Financial advisor's new book explores the American Dream

Financial advisor Mark Matson is the founder of Mason, Ohio-based Matson Money and the author of a new book called “Experiencing the American Dream.”
Financial advisor Mark Matson is the founder of Mason, Ohio-based Matson Money and the author of a new book called “Experiencing the American Dream.” Credit: Fortier Public Relations

A financial advisor who built a multibillion-dollar registered investment advisory firm shared his vision of how to achieve the American Dream.

"Experiencing the American Dream: How to Invest Your Time, Energy and Money to Create an Extraordinary Life" author Mark Matson of Mason, Ohio-based Matson Money rejects the idea that the American Dream is tied only to wealth, he writes in the book, which Wiley published last month. With a stark warning that, in the words of one chapter title, "The Investing Industry is Broken," and a foreword by actor Rob Lowe, the book seeks to explain people's relationship to money and how they can identify and live out their dreams.

"I wrote this book to help save people from speculating and gambling with their money and make academic investing principles accessible to everyday investors," Matson said in an email. "The principles in this book are for everyone. The American Dream is for everyone. I believe the American Dream is a mindset and not about money or a number in your bank account. Instead, it's about finding a purpose for your life that is greater than money. This book can help educate investors on how to build and protect their wealth so they can fulfill their purpose."

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The book followed other recent additions to the wealth management canon, such as a professor's compilation of stories that could make people smarter investors, a historical case for passive asset management and the career memoir of a trailblazing Merrill executive.

While advisors who are thinking of writing their own tomes should not "expect the book to be economic from a production standpoint," Segment Wealth Management founder Gil Baumgarten, the author of a 2021 book, "Foolish: How Investors Get Worked Up and Worked Over by the System," has clients "who I met specifically because I had written the book," Baumgarten noted in an interview.

"It's a mixed bag, but it has opened some doors for me," he said. "It shows that I have a different way of doing things."

Matson's book begins with a brief essay by Lowe. A mutual connection introduced Lowe to Matson, whose firm has $10.8 billion in assets under management with over 30,000 clients and 500 advisors. As "one of the most hard-working people I know," Lowe agreed to write the foreword to Matson's book when the advisor convened 20 "of the most influential people in my life to brainstorm how we could best bring this message to the world," Matson said. In the opening chapter, Lowe discusses his own ups and downs with money.