More Than Money Magazine Archive

"The success of our economic system has generated endless questions and choices. One of the more important ones is whether or not we will continue to move toward more materialism or toward that which is deeper in our life. Now it seems logical that we would choose the course of action that would make us happier. But how do we know? Study the research? Listen to the commercials? Read Aristotle? Although capitalism has increased our choices, it has not automatically brought us wisdom. Our economic system gives more choice but no guidance. For this we must turn to other resources, such as morality, philosophy -- and to ourselves."
...Excerpt from "Turning Knowledge into Action"

"...every ... magazine will be a portal onto the variety of issues and concerns that this institute and its members have. There will be a cover story to anchor each issue, but features and columns may march in a different (but I hope complimentary) direction. A multi-theme approach will enable readers, especially new ones, to quickly get a feel for breadth of issues and ideas we care about. Each issue will have a centerfold about a subject related to our work that is visual in nature." Excerpt from The Editor's Vault

This special issue of More Than Money presents selections from the past 15 issues—the issues during which the magazine has appeared in its current format. The collection is in no way comprehensive, and indeed, it has not been easy to leave out so many wonderful voices. We simply present here the kind of food for thought we are known for, the kind of fare that gently awakens us to our own true selves.

When it comes to money, few things are more perplexing than relationships. How do two people from different economic backgrounds forge a harmonious relationship? Can you loan money to friends without creating a rift in the friendship? How can a local business change the way people in a community relate to one another? How does paying family members for chores affect the family unit? This issue profiles people addressing challenges that arise around money and relationships and features an interview with David Bach, author of Smart Couples Finish Rich, discussing the importance of values when dealing with money issues in relationships.

How do you raise "financially fit" children? What is money for if you don't have children? What do kids themselves say they want that money can't buy? How do you create a society fit for children? In this issue you'll hear from children, teenagers, and adults talking about those questions and more. This issue features an interview with the acclaimed children's singer Raffi on creating a child-honoring society.

Does money make people happy? Most people say no to that question. Yet, research shows that most people also believe that more money would make them happier. This issue examines some of the paradoxes and complexities of the relationship between money and happiness. Through an engaging, conversational format, you'll learn what's new in happiness research, the secrets that happy people know (including how you can be happy, too), what happens when an entire country adopts a measure of Gross National Happiness instead of the GDP, and what individual interviewees consider to be of greatest value in their own lives.

How do you define success? What is your relationship to work? What role does money play in your decisions about work? In this issue, people examine their own and cultural assumptions about success, work, and money. Included are topics such as finding your right place in the work world; supporting your children's passions; the difficulty of separating work from wages; cost-effective ways to pay workers more; balancing work and family; and what to do (and say) when you don't have to work for money. Uplifting, thoughtful, and provocative, this issue offers new insights on a topic central to our lives.

As the end of the year giving season rolls around, More Than Money asks a probing question: Is giving an art? If it is, how can we be more artful in our giving? What are the benefits--to ourselves and those we give to--of giving more artfully? This issue explores a range of views on the topic. They are sometimes wise, sometimes funny, always thoughtful and unique.

Over the next 50 years, $41 trillion is expected to pass from one generation of Americans to another-through inheritance, taxes, and charitable bequests. What that means, for individuals and society, may depend upon how fully individuals are able to embrace the gifts contained in the money that comes to them. How do you keep money from ruining your children? How do you use it to enhance their lives? What do you do if you're a professional athlete who has just signed a big contract and it's front-page news? What if you're the wife of a wealthy man, but your lifestyle isn't fulfilling your soul? And what if you're the chief of an American Indian tribe whose whole community has become wealthy through casino gambling? How do you turn that money into a transformational tool? Explore these questions and more in this issue of More Than Money.

It is estimated that over the next 55 years $41 trillion will be passed to a new generation of Americans-through inheritance, philanthropy, and taxes. What does this mean for individuals and for society? Is a "Golden Age of Philanthropy" upon us? What are the questions we need to consider as we contemplate the legacy we will leave, not only to our own friends and families but to the world? In this issue of More Than Money, Professor Paul Schervish of the Social Welfare Research Institute discusses what he calls the leading cultural and spiritual question of our time: How to make wise decisions in an age of affluence. The issue includes interviews, articles, and personal stories about passing on wealth, including family business successions, land transfers, leadership in family foundations, legacy planning, and more.

We hear of ethical lapses at the highest levels of business and government. But what about us? This issue focuses on the everyday ethical decisions all of us face; in particular, on the ethical choices that people with wealth face by virtue of the fact that we have more choice than others. What are some of those choices? How can we make them? How do we choose when the choosing gets tough? Includes interviews with Bill Gates, Sr., Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Dr. Rushworth Kidder, founder of the Institute for Global Ethics; Rev. Peter Gomes of Harvard University; Aaron Feuerstein, CEO of Malden Mills, and many others discussing ethical choices they have made with their money, including giving, spending, earning, investing, and passing on values to children.

When Differences Divide: Resolving Family Tensions Around Money
What do you do when you and your spouse have completely different views of finances? When your brother gets more? When your siblings think the profits should be divided differently? When family succession plans don't work out? When you can't reach agreement on a pre-nup? This issue explores the challenges that arise when family members have differing approaches to money. Includes "big picture" interviews with philanthropic advisor Charles Collier and Professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, both of Harvard University; family stories of tensions resolved; resources, tips, and more. Applicable to nuclear and extended families, traditional and non-traditional.

Money changes everything . . . or does it? Can and does money fundamentally change who we are, our relationships, our sense of security, our power in the world, or our life purpose? This issue explores the extraordinary power of money to create change in our lives-and shows how some people are harnessing this power for individual and societal change.

How much do your friends, family, professional colleagues, or the general public know about how wealthy you are? In this issue, people with wealth discuss whether, when, how much, and in what contexts they are public about their wealth. Covering topics ranging from personal relationships to media publicity, they share their fears, their challenges, and their choices--and offer tips for making such choices in your own life.

In this provocative issue of More Than Money, you'll find an incredible diversity of people, life contexts, and points of view. From luxurious private jets to the World Equity Budget (living on less than $150/month), people with wealth wrestle with how much is enough when they can afford much more. Their many voices reveal the complex emotional, ethical, spiritual, and political issues involved in living simply in our times.

It takes time and experience to learn how to give effectively, but the journey can be fun and rewarding. In this issue, people with surplus income talk about what they've learned about giving--what's satisfying, what's hard, what makes giving most effective. You'll hear from "ordinary people," as well as well known philanthropists. From Steve Kirsch, large-scale venture capitalist with his own multi-million dollar foundation, to Wayne Muller, who advocates giving small and simply on a local scale, this issue invites you to explore the range of available options --and find out what giving effectively means you.

Practical advice for finding a good fit with financial professionals. Writers describe recognizing a disconnect between their values and the values of professionals who may have been inherited with the wealth from the prior generation. Tips for being a good client. Tips for managing financial professionals. Two readers share the unorthodox practices of professionals they depend on, letting readers know that there are alternatives to growing principal and reducing taxes as the goals of wealth management.

How wealthy people help their children (and the children of those around them) cultivate financial values, vision, and integrity. A parent muses about her 12 year-old multi-millionaire, wondering how much to tell when; others describe knowing the values they want to convey and understanding kids may walk away with a different understanding. Parents wrestle with the humbling responsibility of being a good role model. Others engage willing youngsters in money-management activities and give kids lots of practice managing smaller amounts of money. Many parents act on their understanding that talking about money empowers the family to be responsible about its wealth.

Stereotype-busting profiles of rich people who share power and resources and work passionately for the common good. One writer describes becoming a successful businessman specifically so that he would have more money to give away. Others describe the process of donating money and resisting the temptation to become controlling or patronizing of those who receive the resources. Alternative formats for foundations and finding grantors are detailed. Writers describe including spouses as partners, learning activism (or teaching activism) to their partners. A family confronts its political polarity, finding acceptable middle ground on which to invest millions of dollars in an inner-city.

This issue confronts the dual taboo. Personal stories describe the crisis that can happen when the family wealth-holder dies before the family is prepared. Several readers share their family (and other stakeholder) preparation strategies, such as the business owner who runs an annual death "fire drill," the father who calls his family together for three days of retreat to talk about it; other families who give their inheritors smaller amounts of money as practice for wealth stewardship. Also, recommendations for instructing inheriting families about your wishes, through a will and other documents.

Drawn from participants on the More Than Money listserve, the editors present conversation between members on three topics: Breaking the Silence, Opening to Compassion, and Creating a Better World. More Than Money has always believed in the power of connection; the potential for positive change when people peek around their barriers and talk to one another. This issue highlights such moments for listserve members as they engage, online, in highly personal dialog.

It is challenging to define how much is enough to give. Enough is subjective, arbitrary. Trying to apply a formula is ultimately unsatisfying, as the circumstances surrounding wealth are different for everyone. This issue details specific creative approaches for individuals arriving at their own definition of how much is enough to give.

Starting from the premise that many women lack the skills (or are denied the opportunity) and confidence it takes to steward wealth, this issue compiles the stories of several women who have stepped beyond the traditional, dependent role of female inheritor and brought their wealth management practices more in line with their personal values. These stories are interspersed with vignettes describing wealthy women throughout history.

What is the value of art, of nurturing the spirit, when others cope daily with immediate, basic survival needs. How do people with wealth rationalize their choices given that there are starving artists creating because they are driven, not because they can afford it. What are some models for wealthy people's relationships with artists? How are people using their resources to support artists, musicians, filmmakers? Read the stories of people with wealth who are themselves artists or filmmakers and how they deal with the difference between the numerous choices available to them compared to the more typical starving artist.

This issue takes cross-class relationships personally. Writers describe coming to a consciousness about race and class contrary to their family's as a result of being raised by black nannies, forming strong, warm bonds, while at the same time getting the message that those who work for the family are inferior. Brothers whose lives have taken them to different class status talk candidly about the confusion, shame, jealousy, guilt, and pride experienced as one marries an inheritor and the other maintains a much lower-class lifestyle. Working class and wealthy activists talk about the isolation in holding onto class stereotypes ("Rich people are stingy" or "Poor people only want our money") or the alternative, being open to friends wherever they come from and how that strategy can alienate them from others who share similar backgrounds.

Many tales from the family foundation frontlines. Lots of cartoons supporting stories of challenging family dynamics en route to matching funding decisions to personal values. First person descriptions of decision-making styles both affirming and autocratic; conflict between generations; upsetting the family order. Also, stories of family foundations structured to welcome input from all who wish to participate, foundations reorganized and given to community leaders, and creative cooperation in finding areas to fund.

Acknowledging the stereotypes surrounding Generation X, compounded by presumptions widely held about young, rich people, this issue gives the floor to several of these young people working to make sense of their money and role in society. People in their twenties, coming upon their wealth through entrepeneurship or inheritance, struggle with the choice between the freedom to live outside the world of work and the desire to contribute to society. Some choose philanthropy as their work, taking charge of family foundations. Others struggle with having wealth that makes them, and their choices, very different from those of their peers.

Always heavy on first-person storytelling, this issue takes a giant step closer to the readers sharing their views to bring those stories, centered on specific topics, deepened and made more immediate coming out in email conversation. The protein here comes from five discussion groups, organized from 20 volunteer members, who engaged with each other and a facilitator on a specific topic. Each discussion led off with reaction to a quote taken from a prior More Than Money issue. Conversations cover: Spending and Lifestyle; Making Money; Passing Money to Children; Money and Spirit; and Giving: Community, Strategy & Dignity.

A comprehensive look at giving. Who gives, how much, where to, and why. Sprinkled with statistics and analysis, powerful individual stories describe giving outside the lines. Writers talk about giving money unconventionally, seeking ways to give, and seeking gift recipients by their own rules, not according to established giving norms. Some giving alleviates the loneliness often endemic to inheritors. Others seek to share the joy in giving. Models for giving beyond that which supports culture, arts, education and policy institutions that serve the donors lifestyle. Compare your giving habits: amounts, causes, mechanisms, and goals.

Does wealth give you power? Make you feel powerful? Make you feel like you should feel powerful? Cause others to treat you as powerful, regardless? This issue looks at wealth and self-esteem, personal power, and changing rules in support of creating a more just world. How can power be shared? How can gaining power over inherited wealth affect family dynamics? Personal stories of inheriting (or accumulating) wealth, business assets, and land and the struggle to gain or use those resources in alignment with values.

Reader's Views, so potent in all previous issues, "grow up." Readers were invited to contribute longer pieces about money but no specific theme. Five themes emerged: Client-professional relationship; Investing; Giving; Children; and Rich and Poor. These longer, first-person articles give even deeper insight into the mechanics of money and all five subject areas. Real people describe their experience with therapists and wealthy clients; outline investment strategies; funding the arts directly; finding and giving surplus on a daily basis; sharing the power of giving and charitable remainder trusts; public vs. private school. This issue also test-drives advertising and introduces a classifieds section.

Aside from estate planning, covered thoroughly by other resources, and setting aside family foundations for a future issue, #9 presents many perspectives about how much, if any, inheritance should children receive. Does the wrong amount of money at the wrong time do inheritors a disservice? Is there a balance between reserving money to give an inheritance to someone likely capable of supporting herself and giving money to organizations working to improve the world for all children, organizations that squeeze each dollar they receive?

Buying, wanting, deserving, earning, feeling guilty about. Explore the cycle of issues involved in having (or not having) money and buying (or wanting very badly to buy) all kinds of things. Catch a glimpse of the Simplicity movement and some good (and not so good) reasons to go there. The editors also consider what consumption, and overconsumption, means to the environment and most of the people on the planet who live on a fraction of even the average annual income for someone in the United States of America. Practical tips for conscious spending and keeping your spending "in alignment with your larger purposes in life."

"Has your money helped your spiritual development or gotten in the way?" Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Goddess-centered, Muslim, and Quaker voices, among many others. Near-death experiences, daily meditation practice, lifelong religious practices catalyze change or lend perspective to the writers' relationships with money and spirit. Show leadership with or without money. Guidance for expressing spirituality by turning away from or embracing wealth. Consider your resources in a rich, historical context. Get yourself grounded about where you're coming from. Find viewpoints here both to agree and argue with. Be inspired, outraged, educated.

What's the most outrageous thing you can imagine doing with money? Give it all away? Spend absurd amounts on travel and trinkets? What's the biggest risk you can imagine taking with money? The editors bring together tales of outrageous greed, defiance, generosity, and playfulness to help expand the limits of what is possible with money, hoping to expand the space for integrity and freedom as relates to money.

Money and Couples. Cross-class relationships. How to talk about differences in financial background and style. How to share power - tips for those who have resources they want to share, tips for those who do not have resource and may be reluctant to accept equity with their partner's assets. Conversation starters and thought-provoking exercises for managing polar opposite financial styles.

How much is enough? Guidance for forming a realistic assessment of your assets. Because there is no objective definition of enough, and because there will always be others who have more. Millionaires and those with far less net worth can share similar anxieties about having enough.

Allen Hancock again opens this issue with a personal vignette illustrating some of the pressures facing those who do not need to work for a living yet live in a world where people are often defined by their work. Reader's Views give stories from all over the map: those who choose to work for money, choose to work for little money, choose not to work, choose to volunteer, and choose to live simply with little or minimal work and/or income. Practical how-to article outlines several options for finding fulfilling work, whether paid or unpaid.

Allen Hancock opens the issue with a personal vignette highlighting the need to create a proactive giving plan. Letters to the Editor make their first appearance, enhancing the magazine's community feeling. Reader's Views depict the challenges inherent in finding or creating satisfying opportunities for giving. An academic perspective classifying types of giving styles is offered, as are opportunities for 'team giving,' democratizing funding choices by involving others in funding decisions, using foundations to identify individual activists, and tips for creating donor-advised funds.

Exploring the territory of money between friends, Christopher Mogil, Anne Slepian, and Allen Hancock also share perspectives contributed by 11 others through the Reader's Views feature.