Review: We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth

We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth by Jennifer Risher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In “We Need to Talk” we follow a couple from their pre-savings college years, through marriage and family, and through the building of successful careers for both in the tech industry, leaving them very well off. I had been on a similar progression, though not at the fast rate that the author and husband were on. It was fun to follow their early steps in career and in investing, generally based on tech stock grants and options for the high-growth times at Microsoft, then Amazon. In the early chapters I felt some kinship in their own amazement at how quickly some stock grants became worth what seemed like a lot of money. That’s how I felt too. But while my spectacular returns ended in a decade with a move to a lower growth company, the author and husband continued to amplify their net worth, again through grants and investing, and by not becoming spendy. At some point, their ways became quite foreign to what I envisioned for myself, and I quickly lost interest. (I think it was when they started flying charter.) I will say that many of the topics they discussed, like how to talk to others about your wealth, loaning to family, and spoiling kids, were topics I’ve thought about, but depending on where in their net worth they were when they approach the problem, their solutions might or might not seem useful. I did appreciate understanding their thoughts behind these problems though, as the thought process was interesting. Overall, I found this on OK book, but one that I found hard to like all the way through. Read with the FI Book Club on Facebook.

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