The Truth About Money No One Wants to Say Until It’s an Emergency

A Conversation with my 21-year-old Daughter after a trip to the ER

Last week, my 21-year-old daughter scared the hell out of me and her mom.

One minute, life is normal. The next minute, your daughter is sitting in a public ER in London that feels like a DMV designed by Putin.

Health issues can come out of nowhere.

Fluorescent lights, uncomfortable chairs, and a waiting room full of people quietly realizing the system is not coming to save them anytime soon.

Hours pass. Nothing moves.

She calls, we talk, she explains that she waited hours in the public ER to no end, and I tell her to book private straight away.

Different world.

Clean. Calm. Doctors who look you in the eye. Decisions are made quickly. Problems solved.

I think that contrast hit her harder than the diagnosis.

Thankfully, it was not serious and was another virus that took hold of her already compromised immune system, coming off a rough flu over the Holidays.

Here is the uncomfortable truth most people don’t want to say out loud. Money may not buy happiness, but it absolutely buys safety in today’s world.

And when things go sideways, safety beats positive vibe hashtags on social media every time. Especially when you’re miles away, and your loved one is having a health crisis.

*Note, a trip to the private ER, diagnosis, and medicine in the UK, all in, cost us less than $500. My daughter was stressed out about the cost until I gave her some perspective of what it would have been in the good ole US of A. 5-10x that?

I used the whole experience as a teaching point about the importance of saving up for things that can and will go wrong.

We discussed that no one grows up dreaming about health insurance, savings accounts, or financial buffers. But adulthood has a way of ambushing you. When it does, you want options.

Options cost money.

Money buys time.

Money buys access.

Money buys the ability to say no to public healthcare, to leave, to choose better.

People love to romanticize struggle until they are bleeding, sick, or desperate. Then ideology collapses fast.

I have been in war zones, an active shooter situation in JFK airport, and combat trauma rooms. I have seen what happens when preparation meets turmoil, and when it does not.

The lesson is always the same. Hope is not a plan. Neither is pretending money doesn’t matter.

You do not chase money to feel superior. You build it to protect the people you love and to sleep at night when the world reminds you how fragile things really are.

In my new book, Puddle Jumpers, I talk about how to have this conversation with your kids early. And to give them some child-friendly financial tools that teach financial literacy through fun games. Most kids won’t get this at school, so it’s up to us.

If you enjoyed this, please drop a comment below.

Thanks, Brandon