"Resolve" by Will Ertel. A Review

 

There they are. Seventeen frogs sitting on a log. Suddenly, nine of them decide to jump off. Now, the $50 question is, how many frogs are there on the log? There are still seventeen, because deciding to jump off and jumping off are two completely different actions. And that is the point Will Ertel, founder of Tassel Capital, CPA and financial adviser wants to hammer home in his brand-new 138-page softback, “Resolve: A Personal Financial Planning Book for Twentysomethings Getting Serious About Stewardship”. Ertel wrote this book with one major group in mind, his three twentysomething daughters and their spouses. And what he wrote for them he decided to share with others. He wrote to convince us all to move from deciding to jump off the log, to actually jumping off and diving in.

 

The book revolves around five core exhortations, which end up being the five chapters of the book. Give charitably, set and take action on financial goals, create margin, save and invest in margin, and finally, plan your estate. In each chapter the author shows, in achievable steps, how a reader can go from deciding to jump off of the log to actually diving in. I was struck by how sensible and practical each chapter is. In fact, I was delighted to realize I have communicated many of the same ideas to my adult children while they were growing up in our home.

 

Two of the biggest items I think are worth the price of the book and the time it will take to read it are in the first and fifth exhortations. The first is to give charitably and make it part of your normal habit. This is a huge concept. So I was deeply pleased that Ertel made it his first concept or exhortation, and returns to it at just the right times throughout the book.

 

The second item is in estate planning. The author asserts that “Adults with children or grandchildren leave behind three things to the successive generations: financial capital, social capital, and spiritual capital” (102). He then develops each of these, and how the final two are essential in helping those who receive our financial capital, so that they can use it wisely and well. This insight is a mammoth concept and has large consequences long after we’re gone. Social and spiritual capital are more important than the financial. As he will go on to write later, “The most important aspect of estate planning at a young age is equipping your children with social and spiritual capital” (106). Let that sink in.

 

Ertel is not only a financial planner, he is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, and serves at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina. That means that this volume is not only the work done by a father who loves his daughters and their spouses, but an elder who loves Christ’s people and Christ’s church. I mention these details because I think they add street credibility to this small manual. Though it is written for Twentysomethings, it has much to say to those in their thirties, forties, fifties, and even into their sixties. I’m going to hand the book over to my youngest son who is getting married soon. Who needs this book? You, the reader, do. I highly recommend it.

 

My thanks to the author who reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in reading and reviewing this book. After I assented, he sent me the free copy I used in this evaluation, but made no demands on me, laid down no expectations, and took no one hostage. Therefore, this analysis is my own, freely written and freely given.