The Post-Windfall Index Card

Congratulations! Your business has made you wildly wealthy. So what do you do next?

If you’re patient and lucky and work hard at your business, one day you may find yourself facing the ultimate privileged problem: What do you do with all this money?

It’s a question I’ve been asked frequently since Inc. columnist Helaine Olen and I wrote a book about the financial advice that can fit on an index card. Now I hear from people lucky enough to have become millionaires—but who struggle to manage the dilemmas that accompany visible success, including requests for financial help from friends and relatives, and offers of investment opportunities.

All of my advice to them fits on an index card. If you’re selling your business, taking it public, or coming into some other business or personal fortune, this can help you, too.