals when the market is down and many others are ditching (selling out) and running because, they do not, or may not, understand ‘the ways’ of said market

1. Especially if you are among our female cohort (who generally live longer than males) or are from a long living family (everybody approaching and or attaining triple digit in years) you will be shown some key strategies through which to build your own retirement nest egg painlessly over your working years by, (you know it by now) putting some money aside specifically to work for this purpose. We will show you a specific strategy for doing this

1. Then, if like me, you want to set the foundation for building wealth in your family’s future, this is where you will find the strategies that many wealthy people have used to ‘accumulate the seed money’ that kicks things off. This is the start in building inter-generational wealth.

#7 Laying the foundation for our future

Here is another transformative idea for you to digest. Many billionaires are  the product of the money-management skills of a parent, grandparent or great grand parent in the past (which is why you and I should set up a platform for Inter-Generational wealth building today) but, it is important to digest the fact that many of them are self-made through employing  the very strategies that you are reading about in this Newsletter

Involve the grands &  great-grands

Building wealth from scratch can be done! You and I might have missed the opportunity to become billionaires because, maybe, our parents did not know that they could have laid the foundation but, 

a) we now know it can be done, and
b) we know the strategies for getting it done
c) the Book I am writing, is inviting us, as per the admonition of the late, great investor and financial educator Philip A Fisher, to start the laying of the foundation, and
d) you, and I, and
e) those Grands and Great Grands, hopefully have the time (as measured in decades) to build the wealth

As your Principal Guide* I just want all of you to buy into the knowledge, and belief, that we, by our own decisions, and actions, can build the future of our choice. But nothing is easy anymore and, in effect ‘designing’ that future may not be the easiest challenge to pursue but, we know it can be done because, others have done it, and, if they could, chances are good that we (you and I) can do it too. 

All of this means that you, our ‘students’ must come to ‘school’ with an open mind because, we will be introducing you to some new ways of thinking about some everyday things (like money, and the stock market) and how to capitalize on some of the knowledge you learnt way back in school (like compound interest) and the impact of time (as measured in decades) on everything, including what even small investments can become over the years of our own lifetime.

Pay attention to this!

Do you realize that, if you live to retirement and beyond, that you could literally use those many years to build some wealth without thinking about it morning, noon, and night? Your ‘education’ might not have let you in on this other ‘open secret’ but, our School Without Walls will show you how.                                    

#8 We will introduce the ‘Permanent residents’ in your house! They pay a dividend every quarter. 

As was alluded to earlier, contrary to popular belief, personal, and family wealth are not necessarily the product of hard physical work. All of us should have a career and, if we want to make progress and move up the corporate ladder, it behooves us to work diligently and creatively to add value to our organization. But, in terms of building personal and family wealth we could, and should, learn some lessons from the billionaires and those (lessons) are what our School Without Walls will teach. 

To wrap up this ‘1^st reach out’ to you, it is safe to say that people who become billionaires recognized long ago that there are some ground rules that are available to anyone who is interested in accessing, and employing them, to pursue either personal, family, or corporate wealth objectives. No mistaking! Billionaires go to work too, and physically work very hard (sometimes) but, that work is about directing what their money must do for them, that is, how best to position it such that it earns the best returns.  It is not about working physically hard to get a raise of pay or catch the boss’ eye for a promotion next year!

At the same time, we, too, are working very hard, physically, but, not with any money! We are, instead, working to get some and, this is where the ‘big divide’ lies.  The purpose of our School Without Walls is to close this divide and put you, dear reader, on the side where your money works for you too. Class will be ‘in session’ every two weeks!

In Newsletter #5, we will introduce you to the companies I call ‘permanent residents’ living in your own house! You may not recognize, or be paying any attention to them but, here is some news about them that might ‘get your attention’. These ‘residents’ pay a dividend every quarter to people who use their products and or services just like you do. Thought you were not the type to be an investor and collect quarterly dividend cheques?  Our ‘School without Walls’ will show you how you are now ‘leaving money on the table’ (a lot of it) and how you can change your status and become a dividend earner, starting wherever in the world you live and work, be it in North America, Nigeria, the rest of Africa,  anywhere in Europe, South America, or the Caribbean 

#9  Build a foundation, leave a legacy

Earlier, at the end of Section #7, we spoke about laying a foundation for our children’s future. Jim Rhon (1930-2009) was an outstanding American entrepreneur, philosopher, and motivator, who helped many to become their best selves. Whereas he said many uplifting things in his little book entitled “Twelve Pillars” (for a better you,) to me, one that stands above the rest is the injunction to ‘leave a legacy’. My wish is that, by ‘attending our School Without Walls’, you not only learn the twelve pillars to your own financial empowerment but, that it encourages you to leave a legacy of how to create personal wealth that will live on and on among those who come after you

#10 Your Calls to Action (CTA)

Chapter 25 in my Book speaks to how to prepare yourself for becoming a successful stock market investor. There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ formula because, we all come to the table with different attributes but, experience teaches that there are some ‘to do’s which, if we indulge them, could assist us on our journey. If you have read this far, it likely means that your interest has been piqued. How then can we encourage you to ‘travel the last mile’ to your destination of learning how to create some wealth for yourself and your dependents into the future? Here are some suggestions:

1. Call the stock exchange in your country or region₂
2. Tell them you want to start investing in the stock market
3. Ask them to send you a list to their brokerage community
4. Speak to at least three different Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) in three different brokerages
5. Explain your objective, funds available, investment time horizon and need for a mentor to guide you ‘through the gates’
6. Start with the one where both personalities (yours/his/hers) click
7. Start reading the financial/investing pages of your local newspaper
8. Start reading the daily trade sheets of your broker or exchange in your area
9. Start subscribing to some finance and investing outlets
10. In time, I will also ask you to consider starting a voluntary investment club using the social media platform of your choice
11. Keep me ‘in the loop’

#11 Encouragement, motivational and self-empowerment

It says something that many thinkers believe that we ‘make’ ourselves and ‘become who we are’ based on our thoughts and, I encourage you to cultivate this mindset in your own life. The great William James, 1842-1910, considered the Father of American Psychology, put it well when he said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his (her) life by altering his (her) attitudes”. Many of the ancient philosophers have said the same thing but, let us come closer home. The insightful James Allen, 1864-1912, did not live very long but he challenged us to become our best self by telling us “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” and that “The best way to predict our future is to design it ourselves” (Always remember this!) And finally, in our time, two of our own have told us the same thing. Oprah has told us “You are responsible for your own life. You become what you believe (2003 Interview with Essence magazine). And former Navy pilot turned psychologist Denis E Waitley told us that our life is not a dress rehearsal for another life but the ‘real McKoy’ (my emphasis) meaning we must learn how to make the best of it.

But why am I quoting all these people? Because I invite you to see a strong correlation between these life transforming ideas, the wealth-building platform I am inviting you to build, and the legacy I implore you to leave for those you care about. So, please see my Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for short messages of encouragement from these, and other great minds who I love to call the sages of the ages.  I hope they will help to keep you motivated, and energized, as you do for yourself, and your dependents, things you might never have done otherwise i.e., build some wealth for yourself and your progeny, many of whom are not yet born. It is possible! Just start dreaming big dreams and aim, not just for the sky, but beyond it. And don’t stay in near-earth orbit either. Go beyond.

#12 What’s in it for me?              

Because I am writing a book on the subject of building inter-generational wealth (as previously advised) I am inviting some support from you. In exchange for building your awareness and confidence in the stock market (to the point where you can use it to build some wealth for yourself, and, on an inter-generational basis) I will ask you to give me some support in any or all of four ways.

1. Firstly, please subscribe to this Newsletter so that future ones come directly to you. It is all about helping you to build stock market wealth for yourself from the comfort of your home. 

1. Second, invite adult children, other family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to subscribe so that they, too, benefit from the financial empowerment we want to share with everyone.  

1. The chapters of the Book are posted here. Depending on ‘how deep’ you are in the subject (and only if you are interested) I might ask you to critique a Chapter or two at different times and tell me about the quality of the writing…good, bad or indifferent? Feel up to making any suggestion to improve it? Please do! I want to make it an easy and engaging read for all.

1. Fourth, as you spend more time with the Newsletter (and hopefully become more impressed by its reference to the contents of the Book) I hope that you will form the impression that you should get your own copy when it becomes available either on Amazon or at your favorite ‘brick and mortar’ bookshop

#13 Inviting your comments

Finally, I hope that you found much to like about this Newsletter and invite your comments and suggestions. Future editions will not be as long. This is intended to lay some tracks to which we will return in the others.

See you in the next two weeks, same place, same time. I will be introducing you to the fundamental mindset I want you to cultivate as we learn to build wealth together. The objective is not necessarily for all of us to become billionaires and One Percenters but, rather, to have more of the wealth of this world for ourselves, and our dependents, replicated on an inter-generational basis.

See you then. 

1 Who is Lloyd A Vermont Sr (your Principal Guide?)?
2 Some Stock Exchanges

Another Note

Cyber criminals are always on the prowl. Since we will be talking about building a little wealth for ourselves, don’t be surprised if they target us. Bottomline: Speak with your computer technician and ensure that your online privacy is safe guarded at all times.