Money, Family, College and Values | New York Times “Your Money columnist” | Author of the New York Times bestsellers “The Price You Pay for College” and "The Opposite of Spoiled" | Dad, Husband, System-Beater, Explainer
RON LIEBER
"The hardest decisions our families make are the ones at the three-way intersection of things that are expensive, complicated and deeply emotional. This is also where we need the most help -- and where we too often fail to ask for it.” — Ron Lieber
Ron Lieber has been the Your Money columnist for The New York Times since 2008. His most recent book is "The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make," and he also published "The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money" in 2015. Both were instant New York Times bestsellers.
Before that he wrote or co-wrote three books about gap years, young entrepreneurs and the best entry-level jobs in America. The gap year book was a New York Times bestseller when it came out in 1996, when Ron was 26 years old. He launched his online course about merit aid in 2023.
Before working at The New York Times, Ron was a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, where he was part of the paper's startup team for the Personal Journal section in 2002. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award, business journalism's highest honor, for his personal finance columns.
Ron lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his wife, the author and New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor, and their two daughters. Their family and Jodi's work were depicted in the major motion picture "She Said" in 2022, where Ron was played by Adam Shapiro.
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Parenting • College • Personal Finance
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Keynote Workshop Interview Breakout Panel
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• WHAT TO PAY FOR COLLEGE - The list price at dozens of colleges will pass $100,000 per year in the next few years. Already, those schools will cost you over $1 million in pre-tax income to pay for two kids over eight years. So when, if ever, does it make sense to pay that much for an undergraduate education?
Here, Ron walks parents through the four main reasons most people go to college, without ever articulating them out loud or weighing them against one another. He describes the three emotions that lead families astray and persuade them to spend more rather than less. Then, he tells the tale of how pricing got so complicated – and why people with eight-figure net worths often get six-figure discounts while lower-income families can’t afford many schools.
• HOW COLLEGES PRICE THEIR WARES - For audiences that want to go deep on higher education as an industry, Ron begins with the two questions so many parents who are also business owners and executives ask first: Why does college cost so much, and is higher education a bubble that’s going to pop?
Then, he pulls back the curtain on the private-equity owned consulting firms operating behind the scenes, renting algorithms to nearly all schools that help them set the net prices most families pay. College, like so many industries, is now a data business as well as a software one. Coupons abound, though the schools don't call them that.
But the residential undergraduate education industry is also one that aims to push the emotional buttons of teenagers and their parents. Schools are often very bad at that, as Ron demonstrates. But sometimes, the institutions are brilliant. Increasingly, families need to be brilliant too in order to navigate the system. In this talk, Ron helps get them there.
• UNSPOILING OUR CHILDREN - How do you talk to kids about money and what do you say when you do?
All too many children grow up in households where parents shush them when they ask questions about money. But there’s a direct connection between talking about money and teaching all of the values that so many of us hold dear – patience, modesty, generosity and perspective.
Here Ron uses allowance as a practical framework – not just for saving, spending and giving but as a portal to years-long family conversations about how to be in the world and what your family stands for. He offers up general principles that will change the way you parent and offer a blueprint for thinking about how you and your kids navigate clothing, phones, cars, college and charity.
TESTIMONIALS
"Ron’s advice to our EO chapter and to parents of my daughter’s school was invaluable. It’s been our bible for teaching our teenage daughter concepts around earning, spending, saving and giving. She paid for her first phone at 12 and her first car at 15 because we implemented these simple techniques at an early age. We are having him back to talk about his new subject of paying for college. Can’t wait! Definitely book Ron to speak for your group.”
— Jude Olinger, EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) Louisiana Chapter President
"Ron is a charismatic speaker and incredibly personable. He was equally effective in front of an audience of over 100 people as he was engaging to a small group of 10. His talk is informative, thoughtful, and fun. He had done his homework on our city – knew all the local landmarks and food spots to reference, as well as the general economics. His presentation felt like it was just for us. The feedback from our guests has all been raves and we are still riding high a week later.”
— Robyn Schein – Minneapolis Foundation
”Ron Lieber is a gift.”
— Scott Galloway
