We’re always open to charitable inspiration, and I recently found it in a book called Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.

Huguette Clark, the daughter of William A. Clark, a former U.S. Senator and copper magnate, lived a fulfilling life—though marked by her own unique style—that ended with the last 20 years in a hospital and an estate worth more than $300 million. The centenarian never worked for a dollar and didn’t seem much interested in business. Her real talent was giving money away and seeing others enjoy it. She personally orchestrated gifts of cash to employees and toys to their children. She even included complete strangers and often arranged recurring gifts for the entire life of the recipient.

No matter how big or small the scale, charitable giving can bring the same amount of joy to you as it did for Clark. She never failed to embrace the excitement in making someone else’s life a little bit better.

Warren Buffett attributes part of his success to what he calls winning the Ovarian Lottery. He was born to parents in the U.S. who supported him and he grew up at a time when his financial skills at allocating capital provided great rewards.

My wife, Lynn, and I agree with his assessment and believe that luck has been a huge part of our lives. That belief is at the core of why we support children’s charities. Our two favorites, described below, give kids who aren’t ovarian lottery winners a better chance at living a good life.

Angels’ Arms keeps foster siblings together by furnishing homes and providing resources for foster parents. Founded in 2000, Angels Arms currently has 10 homes located throughout the St. Louis area.

Epworth Children’s Home provides housing, education and counseling to children of ages 12-20 who suffered abuse or neglect. More than 5,300 youth and families turn to Epworth each year for emergency shelter, family reunification therapy, transitional and independent living programs, special education, foster family care, prevention services and a 24-hour help line.

One of our favorite bloggers, Seth Godin, recently wrote about a topic that he’s rarely mentioned in his daily blog and more than a dozen books: money. It’s a topic that is near and dear to us.

This recent post is worth the 60-second read to help you think about what money means to you. Seth says, “before there’s money, there’s a story,” which is precisely the reason that the first thing we want to know when meeting a future client is “what’s your story?”

Our personal stories often have a huge impact on how we feel about money. How we feel about money can have an enormous impact on our outlook on the future.

We want to understand your story so that we can build a long term investment plan that gives you confidence in your future—A plan that can stop you from worrying about the money and help create a better story for the future.

It’s not just at the beginning that we want to know your story; we know they evolve and take new paths. We strive to get regular updates. If you have lots to share, we’d love to hear it (314-448-4023)!

We’re looking forward to hearing your latest update!