verybody knows “You can’t take it with you,” but Dr. Stanley A. Riggs has figured out a way to do so.  Instead of leaving your money to be consumed by the long-term health care industry, he has determined if you allocate your wealth to have a percentage spent each year on vacations, travel, and gifting happiness to ones you love, essentially on building memories, you can in fact take it with you.  Once you become “poor,” the system will pick up your bills for medical needs and housing, so why pay it yourself?

He came to this realization when observing his mother, after her entire life foregoing things she wanted and saving money; seeing her napping in a nursing home’s chair as they dwindled her bank account, while at the same time the elderly person in the next chair “napped for free,” having his expenses paid my Medicaid.

Having money is of course a pre-requisite for spending money, and in Build Wealth & Spend It All, Live The Life You Earned, Dr. Riggs outlines the way to gain net worth is to know the difference between assets & liabilities, and use some of the many formulas presented to separate yourself from the monetary disillusioned crowd of the masses.  He defines the groups of poor, middle class, rich and wealthy – paying particular attention to the distinction of the rich and wealthy; those with substantial income producing assets which provide more money than they need to spend, perpetuating the wealth.

What struck me most was how fluent Stanley Riggs has interleaved literally hundreds of economic studies, research books, other author’s value propositions and facts into an easy-to-read bombardment of opinions and knowledge gained by such exhaustive background studies.  He is himself a student of the world of “money” and unselfishly reveals the truisms of his objective observations coupled with common sense advice.  His suggestions, or recommendations if you will, take bold and total commitment to follow, and are not for the conservative “Kool-Aid” mentality taught to us by the investment community.  As he stated a comment by Warren Buffet, “Wall Street is where people arrive in their Mercedes, to hear advice from those who came in the subway.”

I was surprised no mention was made of the famous Suze Orman “Can I Afford It?” segment where she approves or denies expenditures and desires from callers.  If Dr. Riggs ran that segment, he would undoubtedly say if you had enough money in your pocket to pay for something you want, “You’re Approved.”

Build Wealth & Spend it All  is a mind-altering systematic presentation of a philosophy and life-style for those who are a part of the Baby Boomers, as it takes a bit of time to subscribe to his beliefs, but the more you think about it the more you see his posture on money is correct.

“Everyone will have two dates separated by a hyphen on their gravestone,” says the author.  “The two dates you cannot control, but the hyphen symbolizes your life.  It’s all up to you as to how you spend the ‘hyphen’ of your life.”  A fool dies with money in the bank; a wise man dies in debt.  Spend all of your money yourself, enjoy it, down to having just enough for your coffin and burial.  “Just don’t bounce your last check to the undertaker,” is Riggs’ final comment.

This is a new fresh way to view your personal finances.  Unlike other books that simply offer time and money management techniques, this book takes readers on a journey of depth and reflection that reconciles our deepest values with practical steps on how we should spend our money.  For the readers who want to pursue a life that is rich in beauty and meaning that also is mindful of the global unequal access to resources, BUILD WEALTH & Spend It All Live the Life You Earned is the perfect book.  It asks the right questions, sparks your imagination for a more whole life and gives you the tools to make it happen.