We Need To Talk

At twenty-five years old, Jennifer took a job at Microsoft and got lucky. She met her future husband, David, and the stock options she was granted were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Years later, when David joined a small, unknown startup called Amazon.com, they got lucky again. They were in their early thirties and had more money than they could wrap their heads around. But after growing up with middle-class values, saving her pennies, wary of the rich, Jennifer was embarrassed by their windfall. She was worried about raising spoiled, entitled children, shocked to have a friend ask for $25,000, and surprised to discover that philanthropy isn’t as straightforward as just writing a check. Upset about a friend’s jealousy and her brother’s resentment, she felt alone. Even though 8 out of 10 people with wealth grew up middle class or poor, no one talks about the emotional issues that arise. Money is a taboo subject.
We Need to Talk demystifies and humanizes wealth. The book compels us to examine our relationship with money and offers a starting point for conversations. No matter how much you have in your bank account, if you have parents, siblings, a partner, friends, you likely know that money is uncomfortable to discuss. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, face rejection or fail to measure up. We all have “money shame” and “money guilt.” But staying quiet about money keeps us at a distance. We Need to Talk is a catalyst for conversation to help us connect, learn from each other, and shake up the status quo.