A couple years ago Janine and I both read The Milionaire Next Door. The first part of the book details how most millionaires in Americans look fairly average. The people who have assets don't tend to spend their money in an ostentatious way, like Hollywood frequently portrays.
When the authors first started doing their research they gathered a dozen or so very rich individuals. The authors provided caviar and other rich foods. As the rich showed up the authors were surprised by how the rich ignored the caviar and ate crackers. One of the authors asked one man why he wasn't drinking any of the fancy wines. This man who was worth tens of millions of dollars (back in the 1970s) answered something like: "Son I drink two kinds of beers, free and Budweiser."
The last part of the book focused on what happened to the next generation. Parents who accumulate great wealth often taught their children to spend the wealth, without teaching the children how to generate more wealth. The result is the second and third generations of most rich Americans have spent the wealth and are typically back to being normal middle class Americans.
I strongly recommend reading The Millionaire Next Door.
I thought of this book several times while reading The Headmistress' post on More for My Children. She writes about a family friend who had grown up poor in Mexico. This woman moved to the United States, got a good job and provided for her children. "She didn't want her her kids to suffer like she had." This poor woman learned that in providing so much her children had missed some important lessons. "They were, consequently, lazy, unappreciative, and took the good life for granted."
As parents we need to be careful of the lessons we teach our children. Our children should be grateful for their blessings and know how to work hard. Not knowing how to handle money can destroy our children faster than almost anything else.
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