Responding to a child's questions about wealth

Lee Hausner, PhD Clinical Psychologist & Author, shares advice for parents on the best way to respond to your child's question on your family's financial standing
How To Respond To A Child's Question About Wealth
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Responding to a child's questions about wealth

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When parents are confronted with the question: Are we rich? Most parents are almost stunned with how to respond. This is a freeze. The reality is it is very difficult to talk about money. Money is really the last taboo and we don't talk about it a lot. If your child says, "Are we really rich?" Your first response is, "Well, what do you mean?" So you are going to answer the question in terms of the child's understanding. If the child says, "Johnny says we have so much money that I am never going to have to work in my life." Now we know how to answer the question. If the question is if we have more money than we need to feed, cloth, and house ourselves, then yes. That is why we give some of our money to other people. That is how you answer the question, but you don't pretend that it doesn't exist.

Lee Hausner, PhD Clinical Psychologist & Author, shares advice for parents on the best way to respond to your child's question on your family's financial standing

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Lee Hausner, PhD

Clinical Psychologist & Author

Dr. Lee Hausner is an internationally recognized clinical psychologist, business consultant and family wealth advisor. She served as the senior psychologist for the Beverly Hills Unified School District for 19 years. She is currently the Senior Managing Director for First Foundation Advisors. An acknowledged expert on psychological issues involving wealth and wealth transfer, she was a presenter at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, and is a frequent participant at the high wealth/private client conferences for major financial institutions. She is a frequent guest on national radio and television and a quoted expert in national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Times, Forbes, Fortune, Privilege, Town and Country and Worth Magazine.

Dr. Hausner is the co-author with Doug Freeman of A Founder's Guide to the Family Foundation, published by the Council on Foundations and is the author of the seminal work regarding wealth and the family; Children of Paradise: Successful Parenting for Prosperous Families. In addition, Dr. Hausner incorporated her unique six-step transition model for succession in family business in the critically acclaimed family business resource book Hats Off to You 2: Balancing Roles and Creating Success in Family Business, of which she was a co-author.

Dr. Hausner is a graduate of Northwestern University (BA, Psychology), San Francisco State University (MA, Psychology), and Kensington University (PhD, Psychology).

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