I inherited $12 million when my father died last year. I didn't earn it. He built a manufacturing company that, frankly, wasn't always ethical in how it treated workers or the environment. Now I have this money and I don't know what to do with it. Part of me wants to give it all away—to the workers' families, to environmental causes, to just... not have it be mine anymore. It feels dirty. I feel like a fraud living in my modest apartment while millions sit in accounts. My financial advisor thinks I'm insane. "You can do more good over time with strategic philanthropy," he says. "Keep the principal, give the interest." My therapist says my guilt is misplaced—I'm not responsible for my father's choices. But every morning I wake up and think about St. Francis stripping naked in the town square, giving everything back to his merchant father. Is radical generosity wisdom or foolishness? Can you do good with money that was made badly?

Money & Ethics

St. Francis of AssisivsAdam Smith

The Question

I inherited $12 million when my father died last year. I didn't earn it. He built a manufacturing company that, frankly, wasn't always ethical in how it treated workers or the environment. Now I have this money and I don't know what to do with it. Part of me wants to give it all away—to the workers' families, to environmental causes, to just... not have it be mine anymore. It feels dirty. I feel like a fraud living in my modest apartment while millions sit in accounts. My financial advisor thinks I'm insane. "You can do more good over time with strategic philanthropy," he says. "Keep the principal, give the interest." My therapist says my guilt is misplaced—I'm not responsible for my father's choices. But every morning I wake up and think about St. Francis stripping naked in the town square, giving everything back to his merchant father. Is radical generosity wisdom or foolishness? Can you do good with money that was made badly?

St. Francis of Assisi

"In giving we receive—true joy comes not from possessions but from serving others"

I know this weight you carry—my father too was a merchant, and his coins burned in my hands. When I returned everything to him, standing bare before the bishop and the town, I did not become poor. I became free. Your guilt is not neurosis; it is your soul recognizing that you cannot serve both God and Mammon. Give it away and discover what remains.

48 votes

Adam Smith

"Wealth, properly channeled, serves the common good—keep the principal, grow your impact"

Your impulse to give is admirable, but consider: money given away once helps once. Money invested wisely and given strategically helps perpetually. You did not create your father's sins, and destroying his legacy does not undo them. Transform it. The invisible hand can be guided toward justice—but only if you retain the means to guide it.

43 votes

91 votes total