Wealthy and Wise: Secrets about Money

By Heidi L. Steiger and Neuberger Berman

Wealthy & Wise provides rare insight into the techniques that wealthy people use to build and protect their wealth, so that they can enjoy life to its fullest. Readers will learn how to address the real-life issues that money creates, such as raising children in an affluent household, finding fulfillment in work, and developing a long-term wealth management strategy. The book addresses both the practical and the emotional challenges of wealth, with tips on how to enjoy it too. From prenuptial agreements to family meetings to trusts and charitable foundations, Wealthy & Wise provides useful, comprehensive advice for anyone who has wealth, or aspires to wealth. Neuberger Berman (New York, NY) is a leading investment advisory company. For more than sixty years, it has provided clients with a broad range of investment products, services, and strategies, including asset management, wealth management, and trust services. Heidi L. Steiger is an Executive Vice President and head of the firm's private asset management business.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471221414
• ISBN13: 9780471221418
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 271 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Manage Your Money: Don't Let It Manage You!

Preserve the assets you have and keep them growing in value. Make sure your wealth adds to your happines and fulfillment in life. Don't allow your wealth to overwhelm you emotionally and psychologically. This book will assist you in keeping your money a positive factor in your and your family's lives.

Useful and entertaining - make your money work for you

I'm a big reader of business and personal finance books. Wealthy & Wise fills a niche that no other one book I've seen does. It covers a lot but in a way that's not overwhelming. I liked the idea that each section is written by a specialist in that field since no one can be an expert on all these subjects. A few of the chapter subjects were beyond my means (though voyeuristically I enjoyed reading some of the advice for the super rich), but the overarching message is advice we should all take to heart - Manage your wealth; don't let it manage you. This isn't a book of corny aphorisms, it's full of practical, useful advice to make your money make you happier and let it add to, not get in the way of, your relationships.

Confidence for a career changer...

As a single woman in my 30s with the responsibility of supporting myself financially, I find Heidi Steiger's book to be an invaluable resource. The chapter titled, "A Better Career the Second Time Around" by Janis Reals Ellig was particularly helpful to me given that I recently made a major career change. I had grown accustomed to a stable income, a 401k plan, and health benefits as part of a full-time job in an established company. After leaving that career to pursue a new one, I was worried about how I'd manage my finances, particularly since I had decided to return to graduate school. Although I had some money saved, I needed to find a way to make it last and to prudently manage my finances with higher expenses and a much lower income. Janice Reals Ellig does a wonderful job of persuading readers to put our financial fears aside, pursue our dreams, and be confident that we'll be fully capable of taking control of our new financial situation. The book also provides excellent guidance (even understandable to me - a novice investor) on how to set financial goals, determine risk tolerance, seek professional advice, as well as other essential investment counsel. "Wealthy & Wise" has given me confidence that I'll be able to manage my money intelligently and effectively as I continue my education and enter into a new field.

and don't forget to underline

Unlike many "how to" books this offers practical advice. And, though clearly directed to the very affluent, people like me, who have aspirations, can take advantage of the expertise - and wisdom. It covers everything from investing for the long range to how to handle those delicate - and difficult - family conversations. I wish this book had been written earlier; it would have positively affected the family relationships of a number of my friends.Go buy it. And underline the relevant parts so you can refer to them and take action.

Priceless wisdom

While literally hundreds of wealth management books already grace the market, this 288-page guide offers some of the best advice to come down the investment pike in years. The volume may help those still accumulating their first million dollars, but will best serve investors firmly established (most commonly through hard work, as opposed to inheritance) in the ranks of the wealthy. Unlike most investment or wealth-management books, offering run-of-the-mill suggestions on how to allocate their assets and invest, this book takes three separate tacks on the subject of money. The first, to which the editors devoted 98 pages, broadly covers the emotional issues surrounding money. That may seem odd. Money is not a touchy-feely thing. But as explained by family business CEO Susan Remmer Ryzewic, who is also a director of her family's foundation, wealth is a two-edged sword providing the freedom to pursue dreams, but can also create discomfort and take control of life. Judith Stern Peck, Director of the family wealthy and life project for the Ackerman Institute for the Family, notes in the second chapter how to overcome the significant challenges of parenting a wealthy family. Similarly, New York City attorney Robert Stephan Cohen shows that marriages have a much better chance of survival when couples create the same degree of financial protection for them as they do for business partnerships--by signing pre-nuptial agreements before they marry. Next, Neuberger Berman co-founder Roy Neuberger provides a lively chapter on the importance of working past retirement age. Mindful of two friends who had long planned their retirements--only to die at 65--Neuberger never retired. At 99, he's still working. Similarly, executive recruiter Janice Reals Ellig notes that those who succeed in a first career can often also succeed in a second. The book's first section concludes with chapters on strategic philanthropy, conflict resolution in family enterprise, and advice for holding successful family meetings.In the second eight-chapter section, readers get a fix on several important asset management strategies. Charlotte Beyer, CEO of the Institute for Private Investors, notes that for many wealthy investors, appointing a team is often the sanest way to manage their wealth. To choose from 20,000 registered investment advisors and 60,000 stock brokers in the U.S., she recommends sticking to common sense dictated by investment fundamentals and to clearly spell out goals and risk tolerance, and to interact with advisors. Tax attorney Charles Lowenhaupt similarly stresses the need to build a team of expert wealth counselors, committed to working collaboratively--and lead by a mediator and coordinator to unscramble technical matters. Investors willing to talk openly with them, he writes, will learn to value their common sense as much as their stock picks and tax recommendations. Sophisticates and novice investors alike can learn from the next two chapters on asset allocatio