GUEST POST: Value Creation Family by Audrey Howell (Daughter)

Over this summer, in addition to camps, graduating from elementary school, recording her first songs on guitar and preparing for her first year of middle school, I asked my daughter Audrey to consult with our firm. She read (and highlighted) the entire Value Creation Family book by Lee Benson and shared her thoughts here. In addition to applying these principals to our own family, our firm plans to incorporate some of these techniques for creating harmony at home into our "JOY of Harmony" Family Governance process. More to come. 

Value Creation Family

Audrey Howell, Aug 19, 2026

What is it?

A “Value Creation Family” is a family that teaches their children how to create value. Having a Value Creation Family brings your whole family together and teaches your children valuable life lessons that will help them when they become adults. It is split into three different parts. Material values, Emotional values, and Spiritual values. Teaching your children to create each of these values will lead them to create value in their family, so they become successful adults. If you want your family to work together and learn about the value of money, then you should use Value Creation Family. It sets your kids up to be self-reliant adults by the time they are 18 years old. Here’s how.

Lead Your Kids to Success

For your kids to become successful adults, they must develop Character, Beliefs, and Capabilities.

• Character: How your kids show up.
• Beliefs: What they think is possible.
• Capabilities: What they can do.

It’s important for your kids to be motivated to want to work on these traits. Ask them questions to find out how they want to create value in the world and then help them achieve it. Build up your child’s character, strengthen their positive beliefs, and teach them the skills they need to be thriving young adults. 

For example, some character traits include:

• Responsibility
• Trustworthiness
• Respectfulness
• Creativity

When I was a Patrol (safety guard) at my elementary school, my job was to protect kids when they went home for the day. This included helping them into their cars at “Kiss ‘n Ride” and making sure they walked when it was safe on the crosswalk. The teachers trusted me with this responsibility, and the parents always noticed how nice I was to their children. Hopefully the parents also noticed my respectfulness.

Some positive beliefs include:

• You can start a business at any age
• My family will always have money
• I will be able to find a good job
• You can do whatever you want with your money

One example from my life was about a year ago when I started an investment account. I really wanted to be able to make money, and my dad told me that there was a way that I could make money without working. All I had to do was open an investment account and choose a stock to invest in. I chose Walmart, and watched overtime as the stocks went up and down. I was disappointed when the stocks went down, but I believed that they would go up again.

Some capabilities to consider include:

• Making and managing money
• Developing communication skills
• Building strong relationships

This summer I started working for my dad. I was interested in earning my own money so that I could use it how I wanted to. He told me that I could work for him and gave me a job to do. I had to read a book called Value Creation Family by Lee Benson and then write this blog post for you, my dad’s clients. I also used what I learned to start a Value Creation Family for my own family. It wasn’t always easy, and sometimes I was stuck. But I knew I had to keep going if I wanted to get paid. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot more about what it takes to earn money, how to manage it well, all while having fun spending time with my dad.

One thing you can do that helps your whole family learn to create value, is establish the Dinner Table Method. There are four parts to this method. Value Creation, House Rules, Financial Competency, and Healthy Struggle. We have already discussed Value Creation, so we will discuss the other three one by one. 

House Rules

Families work well when everyone is doing what they are supposed to do. Another way of saying this is that everyone in the family has a job that helps your family. Giving your children jobs clears up a lot of time for parents to focus even more on creating value for the whole family. If you give everyone in the family jobs, when your children see you doing it, they can do their own job proudly. You can begin by setting short- and long-term family goals. What do you want your family to achieve in terms of creating value for your family? If you set goals, be sure to regularly check in to see that everyone is working to achieve those goals. You only have to do this once a month and can just be a short discussion about your family goals and the progress that you are making to reach them. As a parent, it is helpful for you to set expectations for your children. They can start having a job in the family as young as 4 years old! You can pay them $1or $2 for each job they do. If you do this, then you are well on your way to having a Value Creation Family.

Financial Competency

The next part of the Dinner Table Metod is Financial Competency. Being financially competent is one of the most important foundational capabilities to have when you become an adult. There are eight money skills that your kids need to learn to help them have a clear understanding of money.

If you master each of these money skills, then you will soon become financially competent.

1. Earn

2. Protect

3. Budget

4. Spend

5. Share

6. Invest

7. Borrow

The next thing that you should do is create a family budget. Having a budget is a great way to keep your family from spending more than they can. Every member of your family can have one or more line items on your family’s budget that they are responsible for. On your budget list have necessary (needs) like groceries and housing, and extra (wants) like pets and streaming that can be cut if money gets tight. A budget is useful for your family because it helps you track your financial goals. It is not that difficult, and it will teach your children the responsibilities they need to have when they become adults.               

Healthy Struggles

Healthy Struggle is the last part of the Dinner Table Metod. All the value is in the struggle. Everybody who is successful in life has to struggle to get there. You can think of struggle in three major categories: healthy struggle, unhealthy struggle, and intentional struggle. It is important to let your kids struggle. Doing so helps them learn and improve. Let them figure it out. When you deprive your kids of normal, healthy struggles, you slow down their development of a positive value-creation mindset, money skills, and interpersonal skills. It will also prepare your children to be more self-reliant if you remove their limiting beliefs. They might think that they can’t get a job or start a business. They will adopt the same beliefs you model them. Show them that they can start from anywhere and go everywhere.

Summary

As you can see, having a Value Creation Family will set your children up for success and help them, so that they can create value in the world. Applying all the parts of up the Dinner Table Metod will benefit your whole family and teach them the valuable money skills that they need to know. You as a parent must lead the way for your children. Model a healthy relationship, establish routines, and provide structure for your kids. It may seem hard, but in the end it will be worth it. I’m helping my family create value, now you can too.

Jason Howell Company is a family wealth management firm serving successful families across three generations: parents, adult children, and aging grandparents. These families created wealth during one of the most extraordinary periods of globalization and economic expansion in modern history, often achieving a level of success they never imagined. Today, their challenge has shifted from creating wealth to stewarding it amid an increasingly complex global economy that is becoming less integrated, more fragmented and rapidly changing. 

Jason Howell Company helps families understand the historical forces shaping today’s opportunities and challenges. Our services include sustainable investment strategy, family governance, philanthropic planning, business succession planning, liquidity event planning, estate and tax planning coordination. Working as part of each family's team of trusted advisors, we help align financial, legal, tax, philanthropic, and family decisions around a unified family strategy built around the family's long-term values and goals. 

The firm serves approximately 100 families from its headquarters in Virginia.