Prof G Markets: How Scott Navigates Money with His Family

Follow Prof G Markets: Apple Podcasts Spotify Scott explains how he approaches money with his partner, his parents, and his children. He gives advice for having difficult conversations about economic hardship. Ed asks for advice around saving money to take care of his family in the future. Scott also breaks down how he tries to connect money with effort when talking about wealth with his kids. Finally, he shares the one thing he hopes his kids will understand about money when he’s gone. Order "The Algebra of Wealth," out now Subscribe to No Mercy / No Malice Follow the podcast across socials @profgpod: Instagram Threads X Reddit Follow Scott on Instagram Follow Ed on Instagram and X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies. 18+.

• 0:56Scott Galloway?

  This week's number, 400. That's how many people applied to adopt Pepper, a foul-mouthed parrot from a Niagara Falls animal shelter. True story, Ed, the Pope has said that pets should not replace children. I guess he doesn't want priests practicing bestiality.

• 1:22Scott Galloway?

  Welcome to Prop G Markets, Ed. What's going... Is that too much, Ed? Is that too much?

• 1:27Ed Elson?

  On point, as always.

• 1:28Scott Galloway?

  There you go. There you go. What was my other pet joke? Oh, supposedly 1/3 of people let their pets sleep in their bed with them, so I gave it a try, and the goldfish died. That's a good too, right? That's good. If I could just weave in goldfish and pedophilia, I could have it all. I could have it all. Welcome to Prop G Markets, Ed. What is going on today?

• 1:51Ed Elson?

  We're going to talk about money, as always, Scott, but this time, we're going to focus on a specific topic that we get a lot of questions about, and that is how to deal with money when it comes to family. So I'm going to run through a series of questions about how you think about money when it comes to your own family. And hopefully we'll get some advice for our listeners. Does that sound good?

• 2:10Scott Galloway?

  Sounds good.

• 2:11Ed Elson?

  So you have a famous piece of advice, which is that the most important financial decision that you'll make is who you partner with. So I just want to focus on partners for the beginning of this. How did you know that you and your partner were aligned financially?

• 2:27Scott Galloway?

  Well, it's not easy to sort of have that conversation with your young because you're not entirely sure you understand each of your approach to spending. You get a sense for it. A lot of it just comes down to what sort of turns you on. I've always been very attracted to women who were exceptionally competent. My current partner worked at Goldman Sachs, has an MBA, has always made a lot of money. And I just find that sexy, not so much that they make money, which is obviously very helpful. You know, two incomes are just so powerful relative to one. But I've always just been drawn to people who are really competent. My girlfriend before, before her was a surgeon and my first wife also had an MBA and was the COO of a, you know, of a retailer. So I've, that, that shit just

• 3:12Scott Galloway?

  works for me. And I think it's an individual thing. I got very lucky that way in that is I chose partners who were really financially viable, not because I was thinking about money, but because I just personally find that very attractive.

• 3:25Ed Elson?

  And do you have conversations with your, have you always had conversations with your partners about money and about your financial goals?

• 3:32Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, although in the beginning, we didn't really have a lot of conversations. It was just with my first wife, it was just like, we're both working so hard. And she had sort of these Midwestern values. I've always spent more than my partners. I've always, I don't know if it was purposeful, but I've always found partners that are fairly, not frugal, but really responsible with money. And I'm always the one like, no, let's buy the Range Rover. You only live once. And I've never gotten into debt, but I've, I've always been a spender and usually my partner is sort of a more of a saver or not, not even a saver, but less of a risk taker. If it were up to my partner, we would have Krugerrands buried in the backyard and maybe buying like risk for hers, buying Deutsche bonds that yield one and a half percent. And I'm like, no, it's this great new technology

• 4:17Scott Galloway?

  that sends, you know, that sends pets into space. It's, it's, it's a no brainer. What I will say is, and I think this is really important, or the approach I have tried to take.

• 4:29Scott Galloway?

  And this is a story of privilege because I've always had more money or most almost always made more money than I was spending. One of the really wonderful things I really value about my relationship is that I encourage my wife to spend money. I want her to enjoy the money. I want her to live life and I'm the one, she'll call me and say, hey, I'm looking at this. And she calls me because she doesn't like to buy expensive things for herself and she knows I'm going to say, yes, go for it. I'm a conduit for happiness and that is, I'm never that happy myself, but the way I register joy is when other people are happy. So I've always really enjoyed,

• 5:10Scott Galloway?

  if money can buy people happiness in my family, I want them to indulge and engage in that. But that is one part of my life that has always been really positive.

• 5:24Ed Elson?

  What's your approach to sharing with your partner, like sharing assets? To what extent is it two financial lives versus one merged together for you?

• 5:35Scott Galloway?

  Well, I think it's individual. I think some people, especially later in life, who come to the table with pre-existing assets, want to keep their assets sequestered from each other. I get that. But in all of my relationships, including this one, I know, I've been in this current relationship for over 20 years. I didn't really have any money when I met my current partner. I mean, it's really rewarding. To build economic security is rewarding, but what's incredibly rewarding is to build it with someone else. It's just fun. You just feel like you're building something. And if you buy your house together and you make money and you can build a nice life together that includes economic security, it's just so much rewarding than building it on your own. It's almost like it doesn't really happen. It's like, I love investing with other people. That way, if the investment

• 6:18Scott Galloway?

  goes well, you both celebrate it and it's just so much more fun. I've never had separate accounts, even when I wasn't married to my ex-wife, when we were just living together. I'm like, what's mine is yours. We had one checking account. We didn't, we didn't track who was spending what. We both had similar approaches to money. We were both responsible. We were both making money. I have never checked my partner's credit card bills. I've never done any of that. And again, a lot of that is because I had, we had the luxury of having... A decent amount of money. You know, this stuff is so important because they say the majority of divorces are a function of economic stress. And that is just one stress. I've had stress economically, but it has never been injected into my relationships.

• 7:03Ed Elson?

  What kinds of economic decisions do you think should be made together? I mean, it sounds like when your wife calls you and she wants to buy something expensive, she's kind of asking for permission to make the economic decision together in a way. I mean, which, where's your line on when you gotta call, call the partner?

• 7:24Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, the dynamic is a little unusual there because here's the thing. She doesn't need to call me. She doesn't need my permission. What she is doing is she wants me to validate it because she has trouble spending that kind of money on herself. And she knows, she knows what I'm gonna say, which is the following. You should absolutely buy it. Oh, my God. $38,000 for a pair of antique earrings? That is such a great value. It would be economically irresponsible of you not to buy it. For the well-being of our family, I need you to buy those earrings. She knows I'm gonna say something similar to that. And it makes her feel better about buying it. Again, see above, very privileged, but.

• 8:05Ed Elson?

  Well, let's, let's throw out a hypothetical for you then. You wanna buy a car? Not a crazy sports car, but a car. Is that, is that a shared decision?

• 8:14Scott Galloway?

  No, if it's something over, you know, a few hundred thousand, we're renovating a house and she'll talk to me about decisions and what it's gonna cost and, you know, so we share a discussion and it's not permission, but it's joint decision-making to try and make sure wisdom of crowds around spending big-ticket purchases, you know, buying a house or renovating a house or big purchases. We talk about that stuff. I mean, I make, I make big investment decisions that are multimillion dollar decisions without her permission. What we do on money, though, is because I manage the investments, is that on a regular basis, I tell her where we are. And that is I'll sit down with her probably every three, it's probably every six months and I'll say, this is how much money we have. I have like, I don't know, 25 investments. And I'll say, this is how they're all doing.

• 8:58Scott Galloway?

  And I try to give it to her very sober and very straight. You know, last week, I think I told you two weeks ago, I had a investment, a $5 million investment go to zero. And the next day I just said, oh FYI, do you remember that healthcare text messaging company? I'm like, it went to zero. And you know, and immediately she said, that's it. No more sex for you for the rest of the year, Mr. Fucking Idiote ruining our economic security. But I think what strains relationships is obviously economics. But I think what ruins them is surprises. And so I always want my partner to know where we are economically. And I'm, I'm, look, I'm good at money. And so she outsources that part of our life to me. And pretty much she does almost everything else.

• 9:39Scott Galloway?

  But around investments and maintaining kind of top line wealth and wealth decisions. I make those decisions, but on the big ones, I check in with her. This is what I'm thinking. This is what we're investing in. And I just want her to know what's going on. I don't want her to ever feel surprised. I don't want her to feel like she's reading the markets are up 30%, but our wealth got cut because of our investments are down. I never want her to be surprised. So I tell her exactly how it is. And I always, I would say, have a little bit of a, I kind of give it to her a little bit, I don't know, worse than what it is, but I'm very quick to tell her about the losses and not as quick to tell her about the wins. I mean, eventually do, but the key is you never want your partner to be surprised about this. I mean, losing money is bad.

• 10:23Scott Galloway?

  What's worse is surprises.

• 10:25Ed Elson?

  Yeah, it sounds like you don't have much stress around the economics in your relationship. One, because you have the money. I think that's an important point. But two, it sounds like there's just generally a high level of trust. So you don't have to be tracking stuff because you just trust that the other person is going to make the right decision. Would you say that's sort of the key?

• 10:46Scott Galloway?

  I just think you need to be cognizant of what your partner or potential partner's approach to money is. A. If and what will their contribution be on both sides? What economic weight class do you expect to be in? Who's responsible for maintaining that economic weight class? And what is your approach, each of your approach to spending? Just some very basic, general questions, ask yourself and each other. And also have an honest talk about, all right, we live in Chicago. This is probably what it's going to cost to live. This is how much money I'm going to make. How much money do you think you're going to make? Are you planning to make money? No, because you just need to get some sort of alignment.

• 11:26Scott Galloway?

  And then I think where you need real alignment with your partner, a very open conversation is when things go awry. When you have economic stress, maybe it's a healthcare costs, or one of your parents gets sick and you have to come up with money. One of you gets laid off, whatever it might be. But you end up with economic hardship. Then you need to really be transparent and sit down and get alignment and have some difficult conversations around what's required to rebuild as a team.

• 11:57Ed Elson?

  We'll be right back.

• 12:07Scott Galloway?

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• 12:51Scott Galloway?

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• 13:24Scott Galloway?

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• 14:07Scott Galloway?

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• 15:48Ed Elson?

  We're back with Prof G Markets. Let's talk about parents. Do you think people should feel a responsibility to provide for their parents once they start making money?

• 15:55Scott Galloway?

  I don't know if they should. I know I always did.

• 15:59Scott Galloway?

  You know, my dad had such an unhealthy relationship. My dad loves me more than my sister because I make more money than her. My dad has such a fucked up relationship with money. He grew up in Scotland during the depression, in an era where if you didn't have money, you could literally starve. And he just has such an unhealthy relationship to money. And it was always a constant source of stress for him. His approach to it, it scarred me. If I can't pay for everyone when I go out, I won't go out. When I was younger, if I couldn't pay for everybody, not that I was expected to, but my dad was so cheap that I went the other way. And I always want, I just wouldn't go out unless I felt like I could pay for everybody.

• 16:44Scott Galloway?

  Anyways, that's a different talk show, but I take care of my dad financially now. It cost me a shit ton of money. I spend about, I think about $250,000 or $300,000 post-tax, taking care of my father, having him in a home, having a full-time health aide. I helped out my mom, but I was in a position to, and it felt really nice. It felt really good to be able to do that. So what I would say is that, you know, hopefully you have siblings. Hopefully your parents are economically responsible and saved enough money. But yeah, I don't, I think you, I think the definition of family is you take an emotionally and financially invested, you're invested in their success and their wellbeing.

• 17:28Scott Galloway?

  And so ideally you and your siblings get together and figure out a way that you're... Your parents are, you know, comfortable. What's been really wonderful in terms of like, for example, with my father is there's different ways to contribute. My father's kind of needed a lot of care or financial care over the last 10 years as he's gotten older and divorced for his fourth time. I have the money to do it, but my sister handles all of the logistics and hiring and firing of the nurses and negotiating with the facility he's at. And to be honest, my part's the easy part. I pay for it all because I make more money than my sister, but I see that as the easy part. She has to get on the phone with these folks and figure out if they're going to have a

• 18:13Scott Galloway?

  full-time nurse, what the hours are, you know? It's been a great partnership. I'm really grateful that me and my, my sister are really aligned around this. But yeah, I don't, every family's different, but if you're in a position to help your parents, why wouldn't you? It feels good. It feels right. It feels natural.

• 18:30Ed Elson?

  Do you take care of your sister financially?

• 18:31Scott Galloway?

  No, I don't take care of her. Her and her husband are really successful professionally. What I do is just because it's fun is occasionally I help out with things like the kids' school or something like that, more, more just because it makes me feel good, but they don't, they don't really need it. But it's something I really enjoy and I want a really nice relationship with my niece and nephew. And I just love the idea of them finding out at some point that, you know, I helped out with their school. I do it just as a means of hoping that it'll strengthen my relationship with them when they're, when they're adults.

• 19:02Ed Elson?

  Do you think people should kind of factor that in when it comes to economic planning? I mean, you talked about planning with your partner, how much do we intend to make? What are our goals? Do you think people should be thinking, and this is how much I want to be providing for my family? This is how much I want to have stowed away to take care of my parents when they're old, et cetera?

• 19:25Scott Galloway?

  No, I, I think that because at the end of the day, your ability to do that is going to be based on how much money you have. And so I think you should just be focused on. You know, what we talk about, the algebra of wealth, finding something you're good at, doubling down on it, becoming great at it, which will give you economic currency in the marketplace, trying to spend less than you make, invest that money, develop an army of capital you can deploy, recognize time's going to go faster than you think, and then diversify such that you're in a position to be generous with your family and extended family. So you need to affix your own oxygen mass first. And when you're young, your parents probably aren't sick and don't need help. You don't have kids to take care of. That's the time to develop that savings muscle and that professional currency and put yourself on a path to financial security. Let me flip the question back to you, Ed.

• 20:10Scott Galloway?

  You have parents, you're making good money, but not, you know, you're not wealthy. What's your approach and your thinking around helping out your parents and your approach to saving for that? Is that something you're actively thinking about?

• 20:21Ed Elson?

  Both of my parents are fine, so I don't, I don't, I'm not worried about them from that aspect. But I think the thing that you mentioned with your sister, the fact that your sister is getting, doing, yeah, the hard work, getting on the phone, figuring out where they should be staying, how to take care of them, those are things that I have been thinking about progressively a little bit more. I mean, my granddad is very sick at the moment. I'm about to go visit him this weekend. And I've been seeing this play out in real time of just the responsibility of everyone. It suddenly kicks in at that point when you suddenly realize that life is finite and everyone suddenly gets their act together and starts thinking, okay, how do I pay it back?

• 21:06Ed Elson?

  And I guess I just asked the economic planning question because I'm only just now thinking of that. I'm only now seeing it because I see death around the corner. And now I'm thinking, oh, should I get my act together right now? I'm not necessarily sure how I can.

• 21:21Scott Galloway?

  When you say act together, what do you mean?

• 21:23Ed Elson?

  Do I need to be planning such that I can provide for my parents? Do I need to be making sure that I'm taking care of them too? Which, you know, my parents have always taken care of me, so.

• 21:39Ed Elson?

  I guess there's a moment where you start thinking that the script should be flipped. It feels like for you, when your mom got really sick, that was that moment.

• 21:47Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, and it happened at about exactly your age. My mom first got diagnosed with cancer when she, when I was exactly your age. And it was a real wake up call for me because we had economic stress and I couldn't take care of her. And she ended up with shitty healthcare and it was just like hugely emasculating and frustrating and humiliating quite frankly. I was in graduate school and I think I've told this story. She got discharged from the hospital early, having gone through batteries of chemo and a mastectomy. And she was at home and called me and I had to rush home. And it was just such an ugly scene that I walked into. And I started calling around to get a nurse and nurses were $35 an hour and we didn't have that money. And I just didn't know what to do. But you're thinking about it exactly the right way. You're thinking, hey, you're just thinking about it.

• 22:32Scott Galloway?

  But the way you address that is that you're smart and you're, you're doing all the right things. You're working hard. I get the sense you're saving. You're trying to invest. Most people don't invest at your age and you're working hard and trying to establish professional relevance. So that, you know, quite frankly, with your parents, money kind of solves not all problems, but most of them. If you have enough money, as long as one, do you have siblings? You have siblings, right? I have two sisters. Between the three of you, especially if you have a good relationship with them and they're like minded and generous around and feel obligated to pitch in and help with your parents. One of you might be wealthier than the other two and be able to help more with money. One might have a better relationship and be able to spend more time with your parents

• 23:15Scott Galloway?

  because they just get along with them better or have more time. And one might hopefully have their shit together logistically and be able to kind of handle and negotiate stuff. That, you know, there's the money part, but the thing that's I think been rougher that my sisters had to deal with is there's just so many decisions to be made every day. And not only that, sometimes your parents aren't cooperating, right? They don't want to leave their house and move into an assisted living facility. My dad starts leaving the facility and taking walks and no one knows where he is. And I have to like. You know, call him and try and get through to him and tell him he's not allowed to leave the facility. I mean, and, you know, and meanwhile, he thinks I'm his brother, not his

• 23:57Scott Galloway?

  son. So, you know, this stuff gets complicated fast, but I literally don't know what people do that don't have a lot of money. I'm spending so much money on my dad right now, and it's not a lot of money for me, but it's real money. I don't know what people do that aren't wealthy.

• 24:12Ed Elson?

  Or alone. That's been my big observation, watching my granddad is, oh, my God, if he, if this guy didn't have family, because that's all you got at the end. It's not going to be your friends. It's going to be your family. If he didn't have family, if he didn't have children and grandchildren around, it would be miserable.

• 24:30Scott Galloway?

  I had what I thought was one of the most stark, depressing moments. You know, when my mom got sick, I was 26. So my life up until that point had mostly, you know, I'd just gotten, I was in college grad school, so it was mostly UCLA games, fraternity parties, smoking too much pod, watching Planet of the Apes over and over. And then all of a sudden, my mom got sick and everything just shook out real. And I remember my mom had to go into this healthcare facility. She was too sick to be at home without care, but she wasn't sick enough to be in the hospital. And she was with Kaiser, and Kaiser is basically very cost conscious. So like, we don't want her in the hospital. It's too expensive to keep her in the hospital. So she went to, I don't even know what they call it, like this facility. And it was literally the place where people who have no money and no one

• 25:15Scott Galloway?

  who loves them go. And I remember walking into her room, and she was in this room with two cots, and there were these bad springs that squeaked when she sat up and down. And they had these old Moscow-like arms, metal arms with a TV. And the woman next to her and the, had the TV turned up so loud because she couldn't hear it. And she had the arm extended such that this bad old seventies TV, black and white, was literally in front of her face, and she just kept hitting it. And the whole place stank of urine. And there were a bunch of people, old people who looked like they were on death's doorstep, just sitting asleep, semi-conscious in their wheelchairs in the hallway.

• 25:59Scott Galloway?

  But I remember walking in there and thinking, this is where people in America end up. They don't have any money and don't have anyone that loves them that is still alive. And it was such like a stark reminder that in America, one, you want to have money. And two, you really want to invest in relationships such that someone is there to look out for you. Cause I mean, if you end up broken alone in America, God, it's fucking ugly.

• 26:24Ed Elson?

  Hundred percent.

• 26:27Scott Galloway?

  On that note,

• 26:30Scott Galloway?

  ah, there we go. There we go. Who's buying Supreme? And are they overpaying?

• 26:38Scott Galloway?

  Oh my God.

• 26:42Scott Galloway?

  Broken alone. Not on today's, on today's Raff G markets. What's it like to be broke with no one who loves you?

• 26:48Ed Elson?

  Here's a message from BetterHelp.

• 26:50Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, there you go. Jesus Christ.

• 26:54Ed Elson?

  I don't wait for a mattress ad right after this.

• 27:07Speaker 04

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• 27:38Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration blog, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

• 28:04Scott Galloway?

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• 29:15Scott Galloway?

  We're back with Prof G Markets. Do you talk about money with your kids? A little bit, not a lot. We try to connect money to effort. And what's interesting is they've, I think they've kind of figured it out on their own. I don't know, I don't know how professionally competent they're going to be or how much money they make, but they're not crazy spenders. My older one, it kind of bums me out. So it's just the worst fucking thing in the world that they all have this haircut that makes them look like an alpaca, and I literally can't handle it. I love it. I want to drug them and cut their hair. You know, my boys are so beautiful, they're so handsome, and I know exactly the haircut I want for them. And then they just, and they show up looking like this.

• 29:59Scott Galloway?

  It just, it's awful that they look like a farm animal that's overgrown hair. It just, anyway, but. My oldest, so I was really excited. My oldest is going back, you know, he goes, I want to take him out and get him some really cool clothes. And I'm trying to figure out what the cool brands are. I'm like, let's go. We went to Sunspile. I'm like, I'll catch this girl. And I bought, I, there was this cool hoodie and it was like two or 300 bucks. He's like, I'm not, I'm, I'm not going to spend that much. I'm like, yeah, you're not going to spend that much, but I'll buy it for you. And he's like, no, no, no, I don't, I don't, I don't want you to buy it. He can't, he's like his mom. He doesn't like to spend money, even when it's my money. And of course, the other brother pops up and is like, I want it. Can I have two? Can I have his? So somehow they both ended up in different places. It's like when Michelle Obama said, the kids just come to you. You like to think you're an engineer, you're not.

• 30:43Scott Galloway?

  And so I'd like to think we're doing a good job of connecting them to money, but I think what's strange is they don't have a sense for how much money we have. And what I try to do, I'm thinking about taking them into Africa with Scott Harrison from Charity Water. I just need them to see how not most people, but some people live and recognize that a lot of what their success and privilege is not their fault and that the majority of people in this world do not get to live like they live. And I don't blame them for not understanding that because they've been sheltered from it, but that's one thing we want to do. But they're pretty good around, they're, they're pretty good, right? My youngest, I'm working with my youngest on the sneaker business using AI around when to

• 31:26Scott Galloway?

  bid on drops for shoes and what the resale value is. And we're trying to set up a site on Shopify. You know, and every week I lose money on it, but he sort of gets it. He understands, okay, buy a shoe for 200 bucks and try and sell it for 300. And he's thinking about what's the best way to drop ship for the lowest money, but that has good customer service because he wants to get good reviews. And so that's great. He's going to be more the entrepreneur. I think my older one is much more conservative, doesn't like to spend money. I think he'll end up being a professional. But we don't talk, like I've never told them how much money we have or anything like that, or, but so far I've been really lucky. They're not, I mean, granted, they're just about to turn 14 and 17. So they're not crazy spenders. They just don't spend a lot.

• 32:06Ed Elson?

  Do they know you're rich?

• 32:07Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, there's no way not to figure it out. I mean, we fly private. You know, they don't, words, words out, words out that we have money. And they're kind of fascinated. My youngest is fascinated by money. We went to the finals in the world, you know, the finals of the Euros and he said, how much were these tickets? I'm like, I'm not going to tell you. And he's like, he like wants to know. And he's looking at my phone and he wants to know how much the tickets were.

• 32:29Ed Elson?

  That's an interesting one. Like, why do you not want to tell them? How rich you, I mean, they know that you're rich, but you don't want them to know how rich. And you don't want, really want to put a number on it. What's your philosophy there?

• 32:43Scott Galloway?

  It just feels weird to tell my son, yeah, I'm spending 10,000 pounds on a soccer game. So we can go. I feel like that's going to disconnect them from the value of money at that age.

• 32:55Ed Elson?

  So how do you teach them the value? I mean, the Africa idea is one. Is there anything else you do to kind of be like, hey, this isn't normal?

• 33:04Scott Galloway?

  It's weird. I think they've sort of made the connection a little bit on their own because I don't think it's been great parenting. I had this really wonderful moment with my youngest. He has a friend from school who doesn't have a lot of money. And his friend accidentally poured milk or spilled milk on his headphones and they were ruined. And so he came to me and he said, Dad, I want to buy my friend a pair of the AirPod, or the AirPod Maxes, the big cans that go over your ears. And he said, if I put in a hundred bucks, will you, will you give me $200? He's a super nice kid and he doesn't have a lot of money. And I was just like, I was just so moved by that. I thought that's exactly the kind of approach to money I want my kids to have.

• 33:46Scott Galloway?

  And I said, of course. And anytime you want to give money away or do something for someone else, I'll, I'll contribute. That was really nice. But that, I don't know where they learned it. They didn't learn it from me. I don't think, I don't know. So, I mean, here's the thing, Ed, you do your best, but parents are under the delusion that we're engineers. We're shepherds. We get to choose where the sheep grazes with the food it eats. Maybe we can point it in the right direction. But be clear, the sheep comes to you. And I think I hope what they see is that their mom works hard and is really responsible with money, that I work hard, and they see how committed we are to our professions.

• 34:27Scott Galloway?

  They see that we're generous with our money, so I hope that they inherit that. And they also see that we enjoy it. I hope they inherit that. I hope my oldest starts spending. I'm worried my oldest isn't going to want to spend any money and not enjoy it. But I would say we're just kind of letting it happen, which may not be the right approach. My kids talk a lot, ask a lot of questions now about money. They're very interested in it, especially my youngest. He asks about stocks, how stock prices are decided.

• 34:54Ed Elson?

  Yeah, I mean, their dad just wrote a book called The Algebra of Wealth. I'd be shocked if they didn't.

• 34:58Scott Galloway?

  Dude, they don't care what their dad does. Literally, they literally, every time someone stops me on the street, they're like, why do they know you again? Like, they just, they are so befuddled that anyone would find me interesting at all. They're like, what? Why did this person say hi to you? What do you do again? They just don't get it.

• 35:18Ed Elson?

  By the way, the opening note of that book is a message to them, and you say, I hope you'll read this. You think they'll ever read it?

• 35:26Scott Galloway?

  Oh, yeah. When I'm gone, maybe, hopefully before I'm gone, but definitely when I'm gone, I can't imagine, I've invested, I'd like to think, so much time and love in my kids that they're going to love me. You know, you're banking on you're going to get a fraction of that back. And I'd like to think they'll be interested enough in me to read my books. I mean, let me be real, I'd be really disappointed if they didn't at some point. So they will, they're gonna, they're gonna be curious. So, yeah, I think so. I hope so, at least.

• 35:54Ed Elson?

  Have you thought more about estate planning and inheritance?

• 35:59Scott Galloway?

  Yeah, I think about it a lot, because now that we have real money, you have to think about it and be smart about it. So, we work with our folks. Goldman manages our money. I have a lawyer, a tax lawyer, and they set up a trust. We're trying to figure out what to put into the trust, how to take advantage of the limits on trust, figure out if Biden is going to lower the trust limit. You know, there's all this, it's a lot of tax planning. The tax code is so complicated that, and this is an advantage for wealthy people, because you can kind of weaponize and maneuver through it if you're smart. If, you know, it's, you want to, you want to run boat races a night if you have GPS. And so, the more complicated you make the race, the more advantage seats to people who can afford the technology, in this case, the advisors, to help you navigate a boat race a night.

• 36:42Scott Galloway?

  But yeah, I think a lot about the trust. I also think about, uh, my partner is 15 years younger than me and women usually live seven years longer. So she's going to be around about 22 years longer. But now I'm trying to set up what I am thinking about is putting stuff in assets that will, like apartments, rental apartments that will spin off income because I'm turning into that, I hate to say that, person thinking about, so my kids have enough money that they're never broke. And like my kid isn't going to come run PropG Media. My kid isn't going to like take one of my analytics companies and be the CEO there. But maybe if one of my kids doesn't have their own professional trajectory, I like the idea that maybe they could manage some apartment buildings. And that's probably the wrong way to think about it. But I am thinking about intergenerational wealth.

• 37:27Scott Galloway?

  But more than anything, what I'm spending the most time on is just making sure that my partner's really comfortable after I'm gone.

• 37:35Ed Elson?

  This is kind of a turnaround from what you've said in the pulse, which is, I think you've said you don't want to leave anything to your kids.

• 37:43Scott Galloway?

  Well, that's mostly joking to justify my out of control spending. But I've summarized it perfectly. I want my kids to have enough money so they can do anything, but not enough money so they can do nothing. So I'll set up a trust for them. My partner, assuming she lives a quarter century longer than me, is going to have to figure it out. But I'm putting in place the mechanics of it such that after she's gone, they'll get some money when they turn 21. We're going to give most of it away, but we'll leave enough for them such that they can afford a house, any education they want, and maybe a little bit more, and have access to a little of it at 25, 35, and then access to all of it. But, you know, I think about this a lot. It's a huge issue for wealthy people because you don't want

• 38:25Scott Galloway?

  indulgent jerks. And also, a huge motivator for me was the fear of like, if I didn't make money, I wasn't going to have any. That's incredibly motivating. And you worry about taking away that motivation. But I will, I'm not one of those people. It's really easy to say, yeah, once they're through college, that's it, they're on their own. Yeah, I never find any parent does that. I, none of my friends have done that. I've cut off their kids. None of them. They, you know, my, I have really good friends, my really good friends Greg and Cindy have done a really good job of, of kind of maturing really, um... Competent, self-sufficient adults. And so they've been pretty disciplined about saying, okay, you get a certain amount of money and help you to college and you get a certain

• 39:08Scott Galloway?

  kind of allowance, but at some point you're on your own. I don't know if I'll have that discipline. I don't, I don't know. I haven't fully figured it out yet.

• 39:16Ed Elson?

  We'll just end with this last question. If there's one thing you want your children to understand about money, once you die, what would it be?

• 39:26Scott Galloway?

  That it's, it's really important, but it's a means. It's meaningful, but what's profound is that money is nothing but something that should enable you to have an absence of stress such that you can focus on relationships. That you need to be professionally competent. You need to be self-sufficient. Making money is a lot of fun, but it's just a means to the ends. And the ends is deep and meaningful relationships and that money can be a lubricant for that and provide an absence of stress and a series of experiences that make you feel closer to the people you love and help you take care of them.

• 40:01Ed Elson?

  This episode was produced by Claire Miller and engineered by Benjamin Spencer. Our associate producer is Alison Weiss. Our executive producer is Catherine Dillon. Mia Silverio is our research lead and Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to Prof you Markets from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We'll be back with a fresh take on markets on Thursday.

• 40:57Speaker 05

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