The Old Money Book

Very often, people behave in ways that they know are not in their best interest. They spend too much, ignore warning signs in their relationships, and endanger their health, among other things.

Why they do this is puzzling for others to watch, and can be frustrating as we–as friends, family, or colleagues–can easily see the probably end result: bankruptcy, divorce, disease and/or death, respectively.

The hard truth is that we can rarely influence those we care about, regardless how much we love them or how much they need our help.

Others we care about may know a truth, like smoking cigarettes causes cancer, as a fact, but facts have a distance and sterility to them. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, then the fact becomes a personal reality with emotion impact.

Sometimes only then will behavior change. And it is a sad that often times the realization comes too late.

I wrote The Old Money Book for, as I say, people just starting out or starting over. I thought the core audience would be recent college graduates who would be eager to learn four important choices they could make to ensure a substantial nest egg by the age of thirty.

But a bigger audience for the book has been, to my surprise, those people who are starting over. These are people who have been in the workforce for a decade and have nothing to show for their efforts. Why is this book more meaningful to them?

Because it’s personal. Unlike the recent college graduate who is new to a regular paycheck and all the apparent freedom it bestows, people in their mid-thirties have made money and spent it. They’ve accrued credit card debt. They’ve watch the luster fade from the retail merry-go-round.  They’ve seen how challenging it can be to build a nest egg. And they want a strategy and a way of life they can embrace, live with, and benefit from.

That’s the culture of Old Money. And anyone can live it, but most likely it will be when things get personal.

Are you there yet?

– BGT