"It's more difficult to hold on to wealth than it is to make it."

As of 2022, Forbes estimated there were just over 700 billionaires in the United States, and you’ll struggle to find a single one who traces his or her wealth back to a millionaire ancestor from 1900. We needn’t go so far back in the past to find this pattern. Fewer than 10% of today’s US billionaires are descended from members of the first Forbes 400 Rich List published in 1982. Even the least wealthy family on that 1982 list, with “just” $100 million, should have spawned four billionaire families today. We recognize that some wealthy families purposefully chose to give away or consume virtually all of their wealth in their lifetimes, but we believe these cases were relatively rare and do not account for the near-complete absence of “old-money” billionaires we see today.

We’re not lamenting a scarcity of billionaires in the world today. Our point is that, collectively, we all face a really big and pervasive problem when it comes to making good financial decisions. If even the most financially successful members of our society, at least some of whom were smart and capable, and all of whom could afford the “best” financial advice, consistently made atrocious financial decisions, what can be expected from the

rest of us? There’s a Persian proverb Victor’s father was fond of, which seems improbable at first, but the truth of which has become a main

motivation for this book: “It’s more difficult to hold on to wealth than it is to make it.”

This book sets forth our framework for addressing the challenge faced by all families—not only potential and actual billionaires—to find a path to better financial decisions.

The Puzzle of the Missing Billionaires

Criticisms of Expected Utility Decision-Making

Spending Like You Won’t Live Forever

Human Capital