Sudden Wealth... IT Happens: The Stories of Seven Families and the Challenges They Face With Financial Windfalls

by David Rust, Shane Moore

Throughout their careers, recognized wealth advisors David Rust and Shane Moore achieved the most inspiration and satisfaction from providing guidance and counsel to families and individuals that suddenly had the responsibility of handling more money than they ever imagined. While each situation is always unique, in every instance the clients were fearful of making the wrong decisions. These experiences inspired Rust and Moore to write a book to enlighten readers about how likely this type of situation is, and how financially and psychologically complex it is to go through. This is that book. Emotionally engaging and thought provoking, Rust and Moore’s compilation is a unique combination of fact and fiction that inspires fiscal sanity and confidence. Through various events, including an inheritance, a lottery jackpot, and a business sale, seven fictional stories depict families and individuals confronted with the reality of their own sudden wealth situations. They come from different walks of life and very different paths, yet each find themselves with more money than they have been responsible for in the past and struggle with the challenges it brings. Each story is inspired by the real-world experiences during Rust and Moore’s extensive careers. Used as a means of making the reality of these situations much more concrete and visceral, they also provide a compelling segue to the second section of the book wherein the authors provide a resource to assist readers in recognizing steps to take when faced with a sudden wealth situation. Deftly weaving experience and storytelling, Rust and Moore create a unique financial guide that resonates more thoroughly and completely than typical DIY wealth formats. Informative and insightful, Sudden Wealth…It The Stories of Seven Families and the Challenges They Face with Financial Windfalls is the #1 resource for anyone who experiences a sudden financial windfall.

Genres: Nonfiction, Money

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2011

Reviews

[Philip Dhingra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book while searching around for stories about lottery winners. While there are maybe 1-2 other books out there on the subject, they are poorly reviewed, or don't really get to the real reasons I started my search. Here's what I want:

- I've often heard "more money, more problems" but I want to read in-depth stories about that.

- I started playing the lottery, and told my friends that the first thing I'd do is buy a book about how to deal w/ winning the lottery. So why not get the book before I win?

Even though this book isn't directly about lottery winners, it's what I really was looking for. I found the stories to be authentically told. Even though they're fictional (because the authors are financial managers themselves and have to protect the privacy of their clients) they're clearly synthesized from real experiences.

I don't think I'm giving away too much by at least mentioning what the seven stories cover. If I had known this beforehand, I would've bought the book earlier:

Sources of "Sudden Wealth" mentioned:
1. Life Insurance from Spouse
2. 401(k)
3. Lottery
4. Inheritence
5. Injury Settlement
6. Company Sale
7. Divorce Settlement

The seven of these cover a lot of ground. Reading this book, I later realized a hidden reason why I'm interested in the book. I'm from Silicon Valley, and could have been the first employee of a company that sold for more than a billion dollars, and while I don't regret not working for them, I wonder sometimes, What actually would have happened? I also still work in tech, and know people in the industry who have sold companies, and so I also wonder, Well, IT could still happen to me.

Initially, I thought the book was a ham-fisted attempt to sell sudden wealth services, the kind that the authors provide, but I can tell that the authors wrote the book from the heart, with a genuine desire to help people do the right thing. One of the authors himself was bewildered by his sudden wealth experience.

Even if you don't have the same curiosities I had when picking this book, I believe it's still a great gem because it's one of the best descriptions of the way that money controls us. In all seven stories, you see how sudden wealth has a way of creating a life of its own.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from goodreads firstreads giveaways. I have been blessed/cursed with sudden wealth, but do often fantasize about what I would do with fictional lottery winnings. This book is not about fantasy, but the reality of dealing with a huge influx of money. The first half of the book is several fictionalized stories of people who suddenly became wealthy, by inheritance, lawsuit payoff, lottery, selling a business. Everyone handles it differently, and for some it is a real problem. The overall message is that you should hire a team to help you deal with this appropriately. The second have of the book describes all the people you should consider having on your team (the obvious, like financial planner and tax accountant, and the less obvious, like therapist and personal security. There are also tips for interviewing the team, and forms to fill out to help get all your information in one place.

If I ever have a windfall, I will definitely refer to this book. The main takeaway that I can act on now is that my husband and I need to sit down and go over all our financials, he takes care of it all, and if something happened to him, I wouldn't know where to start.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

My many thanks to the Authors, their Publisher, and of course, Goodreads for giving me the opportunity in reading and reviewing this free book.

Great book. It gives the reader a number of very solid suggestions on what to do if (and a very heavy 'if') you are faced with a good sized amount of money suddenly coming into your life. It contains true tales of common folks who had this happen and what they did to manage it.

I still found this quite a really decent reading as the only one that would ever apply to me is winning a Lottery. I already had in mind a method for long-term savings investment and living comfortably per month off the interest earning (after taxes). No big boat, fancy car, or travel extensively for me. Frugal I think is the word to describe this.

I just wished the authors listed stories (no names mentioned) where the 'win-fall' was more of a curse than a blessing so the reader may avoid these particular paths. The biggest one I can recall would be the town drunk winning a million dollars on a scratch lottery ticket and after two years of buying countless 'rounds' for the town is once again back on the street and completely destitute with no 'drinking buddies' to be seen giving him something back in return. Sad, but it has happened.

[Denese · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the interest of full disclosure, I received an advanced copy of this book through GoodReads.

Ms. Muhlstein does a wonderful job of capturing the essence of Balzac and providing insight as to the events of his life which may have contributed to his lifestyle. She paints such a vivid picture of the times and mentality of the era that it's easy to imagine yourself sitting across the table from Balzac himself.

Excellent advice for anybody! Having practiced estates and trusts along with tax law, I have seen some of the scenarios depicted in these accounts over and again! The authors give sound, practical advice to handling financial affairs; from choosing a financial manager to considerations when choosing a lawyer.

A practical book every adult should have in their library -- even if the reader didn't experience a financial windfall. I highly recommend it!

[Stacy Mantle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the interest of full disclosure, I won a copy of this book on Goodreads.

All in all, a great book! I think that if I had any extra money come in, I would be very appreciative of a book that details out how to handle it. I think what I most loved about the book is that it suggested there were ways that "sudden wealth" could happen that many people don't think about (i.e., retirement, inheritance, death of spouse, business sale, divorce, lottery, lawsuit, et al). The book is well-written, and the stories of the families involved are interesting and detailed.

The tools were informative and I can only hope that I'm one day in a situation where I can put some of these principles into action!

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book chock full of stories about what a variety of people did after they hit it big for a variety of reasons.
I'm gonna be honest, I don't see my self getting rich suddenly anytime in the near future. Though I guess the sudden-ness is the point.
But this is an interesting book that shows the sides of people that we don't get to see until the greed comes out, and it shows a part of the human condition that we don't like to see.
A book that I wouldn't normally pick up. But a good read nontheless.

[Kevin]

Note to self: give this book to "you-know-who" if he ever wins a large prize.