Family money: an exploration of contradictions and coherence in wealth management advice literature

In her analysis of relationship advice books Hochschild (2003) suggests that self-help books illuminate ideological contradictions confronting groups within society, while offering strategies to reconcile these contradictions. Studies of advice books tend to focus on women and personal, domestic, health or relationship advice, perhaps because the contradictions facing women are more obvious than those facing men. In this exploratory paper I focus on a different form of self-help literature: wealth management advice. These books are addressed to those with power, unlike many other self-books. Wealth management advice books provide an insight into the competing imperatives of individual fulfilment, accumulation of wealth, loyalty to family, and broader social obligation. Wealth management texts articulate the contradictions that are often obscured by the familiar idea of provider masculinity. In this paper, I highlight the intertwined nature of economic and intimate activities and relations by identifying and analysing elements of wealth management advice.