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Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise: Lessons from successful and grounded inheritors on how they got that way
At a certain level of wealth, money makes parenting harder, not easier. Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise breaks new ground in the field of raising children amid wealth by hearing the success real-life children raised with wealth now grown into happy, healthy, and productive adults. Nationally recognized wealth advisor Coventry Edwards-Pitt draws on her many years of professional experience to interview successful heirs and uncover what works--and what doesn't--in raising wealthy children to lead fulfilling and productive lives. While there is a lot of advice out there for affluent parents, this is the first book that allows us to hear directly from children who survived the gauntlet of being raised with wealth and emerged happy, healthy, and productive on the other side. Why do they think they have become successful? What went right? And how? Readers will find that these voices speak with a clarity that will inspire parents faced with these challenges to take the steps necessary to set their children on the path toward health and happiness.
172 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2014
43 people are currently reading
258 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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May 17, 2015Good book with examples of how families with significant wealth raised balanced children. Focus mostly on work ethic. Nice job drawing on most recent behavioral science
February 16, 2020
This book has a lot of good advice and reassurance for parents concerned about their ability or lack of ability to help their kids financially. It really focuses on developing work ethic and how formative the 20s are in shaping the self esteem and independence of emerging adults.
January 27, 2019
Some good for perspective and advice for all parents wishing to raise money-wise children
January 22, 2025
This was not bad, but perhaps just due to timing, feels possibly a bit "behind" more recent trends towards parents understanding that fostering independence for their kids and giving them opportunities to fail sets them up much better for long-term life goals compared to a helicopter/snowplow approach. Due to the inherent structure of the book, the families interviewed all have at least young adults in their 20s, if not already with a grandkid generation. So the ideas discussed mostly reinforce what I already felt would be the right direction to go in. The single most important idea is probably that everyone was better off for having had some period in their life when they supported themselves to stand alone as an independent adult, even if they re-joined family wealth later on.
I wish it delved more into details like, what happens if your kid falls in love with expensive hobbies that they wouldn't be able to support on their own without a subsidy? How do the kids feel about any grades they achieved with the help of tutors that their parents paid for? etc.
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* ...if they have children, it’s likely their biggest problem lies elsewhere—and that it is, in many ways, more intractable: It is whether their wealth will interfere with their children’s ability to launch successful and independent lives.
* Wealthy parents often make the mistake of thinking that the only education they need to provide as a result of their money is about the money itself. The reality is that the mere presence of wealth amplifies the consequences of normal parenting interactions, which, on the surface, may have nothing at all to do with money.
* As wealth advisors, we are often asked to help address difficulties with now grown children. The sad reality is that, while our advice is urgently needed in these situations, much of what we spend our time on is minimizing the downside...
* The inheritors we interviewed all took for granted that they would earn their own money because their parents had encouraged them to do so from an early age onwards. Yet this is an infrequent scenario in wealthy families for two obvious reasons. First, inconvenience: work is often difficult to fit into a hectic schedule, and parents feel responsible for keeping kids organized and getting them to work on time. Second, the majority of wealthy parents (especially wealth generators) feel compelled to make their children’s lives “easier.” They hate to see their children suffer, struggle, or miss out on the fun elsewhere, and so they prioritize other experiences and underplay the importance of the child experiencing earning an income.
* ...in order for parents to help their children develop this definition of a good life, they must first develop a high tolerance for watching their children struggle and perhaps even fail.
* “Being a parent, you have to incur the pain,” he said, “and the pain is watching your kids struggle.”
* Our interviews of successful inheritors revealed a startling fact: Very few had received a textbook education in financial literacy. Rather, they learned by watching their parents...
* How do we instill the desire to work—and the will to work through tough times—in children who don’t need to work for money?
* It was clear that given the mandate to work, children like Mark were quite happy to do so even when they had little financial motivation or need.
* Many well-off modern families encourage their kids to engage in volunteer work so they can see firsthand the reality of how less wealthy people live and struggle. While they do this for good reasons and to good effect, the experience of stepping in and offering charity is very different than stepping into a situation and offering your skills as an equal or a subordinate.
* Many of our successful inheritors talked at great length—and with discernable nostalgia—about breaking free of their lifestyles and heading out to explore the larger world after college. It turns out that an extended, self-financed adventure during which wealthy young people live life “like the locals” was often life changing for them.
* Many parents are leery of gap years or taking extended time off during or after college for freeform travel. They see it as an excuse to postpone the work of “real life;” an opportunity to indulge in a carefree existence that delays maturation. The irony is that we found the opposite to be true—provided the inheritors plan and execute the travel using their own means.
* The children viewed the money as their parents’ money that they worked hard for (and not as their own). Or, if the parents inherited it, the kids understood that the money belonged to a tradition of family wealth that existed before their parents and would carry on beyond their lives. The kids knew the money would eventually come to them but not when and not how much.
I wish it delved more into details like, what happens if your kid falls in love with expensive hobbies that they wouldn't be able to support on their own without a subsidy? How do the kids feel about any grades they achieved with the help of tutors that their parents paid for? etc.
===============
* ...if they have children, it’s likely their biggest problem lies elsewhere—and that it is, in many ways, more intractable: It is whether their wealth will interfere with their children’s ability to launch successful and independent lives.
* Wealthy parents often make the mistake of thinking that the only education they need to provide as a result of their money is about the money itself. The reality is that the mere presence of wealth amplifies the consequences of normal parenting interactions, which, on the surface, may have nothing at all to do with money.
* As wealth advisors, we are often asked to help address difficulties with now grown children. The sad reality is that, while our advice is urgently needed in these situations, much of what we spend our time on is minimizing the downside...
* The inheritors we interviewed all took for granted that they would earn their own money because their parents had encouraged them to do so from an early age onwards. Yet this is an infrequent scenario in wealthy families for two obvious reasons. First, inconvenience: work is often difficult to fit into a hectic schedule, and parents feel responsible for keeping kids organized and getting them to work on time. Second, the majority of wealthy parents (especially wealth generators) feel compelled to make their children’s lives “easier.” They hate to see their children suffer, struggle, or miss out on the fun elsewhere, and so they prioritize other experiences and underplay the importance of the child experiencing earning an income.
* ...in order for parents to help their children develop this definition of a good life, they must first develop a high tolerance for watching their children struggle and perhaps even fail.
* “Being a parent, you have to incur the pain,” he said, “and the pain is watching your kids struggle.”
* Our interviews of successful inheritors revealed a startling fact: Very few had received a textbook education in financial literacy. Rather, they learned by watching their parents...
* How do we instill the desire to work—and the will to work through tough times—in children who don’t need to work for money?
* It was clear that given the mandate to work, children like Mark were quite happy to do so even when they had little financial motivation or need.
* Many well-off modern families encourage their kids to engage in volunteer work so they can see firsthand the reality of how less wealthy people live and struggle. While they do this for good reasons and to good effect, the experience of stepping in and offering charity is very different than stepping into a situation and offering your skills as an equal or a subordinate.
* Many of our successful inheritors talked at great length—and with discernable nostalgia—about breaking free of their lifestyles and heading out to explore the larger world after college. It turns out that an extended, self-financed adventure during which wealthy young people live life “like the locals” was often life changing for them.
* Many parents are leery of gap years or taking extended time off during or after college for freeform travel. They see it as an excuse to postpone the work of “real life;” an opportunity to indulge in a carefree existence that delays maturation. The irony is that we found the opposite to be true—provided the inheritors plan and execute the travel using their own means.
* The children viewed the money as their parents’ money that they worked hard for (and not as their own). Or, if the parents inherited it, the kids understood that the money belonged to a tradition of family wealth that existed before their parents and would carry on beyond their lives. The kids knew the money would eventually come to them but not when and not how much.
February 9, 2023
Raising future inheritors is a topic that I've been interested in for along time. Unfortunately, barely anyone talks about this topic. I'm glad I found this book because it's exactly what I was looking for. It's packed with case studies and examples. It's a short read, and I'll probably re-read it again in the future.
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May 27, 2023to interact with children is to give them a chance to be children and a chance for them to get
some preparation for growing up.
Let them play, let them be alone, let them learn and give them freedom and responsibility
as they come along
some preparation for growing up.
Let them play, let them be alone, let them learn and give them freedom and responsibility
as they come along
December 27, 2022
Interesting stories to hear about parents raised kids without spoiling them. But nothing too exciting.
April 18, 2019
Some interesting insights, but many are the same as any other parenting book about raising grateful, hardworking kids.
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February 18, 2018very helpful advice about what makes kids "inheritors" successful - using 20ish real kids - how to let them become independent and know there is money in the family
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews