Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise

I met with an attorney today to prepare my last will & testament. When I walked in he seemed a little surprised.

"You're here for a will?! You look a little young to be writing a will!" he said.

"I have an 11 year old," I flatly replied.

"Oh," he said, as I sat down in his chair.

"I also want to look into a trust for my son," I stated.

"Well, why would you need a trust?," he asked.

"My ex-husband is a fundamentalist radical muslim and he's financially retarded, so..." as I proceeded to tell the lawyer my story, a look of disbelief came over his face.

"Are you feeding me a line?" he asked.

"No. I'm not," I plainly said.

As we discussed the terms of my will & the trust he stopped me and said, "A trust is usually set up for a lot of money."

"Well...if I were to die tomorrow, I'd be worth [insert un-Godly amount of money here], and I don't trust my ex-husband to spend it wisely," I said.

"Wow! You're doing very well for a 31 year old woman! I'm twice your age and have just a little bit more than you do! You must have come from a very rich family!"

"Rich?! No! Both of my parents came from poverty. My father grew up in a third world country, a small village in Kenya, without electricity or running water, and very little clothing. My mother grew up in the backwoods of North Carolina. She got her PhD in Nursing in the 90s, and my father got his master's in Chemistry and practiced as a research chemist for most of my life."

The attorney cut me off..."So they were smart but not rich," he said.

"Exactly," I said.

"Well, you're doing very well for such a young woman," he said. "You must have had an easy life," he said.

"Actually, no," I went on. "I went to college on a full merit based scholarship, sponsored by the company I now work for. I married a man who was $20K in debt but I didn't know it until after we were married. I've been working my @$$ off ever since and I want to be sure that our son is taken care of if something happens to me."

"I can see why you want a will and trust," the attorney said as he went through the motions of completing my form will, sponsored in part by the company I now work for's legal plan. I'm glad I signed up for the benefit last year.

"What about a revocable trust?" I asked as he tried to hurry up and finish with my paperwork.

"I can refer you to a local attorney, but the money you're talking about is more than I'm comfortable setting up in a trust. He's very good," he said while all I heard was, "blah, blah, blah!"

As he set up my appointment to sign the final papers next week he commented again, "You're doing very well for such a young person."

"Well, I didn't date during high school, & I studied...and lived within my means," I replied. "And I invested," I added.

"The goal is to have $5 million when I retire. I'll need it since social security probably won't exist when I do quit working," I said.

"You're probably right," he replied, "but most people don't think that way."

"I'm not most people," I thought to myself, "& I haven't lived most people's lives."

As I got into my 2006 Toyota Camry and drove off, I thought about what I'd said to him early on when I told him how much money I need to prepare for the trust for Shorty: "I don't wear my wealth."

I'm sure he was taken aback by such a well informed, forward thinking, early 30 something black single mother. Little does he know that I have my eyes on the prize: retire healthy, wealthy, & wise...and at 31, I'm well on my way.