Jennifer Risher talks about her liquidity event and how sudden wealth affected her friendships and personal stewardship
Jennifer Risher was in her late twenties when she and her husband, David, came into sudden money. As employees of Microsoft, they had earned millions through stock options, and then in 1997 David joined a pre-IPO Amazon.com Inc. as a senior executive.
Having come from a middle-class upbringing, the couple faced challenges in navigating the emotional complexities of sudden wealth. In her book We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth, Jennifer chronicles her experiences on the way to becoming an educated and empowered investor and philanthropist who is also making an impact through #HalfMyDAF, a charitable giving initiative she established with her husband. She is also an in-demand speaker committed to fostering meaningful conversations about money.
Jennifer was an engaging guest on my podcast Serious Coin, and in the interview below, we explore her initial feelings of embarrassment about wealth, the impact on her friendships and her advice for others who are new to wealth.
Kelly Willis Green: Was there a moment when you realized that you had a lot of money?
Jennifer Risher: Yes and no. Because there’s the mental realization – the intellectual view of a bunch of numbers and imagining what that means – and then there’s actually believing it. That takes a lot longer. Even then, it was hard to really realize it. But my discomfort started to come out in me as I was trying to hide from our wealth.
Tell me about a time when you tried to hide the fact you had money.
I really felt it when there was this juxtaposition between two massive events in my life. First, having this money accumulating and getting bigger than I would have imagined, and also becoming a parent.
Right before I had my first daughter, David left Microsoft and joined Amazon, and then that company went public, right as I was giving birth, basically (laughs). There was a difference in the feeling of those two events. It was kind of profound because with becoming a mom, I was blown away by all the love and the emotion. I was also a member of a mothers’ group, and all of us were experiencing the same kind of ups and downs. I’d meet with this group, but I was also trying to hide something big that was going on in my life.