The financial advice in my parents' house was three words: save, save, save. They were right about the principle. They were less right about the destination.

Money parked in a savings account at 1% over thirty years is a real loss to inflation. The behavior — pay yourself first, don't spend what you don't have — is gold. The execution can do better. That gap, between the discipline and the outcome, is what I see first-gen families navigate badly.

This isn't a personal essay. It's a list. Five things I wish someone had walked through with my parents in plain English, with the actual mechanics.

1. The 401(k) match isn't optional

If your employer matches contributions and you don't contribute enough to capture the full match, you're declining part of your compensation. Match formulas vary. A common one is 50% of contributions up to 6% of salary. That's a 3% raise you can opt into by checking a box in HR.

The first-gen instinct is sometimes to opt out — "I want the cash now, I'll save it myself." But the math doesn't work. The match is dollars your employer pays only if you participate. There's no equivalent to capture by saving in a checking account.

2. Roth accounts solve a problem cash can't

Roth IRA and Roth 401(k) contributions are made with after-tax dollars. They grow tax-free, and qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. For younger earners — especially anyone whose income will likely be higher later — Roth contributions early are one of the cleanest tax moves available.

Income limits apply to Roth IRA contributions. There's a backdoor Roth path for higher earners, with some caveats. The IRS has a plain-language overview on its site. The point is that "save in a savings account" and "save in a Roth account" are not the same activity, even though both look like saving.

Worth knowing

The intuition that real estate is "safer" than the market is partly a translation issue. In many countries, retail equity markets aren't deep or trustworthy, so property is the default store of value. The U.S. is different. Both can have a place in a plan. Neither is automatically the right answer.

3. Supporting parents is part of the plan, not separate from it

A lot of first-gen earners send money home, support aging parents, or carry the financial weight of an extended family. That's a real part of the budget. It belongs on the planning page.

Plans that pretend it doesn't exist break when it shows up — and it shows up. The honest move is to budget for parental support the same way you'd budget for any other essential expense, and let the rest of the plan flex around it. Including it doesn't make the obligation bigger. Excluding it makes the plan less accurate.

This is also where the conversation about long-term care for parents gets postponed and gets expensive. If your parents don't have long-term care insurance and don't have the assets to self-fund care, the financial weight will land on you. Talking about it early is uncomfortable. Not talking about it is worse.

4. Estate documents matter more, not less, when there's no template

Wills, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations are usually assumed in U.S. financial planning. In a first-gen household they often aren't. Add in family members in another country, accounts in multiple currencies, and inheritance laws that don't match each other, and "we'll figure it out" becomes a real problem.

The minimum: a will, a healthcare proxy, a financial power of attorney, and updated beneficiary designations on every retirement account and life insurance policy. Beneficiary designations override what's in your will, which surprises people. Get them right.

Family situation

If your plan needs to account for parents in another country, multilingual estate documents, or supporting two generations at once, I'm happy to walk through it.

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5. The hardest part is talking to family

The technical moves are knowable. The harder work is having the conversation with your parents about what they own, what they owe, and what they want. Most first-gen families don't have that conversation, ever. The cost of not having it is real — and usually shows up at the worst time.

One sentence to start: "I'd rather know now than figure it out later." It's not a transaction. It's permission to be useful.

The honest answer

The advice my parents gave was right for the world they came from. The world they came from isn't the world they're retiring into. Translating between the two is the work. Discipline travels well. Strategy doesn't. That's the gap worth closing.

The opinions expressed in this post are those of Jake Song and do not necessarily reflect the views of Kestra IS or Kestra AS. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, or legal advice.