Over dinner one night, one of my older kids asked me, "What's a millionaire?" Not one to pass up a window through which to drive home a financial literacy lesson, I launched into a short mini-lecture in which I used the words "balance sheet," "assets," and "liabilities." After both my older kids were done having their eyes recede into the backs of their heads, I concluded with "Millionaire is when what you own is a million dollars greater than what you owe," and then "so there are two ways to become a millionaire: increase what you own and decrease what you owe."
As I've told my staff during financial literacy seminars we've done, when people say they want to be a millionaire, what they often mean is that they want to spend a million dollars, which is literally the opposite of being a millionaire. There's the story of the famous singer who sued their financial advisor when they ran out of money, and their financial advisor's defense was "I didn't think I needed to tell them that if you have money and then spend it, you no longer have money."
Most millionaires are not famous singers or otherwise flashy people. To be sure, there is not an insignificant privilege involved in most cases, in terms of either inheriting a very good financial start or having every educational and career opportunity lined up. But even with all that, you still have to accumulate assets and take on debt judiciously and strategically.
I hope that my kids' life aspirations are far broader and greater than being millionaires. But I also hope that if that is one of the things they aspire to, they understand what it takes and are willing to put in the effort to make that happen.
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