Review: The Grand Money Chasm: Ten Effective Strategies to Build a Money Legacy Within Your Grandchildren

The Grand Money Chasm: Ten Effective Strategies to Build a Money Legacy Within Your Grandchildren by Darryl W Lyons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Author Darryl W. Lyons is a smart man. I checked out this ebook from my library’s Hoopla service a couple of months ago. This month, I realized that I hadn’t written a review, which is how I keep track of the books I’ve read. I really didn’t recall the book very well, so I used one of my limited checkouts to check it out again. I let it sit until the last day, hoping a quick review would help me remember the content and to write a reasonable review. As I went through this book, I saw that the author started by describing in a ten item list ways that grandparents can teach their grandkids about money. Each item in the list was followed by a few paragraphs, sometimes a couple of screens of writing on my reader. And then, after the ten items, the book suddenly ended. Yes, this book is roughly the length of a feature article in an issue of Money magazine. In fact, it could fit well in that magazine, length- and content-wise. Mr. Lyons I hope gets compensated by each checkout from Hoopla, because he has shown me that my preconception of what constitutes a book is woefully out of date. This is very much an article, but for three things. First, there is a wonderful cover. The picture of the older gentleman with a toddler, probably his grandson, on his shoulders. A great picture to get one thinking of having grandchildren, playing with them, and then realizing that you should pass on your wisdom. The cover designer gets an A+. Second, there is a bibliography at the end, where the author lists his references, and there are a couple dozen. While I initially thought this strange, in retrospect it seems about right – all references are web versions of magazine articles or blog entries. I’d say that was well done, but the length of the article, er book, was short enough that the author didn’t get into many details that would require checking references. That’s a more substantial list than I would expect to find in a magazine article or in a magazine, but it makes sense that the author kept track of his sources and was able to copy them here for the book version. And given these are web links, the URLs are listed in a random order – no theme or alphabetic sort here. Despite the lack of attention, as a list of where to look for additional information, this was a thoughtful addition.

The third reason this is more a book than an article is that, well, Hoopla says it is a book. As does Amazon, which catalogs this in a paperback version. So it’s a book, not an article. It’s just a book took me longer to find, checkout, and download than it did to read. So for those looking to juice their “books read” numbers on Goodreads, this is an excellent choice.

But how about the content? If I’m a grandparent, or a prospective grandparent, will this give me pointers on how to teach my grandkids, or prospective grandkids, some of those hard-earned nuggets of wisdom on money that I’ve learned throughout my years on this Earth? In a word, yes. But did I learn anything new? No. The recommendations include: thinking age-appropriate in what you want to teach, use personal stories, watch TV shows related to finance with the kids, be a role model in working hard, use allowances or chore pay, show the kids buying with cash, talk about debt, giving, and banking, and consider giving some of your inheritance while you are still alive. All either kind of obvious or kind of goofy, and mostly things I’ve thought of with my own kids. My favorite section was regarding watching TV with the grandkids, and the authors provided perhaps the most detail on this item on their list. They suggest 3 shows: The Price is Right, Fixer Upper, and Shark Tank. I can see how this is a good idea to add to their financial intelligence and lead them to become wealthy. When my kids were growing up, we would watch The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, and I’m afraid they will become politicians. Be careful what you watch.

Overall, a good list of some basic ideas on how to talk to your grandkids about money, but not enough to do anything but whet your appetite for additional research. (By the way, that list in the previous paragraph of recommendations…that’s the complete list. Don’t be expecting more.)


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