The 'M' Word

by Lori Sackler

I find in the financial publishing world, I often start out reading a book expecting one thing and end up getting something else. As I made my way through the first couple chapters of this book, which started off pretty weak, to be honest, I began to think that the author’s efforts to defend the need for talking about money and rationalizing why the reader needed to make such effort was a bit redundant and not a very good basis for a book. But it wasn't long before the author shifted gears and began looking carefully at the root of the problem: psychology, human nature, misconceptions about money, and how disagreements about money arise. Because money is one of those things that people tend to get emotional about, sometimes due solely to differing individual viewpoints, it often leads lead to conflict, angst, frustration, and even anger. The ‘M’ Word seeks to avoid all that by providing plenty of strategies and practical information to begin discussing financial matters with family and like interests.

Once the author finishes her defense of the subject matter, it’s on to “the money talk”. The money talk is all about understanding your individual situation and the people you must deal with on the other side of the situation. This includes dealing with life changing events, such as the death of a family member, divorce, re-marriage, combining families, wealth transference, the whole lot. The author explores typical scenarios and financial situations, and in case study fashion, describes the experiences of actual clients who went through the money talk under circumstances that may be the same (or similar) to your own. The author then walks the reader through the fine points of the actual talk: hiring a financial consultant, scouting the meeting location, preparing the talk itself and any presentation materials that go with it, and finally, the execution of the talk itself. The author makes extensive use of checklists and sensible guidelines throughout, including a “Things to Think About” box at the end of each chapter, that serves both as a summary and another checklist for reviewing the previous chapter’s material.

If one of the author’s client’s cases matches your own circumstances closely enough, you will have little to do other than follow the book’s instructions and examples. For me, I still felt a little bit like my family and situation didn't exactly fit with The ‘M’ Word mantra, but I think that even if I can’t get my family to have a full blown money talk, I can still ready myself for what lies ahead. That is to say, this is a different sort of book with a lot of essential and valuable information. The ‘M’ Word might not help you solve all your family’s money related problems, but it might keep you from saying a few choice words as you travel down that road. That makes it well worth an easy four and a half dollar signs for me.