Chef Nigella Lawson has claimed to swear allegiance to it, and so has musician Sting. If celebrity trends of the West are to be believed, then the age of the Paris Hilton-esque heir is passé. Because more and more of the rich and famous are refusing to leave their multi-million dollar fortunes to their children and instead, are opting to encourage them to eke out a fortune of their own.
A Bank of America report published recently found that 40 per cent of millennials regularly receive financial assistance from their parents. While sustained assistance not only ruins kids, who grow up with a sense of financial security, it also eggs them to be casual about the role of money and how they view it. After all, the wide range of flamboyant celebrity heirs and heiresses like Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton and Vikram Chatwal, do not exactly offer us a great example of responsible adulthood. This is also perhaps why the Beckhams (especially Victoria) have always spoken about educating their children on the position of comfort that they are being raised in.
Former South Asian Games champion Reeth Abraham, who has a 20 -year- old son, is one to agree. “No parent would say that they would like their wealth only for themselves. That said, I would like my son to have a livelihood of his own. Of course, all these parents would part with it when there is a real need to. I think that there is a difference in the mentality of parents depending on how they have acquired their wealth — business families would of course pass their money to the next generation,” says Abraham.
