Mel Abraham won't pass assets to his son Jeremy without first teaching him to manage money. He started money conversations at age ten with four accounts: giving, savings, investing, and living. Assets go to charity if the kid doesn't earn the right by developing the skills.
You never, ever, ever, ever pass on assets without passing on skill sets first. My son Jeremy, he has to earn the right to get the machine. He has to earn it. There will be no silver spoon babies. It will go all to charity if he doesn't handle it well, if he doesn't prove it beforehand. Skill sets before assets. And the way you do that is you get them involved, you get them in the game. Jeremy and I started talking money at 10 years old. I gave him 4 accounts and said, here's the deal, you're going start getting paid, you have 4 accounts. You have a giving account, you have a savings account, you have an investing account, and you have a living account. Not because I wanted the money, but because I wanted the values. Because now I had the conversation around generosity, around giving, around movements, about things that matter to him.
