Legacy Planning: Where to Start?

It can feel daunting, take it in steps

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - 75’’ 4K Smart TV

The Ultra High End - $200 Adidas.com Shopping Spree

The Superpremium - Vala’s Pumpkin Patch

The Premium Core - Kasa Smart Plug Mini

The Accessible Core - Legacy Planning: Where to Start?

The Affordable Luxury - Interested in Any Specific Topics?

The Everyday Luxury - March Ultra High End Submissions

The Bespoke

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: 75’’ 4K Smart TV [ARV $900]

• Odds: For every 120 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) 75” TV Prize

• Contest Period: May 1, 2024 at 10 AM CST to May 28, 2024 at 10 PM CST

For anyone that missed out, check out Issue 24 for more details about this prize.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner of Issue 25 is DANNY from Arlington, Texas! This is his submission for “a photo of your favorite game”:

Congratulations to DANNY! I think Target still sells Yugioh cards if you’re still collecting, you just won the $100 Target eGift Card!

There were a variety of games submitted, but I noticed the older games are all titled in a way that resembles the game; however, the newer games are super aggressive and all about destroying animals or animals with problems. I wonder what theme the future game titles will follow.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $200 Adidas.com Shopping Spree [ARV $200]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) $200 Shopping Spree on Adidas.com

• Contest Period: May 15, 2024 at 10 AM CST to May 21, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is financial wealth and what better way to say financial freedom than shopping spree! For this week, you can win $200 worth Adidas merchandise from Adidas.com on me.

I’ve always like Adidas, so much that many shoes I’ve worn in the past were just off-brand of Adidas-style shoes. I like casual look of most of their running shoes and the fit of their casual daily wears. But let’s be serious, even if you can afford it, getting something at a discount makes feel even better!

So even if you find 1 item for $200 or 19 items totaling $200, this spree is ready for you. Don’t like Adidas? Get ready for Father’s Day or a birthday this summer.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is Vala’s Pumpkin Patch located in Gretna, Nebraska. This is a pumpkin patch to behold. It has grown into a 400-acre festival with 350,000+ visitors every autumn (in an 8-week period).

When living in Nebraska, every year my family would go to Vala’s with friends and family and enjoy the season with pumpkins, donuts, cider, and games. Just check out their map! They have 50+ attractions, nearly 30 food/beverage stations, and a map! If you need a map, you’re a big deal. The family loves taking pictures with all the crazy looking pumpkins and soaking up all the vibes of the season. My favorite thing was the warm, apple cider donuts!

This is the attraction of the season in Nebraska. Sometimes it took 15 minutes just to get from the parking area to the front gates since you’re parking on grassy fields around the farm. Over the years, they’ve added new attractions and updated some buildings, but it still has its charm.

Just some tips if you plan to visit Vala’s:

1. Big groups: You can reserve tent, pavilion, and campfire sites. It’s very popular to sit around the campfire, barbeque, and make smores (outside food is okay, no alcohol). You can also use their catering to have food prepared on-site for your party.

2. It’s a cashless system, so just bring a card to make payments. With the exception of the admissions barn where you can still pay cash.

3. Get ready to walk, a lot! Use the hay bales, low weeks, benches, food building, and rides to give your feet some rest every so often. The farm is massive and can be hilly in some areas.

4. Eat the warm, apple cider donuts!

5. Buying tickets online save you some money.

If you’re planning a road trip in the fall, Vala’s and the Henry Doorly Zoo should be on your bucket list!

The Premium Core

This week’s Premium Core topic is the Kasa Smart Plug Mini. I love this smart plug! I have about 12 in my house and I use them daily.

The Kasa phone app is very friendly and has a lot of capabilities like grouping the plugs, scheduling, and naming or organizing by rooms. Kasa has a lot of other products too that can be connected through the app. Here are some ways I’ve used the Kasa Smart Plug:

1. Christmas light, syncing all the outdoor lights, the indoor trees, and the miscellaneous Christmas decor. I schedule the outdoor lights based on sunrise/sunset and indoor lights based on time.

2. I connect my bedside lamps to a switch so I don’t have to reach for the lights at night.

3. I use the plug to set up a bounce house in the kid’s room during parties that allow me to turn it on or off without being in the room. Helpful to reduce the noise it creates when the kids aren’t playing with it.

4. I have some string lights outside that require to be plugged-in to operate, but by using Kasa plug, I can just turn it on using the app.

Deal #1: I’m offering a discount on these plugs at shop.duckytran.com. It is a Kasa Smart Plug Mini (set of 4) is $15, normally sold online for $30, only 5 will be available.

The Accessible Core

Legacy Planning: Where to Start?

When thinking about legacy planning, most people understand a few ways to save money but may worry where to start and if one-way is better than another. If you feel this way, there are a few questions that isn’t being answered. The questions are: How much money do you want to leave to your children? When do you want your children to get the money?

Some may say, “well, as much as I can and as long as they have money the rest of their lives”. However, like most plans, the more specific you can be, the easier it is to plan. So, the next question generally goes like this, “but how much money is enough”.

This my line of reasoning, you don’t have to take the same, but it will help develop this topic to something more feasible for most people.

1. The highest average income is Massachusetts at about $76,000/annually.

2. According to smartasset.com, to live for 30 years (ages 65-96) on $70,000/annually, you need about $1.8M.

3. According to usafacts.org, less than 29% of Americans over the age of 65 have $1M+ in their retirement accounts; therefore, the majority of people will have to continue to work or lives on a lot less after age 65.

4. When you are younger, you have more energy, opportunities, and time to make money and have fun; therefore, we as parents shouldn’t worry too much about providing money to our children before they are 65. If you’re going to start somewhere, let’s help them build a retirement in case they don’t, and if they can then they’ll be able to save for their children’s retirement.

5. In summary, a custodial IRA is a good place to start.

Everyone knows that time is the key to success when it comes to investment. But image this, what if you can have a $2.2M retirement for just $12,000! According to ramseysolutions.com, you can do just that. By contributing just $2,400/year for 5 years (from ages 16-21), you children can have upwards of $1.7M in their custodial IRA by age 65. That means for the cost of daycare for a single year, you could have helped your child retire.

Don’t forget, this is just an example. You can contribute earlier and through other ways too. Imagine opening a custodial account when your child is first born, and contributing just $2,400/annually from age 0-5. At age 65, your child will have $8.3M in their retirement IRA.

So, the last question is, how do I get $2,400 each year to do this?

1. You don’t have put in $2,400 each year, why not just put $50/monthly for 13 years ($600/year). If you did this from newborn to age 14, your child would have $3.26M at age 65.

2. Or even less, $30/monthly for 18 years ($360/year). If you did this from newborn to age 19, your child would have $2.23M at age 65.

The insanity that this shows is how we as parents/adults can put away even $1/day to retire at retirement age. So are you legacy planning, if so, I hope I gave you an idea where to start.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 25 Community Poll Results

This last week’s poll made me smile:

1. Financially, 85% answered they are doing the same or better than 1-year ago. That’s good to hear and I hope anyone doing worse will find a way to turn it around this coming year.

2. Financially, everyone answered that they expect to do better or remain the same 1-year from now. That’s good to see everyone seeing a positive future ahead.

3. This is what excited me the most, everyone answered and even gave feedback about wanting to see different ways of making money. I will start tailoring my financial topics to more specific ways until the community wants a change.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

Check out contest submissions for March 2024!

The collages really show how alike and how different we are in different aspects of our lives. There are just a few I still have to decipher if they understood the prompt.

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: adidas