Bold Conversation

May 29th, 2014

Power of Small Gifts

Money issues are different in what my friend Steven calls “the third quarter.” He figures we play to live to 100, and since we’re over 50, we’re in (we hope) the third quarter. Of course, the game can end anytime due to force majeure, which can inspire bold money action.

The first quarter of the game, I scraped by in the working class. The second quarter saw marital failure and bankruptcy. Career success allowed me to crawl back to solvency. As a television news anchor, radio talk-show host, and newspaper columnist, I worked seven days a week and earned what looked like a lot of money. That is, until I met Bill.

His money management skills could generate in mere seconds as much cash as I earned working a solid year of 16-hour days.

We married midway through the second quarter. That’s when I qualified for membership in the 50% League. Through my husband’s generosity, I became independently wealthy and my entire salary went to charitable causes. I gave a million dollars to a nonprofit that had a significant impact on my life, and that gift gave me a taste for betting big on a good idea.

It’s funny. My husband’s for-profit investment philosophy involves taking bold positions, but it used to make him queasy when I did the same in the social sector. Recently, however, my big-bang-for-the-buck results have inspired him to join me in bolder philanthrophy. Now he knows why I enjoy “giving while living” instead of deferring major gifts.”

Yes, it’s all a game, and I hear the clock ticking in the third quarter. I played like an amateur for most of the first half. But circumstances have changed and so have I. I like to call big plays and fund bold action. And I’m a player who likes to give more than 50%.