Dr. Preston Cherry Is An Intentional Investor

If you write a book with a Stevie Wonder pun in the title, I am probably in your target market.

So, when Dr. Preston Cherry announced his book was going to be called Wealth in the Key of Life, I knew that this conversation was destined to happen, as much as I knew I’d be writing him an introduction where I attempted to crowbar every song title off of the double-LP classic into an extended play pun.

And it was all worth it.

Preston is a poet. Maybe not in the poet laureate sense, and maybe not even in the David Whyte tradition (at least, not yet), but he’s a poet in the sense that he’s always on the search for words to describe a situation.

I wanted to know where that came from.

You have to hear him talk about his parents. About how, at 18 and 21, they got married, moved, started a family, and set course to saving for the suburbs in one fell swoop. About how they made sure Preston and his sister were aware of the intentionality behind these choices, all growing up, and it manifested in all sorts of ways.

There was the grade school story he wrote, from his mother’s perspective, about a day in her life that brought her to tears.

There was the income obligation bestowed upon them as teenagers, where with some earnings there were certain household items they were now on the hook for contributing.

And there were the fog years, as he calls them, when after he moved out and tried to figure out life on his own, he struggled to carve that own path because surely there was an easier way than the way they chose.

Life is hard. Reflecting is essential. Teaching others, even if just by jotting down the stories or coming on a show like this to talk about them—it has the power to make the world a better place.

I have to believe it. I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen it matter.

Hear the way Preston forms sentences and thoughts. Notice his gift for labeling ideas. Laugh when we kid around at some of the ideas people take too seriously (there’s almost a Jason Buck or Jim O’Shaughnessy level of laughter in this episode, despite us both having colds when we recorded this haha).

All this life, all these stories, culminating with all the letters after his name, a family of his own, and a mission to help others find their financial harmony is why Preston Cherry is an Intentional Investor. Out now on Epsilon Theory YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts!