How families talk about money is important. Although it often can feel awkward to get started, Nathan Dungan, Founder and President of Share, Save, Spend,® gives tips, tools and activities to make it a much easier to have these important ongoing conversations among families.

Dungan recommends families establish an open landscape to have conversations about money, and have all different kinds of conversations with a money thread that runs through them. The goal is for persistent, rhythmic, frequent and intentional conversations with money at the center.

One of the most dominant messages in our culture is – stuff equals happiness. Yet Dungan asserts the leading corrosive agent of wellbeing is materialism, and that the focus on material possessions and related activities creates a false narrative about happiness and wellbeing.

Dungan got into this business because he didn’t see anyone educating students and families about how to talk about money. He thus developed a true learning experience to help families tackle this topic. His assessment along the way is that most ultra-high net worth families struggle to have sustained, productive conversations about money and values.

Dungan created a virtual learning library with a series of tool and activities to help families engage in the conversations around money and values. He encourages families to build a “family learning roadmap,” which is a proactive guide for shaping your family money narrative.

Dungan’s offers a series of activities families can use to build a family learning roadmap:

1. Talk about financial uncertainty with your children
2. Coronavirus action plan
3. My money temperament
4. Link your values to your money goals
5. Allowance policy for kids 9-12, and for kids 13-18
6. Resume checklist
7. Budgeting app comparison
8. Volunteer activity chart
9. Parent learning group

Heather Abramson is the Director, Relationship Manager for Family Office Exchange (FOX). In her role, Heather works with business-owning family members to understand their objectives and provides guidance to help address their unique needs through the resources available at FOX. Heather also runs FOX’s Rising Gen Community, which is designed to provide next-generation family members an opportunity to learn, share experiences, and develop skills as future leaders. Heather has held multiple roles at FOX including membership development. Areas of Expertise: Rising Gen, Business Owner Trends Read More →