My son Jeremy recently did an interview for the Money Tale$ podcast with my friends and colleagues Sandi Bragar and Cammie Doder of Aspiriant. He had fun doing it and I could not be prouder.
Here’s the backstory. Last July I was interviewed for the Money Tale$ podcast and had a great experience. At the end of my interview, they asked if I knew anyone who might be a good guest. I thought of my older son, Jeremy, and he went for it. Sandi and Cammie’s mission is to take the taboo out of talking about money, and they are doing really good work. They have excellent rapport and make the podcast fun and interesting. People from all walks of life share stories about how money has affected their lives, in all kinds of ways. The discussions get deep and interesting.
I was moved hearing my son speak so thoughtfully and with maturity about the depths of his money experiences and on a public platform. (Even though I see his insight, smarts and emotional intelligence in all kinds of ways, as his doting dad, he will always be my baby boy!) I came to tears several times, caught off guard by a mixture of pride and thoughts of the rush of time.
Jeremy offered sensitivity and wisdom about money and the various ways it came into his life in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. And he displayed sharp insight from everyday experiences, such as money interactions with friends who had fewer family financial resources or from first-date dilemmas of who pays and considerations of the potential perils of assuming the guy pays versus assuming a split bill.
I am not ultra-wealthy like the clients I serve, and Jeremy accurately characterized our family as “upper middle class”. It felt odd to have our social class named by Jeremy in a public forum. But I’m also glad he did. This is what Money Tale$ is about –transparency, openness. The taboo nature of money, at least in American culture, gets in the way of healthy money conversations, and financial education of children, at all socio-economic levels. And for children of my clients–children in wealthy families–open and developmentally appropriate conversation is just what is needed to grow sophisticated stewards of family wealth and avoid the stereotypes of fortunes in the hands of unprepared heirs.
Kudos to Sandi and Cammie for normalizing money discussions.
Take a listen to Jeremy and reach out with thoughts, comments, reactions.