All of the work on The Rules and everything else you see here began with a “financial literacy” presentation in the early 2000s.

One presentation at the drug rehabilitation facility in Newark, NJ, led to a series of classes for men who were incarcerated. That’s where The rules began to evolve. That’s where we saw the immense challenges some people face and the immense obstacles that “the system” creates for them. That’s where we began trying to cut through all the B.S. (Boring Stuff) and focus on the most important basic principles.

Several years later, Ridge Kennedy wrote a book: The Richest Man in New Babylon. It is, he has said, “the book I wish I had available when I was leading The Money Class.”

After writing and publishing the book, Kennedy spent more than a year looking for opportunities to work with educators in the corrections system. Finally, in 2022, the first pilot class using the book was conducted at the North Central Corrections Institution in Gardner, MA. More classes are being conducted now, with lesson plans. A curriculum is emerging.

All of this work has been incorporated into a new book: The No B.S. Rules for Taking Care of Your Money (*No Boring Stuff).

The new book and this website are designed to make The Rules and this approach to personal finance accessible to anyone. But, The Money Class and The Richest Man Project are key parts of its foundation.

If you’d like to know more about The Richest Man Project, click here.