Speaker 1: Welcome to BIV Today the Daily Business podcast from the Newsroom of
Speaker 1: Business in Vancouver. I'm Kurt LaPointe, Editor in Chief.
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Speaker 2: So we're in the thick of tax season which for
Speaker 2: many Canadians is the one time of year to reflect
Speaker 2: on our earnings and if we're fortunate our wealth. There
Speaker 2: are of course those who think about their earnings and
Speaker 2: wealth every day almost every waking moment of that day
Speaker 2: and they plan and execute extensive financial strategies. They have
Speaker 2: a discipline about their holdings they have techniques for prosperity.
Speaker 2: My guest on the podcast today is Tom McCullough. He
Speaker 2: brings thirty five years of wealth management experience first with
Speaker 2: RBC Wealth Management and then establishing the highly regarded Northwood
Speaker 2: family office in 2003.
Speaker 2: He's an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management
Speaker 2: at University of Toronto and he's written. He's co-written a
Speaker 2: book with Keith Whitaker and has dozens of contributors for
Speaker 2: chapters that the rich and not so rich alike can value.
Speaker 2: It's called Wealth of Wisdom. The top 50 questions wealthy
Speaker 2: families ask and it identifies what we need to ask
Speaker 2: of ourselves.
Speaker 3: And for that matter others at times for protection and growth.
Speaker 3: Tom McCullough joins me now. Good to have you with us.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Your book identifies not only of course these critical questions
Speaker 2: but the common traits of success. There are many of
Speaker 2: them but run us through a few of what you think
Speaker 2: are some of the more important traits of success.
Speaker 4: Well just by content by way of context the book was written
Speaker 4: for families of wealth. But as you rightly say in
Speaker 4: your introduction the principles in the book are applicable really
Speaker 4: to most most families and it's divided into a number
Speaker 4: of different sections. And I think those sections end up
Speaker 4: being that the core principles. But I if I had
Speaker 4: to say what they see couple of principles would be
Speaker 4: in terms of family thriving with regard to well I
Speaker 4: would say they are related to thinking about what your
Speaker 4: values are and what you want out of your life.
Speaker 4: And then people often take their ready fire aim approach
Speaker 4: as opposed to Ready aim fire and they jump right
Speaker 4: into doing something of personal thinking about well who are we.
Speaker 4: And what do we want and what do we want
Speaker 4: things to look like. Another principle I would say is
Speaker 4: something related to planning and setting goals you know literally
Speaker 4: setting talking writing down your goals ordering them and others
Speaker 4: priority and then calculating what's it going to cost some
Speaker 4: goals cost something and some some goals don't. And then
Speaker 4: I think the third principle I'd say is maybe communication
Speaker 4: among family members. You know it's fine. You know it
Speaker 4: well well you're if you're the leader or driver or
Speaker 4: entrepreneur patriarch matriarch it's fine the kids are young. But
Speaker 4: when you start to the family start to broaden and
Speaker 4: there's more than just one person a lot. There's a
Speaker 4: lot of angst that can be avoided or somewhat avoided
Speaker 4: by communication.
Speaker 3: And I want to explore all three of these in
Speaker 3: our talk today but I'm intrigued right away by the
Speaker 3: question of values. And I wonder whether we do have
Speaker 3: to adapt our values and all of this. Or or
Speaker 3: largely do you have to then you have to define
Speaker 3: them and then work backwards and start essentially adapting your
Speaker 3: financial strategies to suit them.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 6: You start with values so you we do an exercise
Speaker 6: with a lot of our families where we we identify
Speaker 6: a large number of values say 25 we have cards
Speaker 6: and we ask family members to order those cards from
Speaker 6: most important to least.
Speaker 7: It's kind of a tough job but if we do
Speaker 7: it in a fun exercise but really the point is
Speaker 7: you know one thing that really resonates with me. What
Speaker 7: what are the things that drive me. What are the
Speaker 7: things that. You know are I would I would do
Speaker 7: other things aside to do and they say that the
Speaker 7: happiest people are those who live according to their values.
Speaker 7: So it's most important that you adapt or that you
Speaker 7: adapt your life to your values and not the reverse.
Speaker 7: Now in a family only you want to adapt to
Speaker 7: if you're more than one person you have to adapt
Speaker 7: to each other in some way. But ultimately the key
Speaker 7: is figuring out what each person's values are and maybe
Speaker 7: where some of the overlaps are and which things are
Speaker 7: going to drive your decision nice.
Speaker 3: And before you can satisfy with the answers to these
Speaker 3: critical questions these 50 questions that to it. And what
Speaker 3: but in your own mind do you think someone has
Speaker 3: to be prepared to do it. In other words what.
Speaker 3: What is it.
Speaker 5: What is it take wanted to take two to move
Speaker 5: the next step in the Internet. How do you values.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well not not just not just in defining your
Speaker 3: values but in determining that really you're going to be
Speaker 3: serious about generating wealth about this pursuit of a kind
Speaker 3: of a stable prosperity.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I think that's a better a better term. You
Speaker 6: know it's not necessarily about making a large amount of
Speaker 6: money when sincerely I mean a lot of our clients
Speaker 6: already have a large amount of money because they sold
Speaker 6: a business or worked in a high paying job for
Speaker 6: a long time.
Speaker 7: But I think the key is I think the key
Speaker 7: is you know eliminating intentionality.
Speaker 5: And if some you know I mean maybe it's not
Speaker 5: hard to do so maybe you need a coach or
Speaker 5: you need somebody to help you do it.
Speaker 8: Somebody with a bit of a framework but things that
Speaker 8: aren't urgent often don't get done even if they're important.
Speaker 6: One of because the intentionality and desire and sometimes failure
Speaker 6: to seek out a way to do it either you can.
Speaker 6: You can look it up online there are ways to do.
Speaker 6: Just use values as an example. Start with that kind
Speaker 6: of kind of process you can figure out how to
Speaker 6: do it online but a lot of people they need
Speaker 6: somebody to help them be an independent person that will
Speaker 6: lead them through it and help them make a plan
Speaker 6: and help them ultimately quite frankly stick to the plan.
Speaker 6: So I think that raises a whole other set of
Speaker 6: issues about how do you actually find somebody who is
Speaker 6: good with qualified experience is trustworthy. That's a tricky job
Speaker 6: in itself as well.
Speaker 3: Now what is the. If you have to generalize what's
Speaker 3: the single most important question then that you have to
Speaker 3: start with.
Speaker 9: Well it's the single most important question is one thing
Speaker 9: most commonly especially the mother herself.
Speaker 7: I'll answer your question single most important question I think
Speaker 7: has got to be something to do with either values.
Speaker 7: What do I want.
Speaker 6: What is important to me. And related questions of accuracy
Speaker 6: both very tied together is is what are my goals.
Speaker 6: And it's very difficult if you could have done that verbally.
Speaker 6: Greg under some of these ideas and what are you goals.
Speaker 6: Often it's very difficult for us to say what those are.
Speaker 6: We might vaguely say well know more about here or
Speaker 6: higher return or you know something new a kid. But
Speaker 6: but to actually sit down and say I'm going to
Speaker 6: write down what I want to happen and I'm going
Speaker 6: to decide which ones are highest priority and then I'm
Speaker 6: going to see if any of them cost any money
Speaker 6: and then figure out then what rate of return I
Speaker 6: need on my investments or how long I have to
Speaker 6: work or whatever it is to make sure those goals happen.
Speaker 6: The lowest probably the lowest possibility of rip that kind
Speaker 6: of intentionality of who are. Who am I. What are
Speaker 6: my values are always at the family and what are
Speaker 6: our goals. I think that most of those are very
Speaker 6: very important first steps that are usually missed as people
Speaker 6: try and find the right investment or pick a stock
Speaker 6: or pick an ETF provider or tickets manager is going
Speaker 6: to perform the market and they may miss the most
Speaker 6: important foundational issues about where they're going. You wouldn't get
Speaker 6: a car and just randomly drive randomly anyway usually know
Speaker 6: where you're going.
Speaker 4: And I say most people invest in investing.
Speaker 3: For example don't yeah you made the distinction in answering that.
Speaker 3: What's the most important versus what's the most common but
Speaker 3: what is the most common question that people tend to ask.
Speaker 3: How am I going to make a lot of money
Speaker 3: pursuing them.
Speaker 9: No no. Well I guess it depends. I mean we're
Speaker 9: dealing with people who have money. OK.
Speaker 7: So the most common question we get is I don't
Speaker 7: want this money to ruin my kids. What do I do.
Speaker 3: Don't you ruin my kids because we have a lot
Speaker 3: of money.
Speaker 7: And so we we're worried that this thing that we
Speaker 7: worked so hard to to build is actually going to
Speaker 7: maybe ruin the kids because it said they'll be entitled
Speaker 7: and more than a reason to get off the couch
Speaker 7: and we'll never fully develop. So it's not everybody's most
Speaker 7: company question but it's certainly the most common question that
Speaker 7: I feel I got in my practice without saying about it.
Speaker 2: The title of your book is is of course very
Speaker 2: important and instructive in this one because it's about wealthy
Speaker 2: families not wealthy investors necessarily. Can you instill the values
Speaker 2: of wealth management in your children if you don't first
Speaker 2: start with yourself.
Speaker 7: You can instill values. Now there's two things I'd say
Speaker 7: about instilling any values in children.
Speaker 10: One is there are certainly opportunities to be intentional about
Speaker 10: teaching values.
Speaker 11: So you know if you're thinking about wealth mentally as
Speaker 11: you could think about China and every family can do
Speaker 11: this having 20 jars for younger children and if you
Speaker 11: give them an allowance a third of those in the
Speaker 11: jar for spending those in the jar for saving and
Speaker 11: a third those in the jar for giving and those
Speaker 11: are great ways to help children think about money by
Speaker 11: generosity about delayed gratification all those kinds of things.
Speaker 7: The other thing I know about values is and this
Speaker 7: is quoting one of the authors in the book the
Speaker 7: name is Ellen Perry and she wrote the chapter called
Speaker 7: what passing values to the next generation really look like.
Speaker 5: And she she basically says that values are primarily caught
Speaker 5: not taught so you can teach all you want.
Speaker 7: You can say you shouldn't do this you should do that.
Speaker 7: But mostly our kids are gonna be looking at us
Speaker 7: to see what we do not what we say. So
Speaker 7: think of yourself the last time you were in traffic
Speaker 7: with one of your kids or when you're in a.
Speaker 9: Let me know things are getting too close to home.
Speaker 9: If you were in a light lineup or on the
Speaker 9: phone with Rogers or you were no talking to an
Speaker 9: employee or a service person.
Speaker 8: So the question really is what are the values that
Speaker 8: we are are demonstrating. And there's a pretty good chance
Speaker 8: that the values that we demonstrate are the ones that
Speaker 8: will be picked up by our children. And so lots
Speaker 8: of us will step back and think about that and
Speaker 8: say you you know are these the values that I
Speaker 8: my demonstrating the values that I want my children to
Speaker 8: pick up that can be wealth values I'm saving or
Speaker 8: overspending or whatever. But it could be just general values
Speaker 8: and life as well.
Speaker 3: And yet we want our children obviously to be happy
Speaker 3: and we probably want for them better things than what
Speaker 3: we even had. How do you how do you then
Speaker 3: avoid when you're dealing with things like managing your wealth
Speaker 3: not kind of overspending and lavishing things on them and
Speaker 3: doing that out of good intentions but perhaps bad results.
Speaker 7: I think it's almost always had good intentions and love
Speaker 7: the parents do what they do. We live in a
Speaker 7: very busy society. Many of us have two working expenses
Speaker 7: in the family where we're short on time and so
Speaker 7: money like time money and time solve a lot of
Speaker 7: problems that money can solve too quickly. So we're busy
Speaker 7: and so we throw money at a problem. What happens
Speaker 7: with that is that we end up helping our children
Speaker 7: helping in that small age helping our children avoid natural consequence.
Speaker 10: And so for instance think about the child who goes
Speaker 10: to university or teenager that goes to university and blows
Speaker 10: through their spending budget that is supposed to last a
Speaker 10: whole month by the 15th and they call up and
Speaker 10: we're really busy and they say you know Dad Mom
Speaker 10: I just blown through this money and then we top
Speaker 10: it up. So what does the child learn. They learn
Speaker 10: there's no such thing as a budget. I don't have
Speaker 10: to worry about delayed gratification. You know a whole series
Speaker 10: of lessons.
Speaker 7: You know I don't budget a whole series of lessons
Speaker 7: that we don't want our kids to learn probably we
Speaker 7: probably want them to learn the impact of their own choices.
Speaker 7: We all want to want them to learn how to
Speaker 7: budget and save all those kinds of things. And and
Speaker 7: by and you know partly we're busy but partly we
Speaker 7: feel that you know although they didn't want know. And
Speaker 7: we want to help our kids avoid difficulty. But the
Speaker 7: interesting thing I always think about it is when we
Speaker 7: when you talk to somebody about their character and how
Speaker 7: their character was formed mostly people coping with it were difficult.
Speaker 5: Yeah it was forged in difficulty. And if we take
Speaker 5: those things away from our children small and large things
Speaker 5: we end up with kids who don't learn most significant lessons.
Speaker 10: And if it gets more extreme than that we have
Speaker 10: trouble moving on in our life and they have trouble
Speaker 10: receiving rejection and correction at work or in school. And
Speaker 10: and then of course you can get into much more
Speaker 10: serious things too.
Speaker 8: And so I don't think that is only an issue
Speaker 8: for the wealthy and that applies to to many many
Speaker 8: of us who are sending kids to university and you
Speaker 8: know I mean a lot of a lot of Canadians
Speaker 8: are relative to the rest of the world have lots
Speaker 8: of resources. And so I think these issues will be common.
Speaker 3: Money is energy as you know. And those are the
Speaker 3: conversations you have about money as a family as you're
Speaker 3: trying to generate wealth as as a group. They're trying
Speaker 3: not to fritter away on on things that are inconsequential
Speaker 3: and so on. How do you counsel families to have
Speaker 3: their conversations so that they can minimize the conflicts that
Speaker 3: they have.
Speaker 7: That's a very good question. There is a really good
Speaker 7: chapter in the book by a fellow named Charles Collier
Speaker 7: who is the head of philanthropy I think at Harvard
Speaker 7: University for many many years but became a real advisor
Speaker 7: to family. He's got a great piece in there called
Speaker 7: How do you start a family conversation about financial inheritance
Speaker 7: rights inheritance. But many many of the questions that he
Speaker 7: raises apply number one wealth in general. And number two
Speaker 7: to families of all all shapes and sizes and amounts
Speaker 7: of wealth.
Speaker 8: But a lot of it is he talks about it
Speaker 8: this is the place where you could talk about your
Speaker 8: principles and the principles that you have learned as a parent.
Speaker 8: For example over time I think another principle is that
Speaker 8: he talks about is openness and creating an environment where
Speaker 8: people can ask where we're kids. For example can ask
Speaker 8: difficult questions. There are questions that are you know you're
Speaker 8: not allowed to ask.
Speaker 5: And and I'm not going to be avoided you know
Speaker 5: money is an awkward topic and you have to. It
Speaker 5: doesn't mean you have to disclose everything to your children
Speaker 5: right away.
Speaker 7: You can say well we decided not to talk about
Speaker 7: the details of the act but let's talk about everything
Speaker 7: else around that. And I think I'm giving you a
Speaker 7: Democrat I say again not just communication but give kids
Speaker 7: experience with small amounts of money early on give them
Speaker 7: experience with things that you're doing take them places. You
Speaker 7: know some of some of other issues related to wealth
Speaker 7: not just the actual creation of wealth or the actual
Speaker 7: management of money but also related to you know generosity
Speaker 7: and how do you encourage generosity in your family. Because
Speaker 7: some of that is the idea of sharing wealth but
Speaker 7: is not a static thing as you say it's energy.
Speaker 7: So it's like the making of the managing of it
Speaker 7: and the sharing of it and filling the hole in
Speaker 7: the process having healthy healthy families.
Speaker 8: But I can tell you there's loads and loads in
Speaker 8: the book on that topic and you I don't know
Speaker 8: what we'll talk about it later but there are also
Speaker 8: podcast and kids and podcast related to the book and
Speaker 8: kids younger people are like tend to like that medium
Speaker 8: as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah definitely. Well here we are in a podcast talking
Speaker 3: about a podcast but just you you have one and
Speaker 3: I asked about. Because the times don't always go wonderfully.
Speaker 3: And mostly we run into some bumps as as families
Speaker 3: and and certainly as investors would say there is always
Speaker 3: uncertainty around the corner at times. How. How dangerous to
Speaker 3: the family fabric can be that uncertainty do you think.
Speaker 8: Oh it can be very very dangerous. And so you
Speaker 8: know I mean there's no certainty in life. It's not
Speaker 8: like you know wealth or anything can guarantee certainty. I
Speaker 8: think one of the benefits of wealth and there are
Speaker 8: pros and cons of wealth interestingly enough one of the
Speaker 8: benefits is it does. It has the potential to bring
Speaker 8: some level of certainty on some level of reduced anxiety
Speaker 8: in the sense that you're not worrying about you know
Speaker 8: a roof over your head or you're not worrying about
Speaker 8: where your next meal or not where you keep going
Speaker 8: to school. The more resources you have it takes away
Speaker 8: some of those worries but it still really doesn't change
Speaker 8: what can happen to kids you know and.
Speaker 10: I just was reading an article today in fact from
Speaker 10: a dean of the university and just talking about the
Speaker 10: massive rise in anxiety and depression of young people at
Speaker 10: university in the last three or four years.
Speaker 8: And so obviously people are going to university and U.S.
Speaker 8: colleges are our families have some kind of wealth to
Speaker 8: accomplish that. And these are these are wealthy families to
Speaker 8: some extent and kids are still going through that. So
Speaker 8: I think you know I don't think it's avoidable entirely.
Speaker 8: And again back to the idea of not helping kids
Speaker 8: with all natural consequences. Some of that is driven by
Speaker 8: it by our society and parents who are pushing kids
Speaker 8: to achieve more and more and more and there's a
Speaker 8: great chapter in the book called How can you help
Speaker 8: children thrive and will focus on success.
Speaker 4: And it's a great piece because it's you know everybody
Speaker 4: wants their children to do well but by pushing them
Speaker 4: to achieve in sports or in academic sorry and in
Speaker 4: so many other areas it can cause tension on family
Speaker 4: half or those things can continue well beyond children being
Speaker 4: young money tensions can can last or can occur all
Speaker 4: the way along the family continuum especially when kids get
Speaker 4: older as well.
Speaker 9: So there's unfortunately there's no silver bullet at all.
Speaker 7: But but communication and safe space to have conversations and
Speaker 7: some healthy routines are certainly some of the answers in
Speaker 7: examining this comprehensively as you have and spending the time
Speaker 7: that you have in the area of wealth management.
Speaker 3: You must be able now to recognize some of the
Speaker 3: changes some of the shifts in family dynamics you've alluded
Speaker 3: to them earlier that the presence of two income families
Speaker 3: the busy ness of everybody. And I wonder whether you're
Speaker 3: noticing now that we have to in a sense reconsider
Speaker 3: the way in which we're where we're managing our wealth
Speaker 3: to accept the fact that in many cases our children
Speaker 3: don't necessarily share the same values as we do. As
Speaker 3: they grow yes.
Speaker 6: And then if they don't what does that mean. We
Speaker 6: don't get the money. Does that mean. You know I
Speaker 6: think I know there's a very good piece about a
Speaker 6: couple of pieces in the book about how you find
Speaker 6: the balance between appealing to the title of your How
Speaker 6: can family support and both individuality and the shared dream.
Speaker 5: And that really is the challenge you know. Somebody said
Speaker 5: you can do there's two legacy gifts you give your children.
Speaker 7: One is roots and the other is when it reaches
Speaker 7: safety and knowing who they are and knowing who they
Speaker 7: can count on. But Wings is about differentiation. And what
Speaker 7: if my kids had quite different values from me.
Speaker 6: Know there's certainly one that would be very jarring in
Speaker 6: the family but it's really important that parents realize that
Speaker 6: the people are individual people and they are going to
Speaker 6: choose their own path. And I did this values exercise
Speaker 6: testing them with my own family a number of years
Speaker 6: ago probably 10 years ago and these 25 values cards
Speaker 6: with words on them like integrity and family and power
Speaker 6: and pleasure and tradition and so on and so forth.
Speaker 6: And my daughter didn't her serve and her cards and
Speaker 6: my wife serve the tours and my wife the number
Speaker 6: one values tradition and my daughter's number 25 value is tradition.
Speaker 7: So that spawned a really really interesting conversation. Yeah. Now
Speaker 7: interesting enough over time we realized that I thought actually
Speaker 7: not totally true. Well we are going to get rid
Speaker 7: of the little Christmas tree and replace it bake with
Speaker 7: my daughter was very negative on that. Interesting I know.
Speaker 7: So I said where does tradition fit obviously tradition isn't
Speaker 7: your least values. That was very important. So you see
Speaker 7: this in the conversations I mean to me the issue
Speaker 7: with the conversation you're having these conversations as a family
Speaker 7: and talking with the it leads to other people even
Speaker 7: more significant conversations about who are we in what is
Speaker 7: what is life for and what is money for and
Speaker 7: how is the money going to help each of us
Speaker 7: be the best people we can then I should ask
Speaker 7: you a bit of a personal question.
Speaker 3: What was the biggest lesson you learned in writing this book.
Speaker 4: Oh good question. What was the biggest lesson I learned.
Speaker 6: Well I had a funny little lesson I'd say in.
Speaker 6: Well maybe the first one I said what's really interesting
Speaker 6: I'm in a business that is usually thought of as
Speaker 6: related to dollars and attacks. You know we manage your
Speaker 6: affairs including investments like tax issues and structure issues of
Speaker 6: wealthy families. Interesting in a book 50 chapters about wealthy families.
Speaker 6: How many are not about money. They are about how
Speaker 6: these are about family and business. How do you think
Speaker 6: about giving. How do you think about choosing advisers some
Speaker 6: of them are money advisers and some are other advisers.
Speaker 6: How do you how do you set goals. How do
Speaker 6: you think about the next generation. No. So. So yes
Speaker 6: there is a technical you know core to wealth management
Speaker 6: that Rather is technical advice but a lot of the
Speaker 6: work that we do is help them to figure out
Speaker 6: the basics you know.
Speaker 7: Are we who do want to be. What are our
Speaker 7: goals what will they cost. How will we incorporate the
Speaker 7: kids into this. How do we not ruin the kids.
Speaker 7: How do we choose a good adviser. All those questions.
Speaker 7: And at some point yes you get to how will
Speaker 7: we invest the money. What should the tax plan. But
Speaker 7: interestingly enough though I think those issues come later in
Speaker 7: the process with families not in the very beginning and
Speaker 7: we come back to the most asked question you know
Speaker 7: for the average family probably it's you know what kind.
Speaker 7: What can I invest in. You know what. What do
Speaker 7: you like. And my answer is always I have no idea.
Speaker 7: We've got to wait until we've done this preliminary work
Speaker 7: to figure out what it is that you need me
Speaker 7: before we can get to what do what do you
Speaker 7: have to invest.
Speaker 3: And it sounds as if you have to bring to
Speaker 3: the fray. Yes and IQ but an IQ as well
Speaker 3: in emotional intelligence.
Speaker 7: Absolutely absolutely and honestly you know my business is called
Speaker 7: a family off. So we say we look after these
Speaker 7: wealthy families and it's very difficult for us to find
Speaker 7: advisors to who have this set of skills you know
Speaker 7: investments and you know planning but also have this you
Speaker 7: can deal with families in their rough form.
Speaker 6: And so what we actually do is we hire people
Speaker 6: the professions of origin you know SCA or a CFA
Speaker 6: or CFP financial type designation and then we train them
Speaker 6: ourselves in the other. And the other areas that they
Speaker 6: don't have guilt about and also train them and people
Speaker 6: to process of how do you deal with the family.
Speaker 6: How do you listen.
Speaker 3: How do you not feel the timer sounds almost like
Speaker 3: a family therapy office at times.
Speaker 7: There is certainly some about no question.
Speaker 3: Tell me give me a 30 second commercial here for
Speaker 3: your podcast where do you find it.
Speaker 8: So so the Web site is a wealth of wisdom.
Speaker 8: Book dot com. And on that website there is a
Speaker 8: link to purchase the book from Amazon or whatever your
Speaker 8: favorite bookseller is.
Speaker 6: And there is also a list of all of the
Speaker 6: podcasts and podcasts are essentially interviews with each of the
Speaker 6: contributors lockers in the book and they are about 20
Speaker 6: to 30 of them available and they are conversations about
Speaker 6: you know who the person is what their background is
Speaker 6: how they got to where they are but mostly about
Speaker 6: the chapter in the book and we say you know
Speaker 6: you you said this in the book but what did
Speaker 6: you mean by that.
Speaker 7: And didn't you say this over here and how does
Speaker 7: it all connect and tell a few stories about families
Speaker 7: and how they you know after this or haven't and
Speaker 7: there's lessons to be learned so I can say personal
Speaker 7: it's just been a really really wonderful experience for me
Speaker 7: to get to know these people even better than I
Speaker 7: did and to hopefully produce something that's a value to
Speaker 7: the families who are listening to it.
Speaker 3: Last question on this because I do want to find
Speaker 3: out in the end is there something like a formula
Speaker 3: of how much time you need to allocate to stay
Speaker 3: on top of things.
Speaker 7: I unfortunately I would get into no formula. I would
Speaker 7: say that you know if there's one kind of lesson
Speaker 7: to leave is sorting out it's important to sort out
Speaker 7: your goals. My favorite cocktail party question when people often
Speaker 7: really know what I do they often ask me about
Speaker 7: investment related issues and my my favorite cocktail party question
Speaker 7: is what rate of return you need on your investment
Speaker 7: to meet all your objectives.
Speaker 11: And I can guarantee you there is no one ever
Speaker 11: that I've known the answer to that question which in
Speaker 11: some ways is kind of shocking because if you're if
Speaker 11: you're getting in a car to head somebody you usually
Speaker 11: know where you're going to help.
Speaker 8: But mostly people have not sat down itemized their goals
Speaker 8: prioritize them and calculated how much they will cost.
Speaker 3: This is a three hundred three percent not the right
Speaker 3: answer for that.
Speaker 7: They got exactly exactly right. And and then are those
Speaker 7: goals achievable in real life.
Speaker 9: You know we've got people who've got lots of great
Speaker 9: goals but then you've got to get the 300 percent
Speaker 9: rate of return to actually make them happen.
Speaker 7: And so I think that I think that's the lesson
Speaker 7: really for folks is you know instead of trying to
Speaker 7: find the hot manager or the best in t after
Speaker 7: ever start with it's almost on the balance sheet you
Speaker 7: know on the left hand side of the balance sheet
Speaker 7: is your assets the right hand side is your liability.
Speaker 7: You've got to figure out your liability might be dead.
Speaker 7: But they also might be planning to spending how much
Speaker 7: you want to spend you want to buy a lake house.
Speaker 7: Do you want to leave money to your kid. How
Speaker 7: much is that going to cost. Or they're going to
Speaker 7: come from your income or do you have to you
Speaker 7: know grow your assets. Don't say that side of the
Speaker 7: planning is the important step. How long does that take.
Speaker 7: That's your question. It depends how complicated your stuff is.
Speaker 7: You can find somebody who is a very good that
Speaker 7: can help you do that.
Speaker 3: Rapper big time sit come it's been a great conversation
Speaker 3: we could go on for a long long time but
Speaker 3: I want to thank you for your time today. It's
Speaker 3: been a real pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much. I really enjoyed it. Tom McCullough is
Speaker 2: the co-author of wealth of wisdom the top 50 questions
Speaker 2: wealthy families ask and this has been VIP today critical point.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for listening we'll see you next.