Читать книгу Complete Family Wealth - Keith Whitaker, James Hughes E., James E. Hughes Jr. - Страница 16

But this conclusion is wrong.

The “it” is not money. It is the family's well-being. That is its true wealth. We encompass this well-being by speaking about “qualitative wealth”—the family's human, legacy, family relationship, structural, and social capital. This wealth as well-being is the goal, which the family's quantitative wealth, its financial capital, rightly serves.

Beating the proverb is not a matter of simply using various tools and techniques—family meetings, values clarification, communication ground rules, and so on and so forth—to make family members better stewards of their money. Keeping your money in your family is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is not the main thing. It is only one-fifth of the task. And it is the least important fifth, when it comes to happiness.

The goal of Complete Family Wealth is to help you identify, inventory, and grow your true, or complete, wealth as a family. This complete wealth far transcends money. Growing complete wealth also meets the criticisms of those—from Andrew Carnegie to proponents of social justice—who denounce inherited financial capital as bad for families and for society. Complete family wealth improves the lives of family members and benefits the communities of which they are a part.

One family leader captured the distinction for us by quoting her grandmother. This wise woman, she said, would often say, “Our family has always been rich, and we've sometimes had money.” There is the distinction between qualitative and quantitative capital in a nutshell.

As with any important undertaking, it is crucial to begin with right understanding. To that end, as you read this book and think about wealth, notice when you automatically identify that term with financial capital. That is the identification we are seeking to challenge and to substitute with wealth as well-being. If you choose to pursue the journey of family wealth, be clear just what kinds of wealth you are trying to keep in the family.