The Conscious Use of Money

The Conscious Use of Money

A Conversation with Tom Harry Although I did not t have money as a kid, I grew up around it. I used to spend summers with my wealthy cousin. I also went to a private school and I got a scholarship to go to Harvard, where I had friends like John Smith. So I was in an environment where people had both power and material possessions. My uncle instilled in me a sense of noblesse oblige .

I always wanted to have money, not so much for my own personal fulfillment, but because I saw what it could do for people. I thought, "If I had that much money, I know what I d do with it," and it wasn t buying three Mercedes. I have always been interested in the conscious use of money. My first job out of college was as a high school teacher. I got two paychecks each month for $129 each. My rent was $80. After expenses, there wasn t a lot left over.

I used to have what I called my eleven-cent dinner a can of Contadina tommato paste over noodles. I then became a teacher trainer, went to graduate our school, wrote my first book for educators, started doing trainings for teachers accross the country, and later, for this busineses. I was living a pretty standard middle class life until our book, Chicken Soup for the Soul , took off. It was a slow build, but after awhile, we started getting royalty checks for $400,000.

Eventually, I got  for a million dollars, and then one year I made 14 million. We sold thirteen-and-a-half million books that year and suddenly I was in a different world. My ex-wife and I went through what I call our nouveau riche period. We sold our small house in L.A. and moved to Santa Barbara, where we bought a big spread with horses and a swimming pool. We got a cook, a housekeeper, a decorator, a gardener, and a Lexus. It was expensive and time consuming to maintain the property. When you re making six million dollars-which is about three-and-a-half million after taxes - it s hard to spend all that money on yourself.