Financial consultant talks cents to students

Cutting away sections — taxes, food, housing, entertainment, etc. — from an oversized dollar bill according to how they’re typically spent by consumers, William Busch finally got down to the discretionary 5 percent part: barely enough to hold on to.

It was the La Jolla financial consultant’s graphic illustration of the necessity for sound money management, which he presented to a class of La Jolla High students recently. It was a lesson taken straight from “The Money Ride: A Passenger’s Guide to Money & Wealth,” Busch’s primer for wealth management published this year.

“The inspiration came from observations of hundreds of people I’ve had as clients looking for common denominators of success and failure,” said Busch, a former high school business teacher who has drawn on his 27 years of experience helping people make smart money decisions.

Busch describes his book as “a very simple reference guide that kids can keep and a curriculum for financial literacy.”

The core principle embodied in it is that of the opportunity “vest,” an imaginary suit with five pockets — invest, spend, save, protect and borrow, he said.

“There is not a financial decision that does not happen in one of those pockets.”

The financial guidebook is filled with catchy acronyms describing simple truths about money management couched in terms easy for the layman to understand.

Busch elucidated common-sense principles from the book during his hourlong class lecture. The lessons gleaned from it are straightforward and timeless: have a budget, save 20 percent, don’t get weighed down with credit debt, factor in inflation continually gnawing away at earnings and savings, borrow smartly and discreetly, and always remember that time is money.

“Welcome to the Money Ride — it’s the ride of a lifetime, and we are all on it,” concludes Busch at the end of his 132-page, softcover book. “Work hard, work smart, have fun, stay positive and always be alert for opportunities.”

Learn more about “The Money Ride” at