‘Most parents would rather talk about a condom than a credit card’

Writing a 10,000-word children’s book about money was personal for Mellody Hobson. Even if she is now one of the most powerful women in finance, money was once something that made her feel powerless. She is the youngest of six children, brought up by a single mother in Chicago, and her childhood was marked by financial insecurity: the family was occasionally evicted and the lights would turn off when the electricity bill couldn’t be paid. Hobson credits her mother with giving her a practical understanding of money and how much things cost by talking to her about bills and rent, and having her calculate the tip if they ate at a restaurant.

“We talked about money because it was a problem in our household,” says the 55-year-old co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments – she’s also on the board of JP Morgan and lead independent director of Starbucks, among other roles. “In some ways that was traumatic, because there were times I knew there was no way we could pay the bill.” As she talks in the living room of her New York penthouse apartment, with extraordinary views and a museum-worthy art collection, her unyielding eye contact bores straight into my soul. “In other ways, it was extremely enlightening . . . I had a clear sense of what I needed to do to take care of myself. I am very much trying to teach that to my daughter.”

Hobson’s new book, Priceless Facts About Money, is geared towards children the same age as her daughter, Everest, who is 11. Hobson has long been on a mission to get people to talk about money with their children. She cites a survey statistic: 77 per cent of Americans are anxious or uncomfortable when it comes to money. “Most parents would rather talk about a condom than a credit card,” she says. 

Hobson could write books on finance for the most sophisticated investors, but she chose children. That money fear from her early years still looms large for her. Her husband – Hobson married Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas, Everest’s father, in 2013 – helped her understand why. “George always says this to me: the one thing about being a child is that whatever happens to you stays with you, because you don’t have any advanced reasoning skills,” she says. 

(Hobson often starts sentences with “George always says…” An infinite supply of wisdom is a perk of being married to “Yoda’s dad”, as Hobson refers to him. In the Hobson-Lucas kitchen, not far from a Keith Haring artwork, there is a toaster in the shape of a stormtrooper.)

I had a clear sense of what I needed to do to take care of myself. I am very much trying to teach that to my daughter

Priceless Facts is an 80-page wild ride through the history of money, full of zany information about the global financial system, as well as an alarming reminder of the faecal matter present on dollar bills (Hobson also got the memo about a child’s obsession with scatological humour). It’s ambitious and it’s fun, with a decent dose of lore. It came about when Hobson, frustrated with the dearth of financial literacy in the American education system, decided “to stop admiring the problem” and do something about it. The book debuted at number four on The New York Times bestseller list when it was published this autumn.

“I was probably a little ambitious in my mind – and all my friends know this – but I was like, ‘I want a bestseller,’” she says, laughing. “I want it to be something that people actually buy and read.”

Hobson’s early financial education sometimes led to extremes: she found her own orthodontist and began to finance it herself in fifth grade. And as a young adult, other financial lessons were still learned the hard way. As a student at Princeton, she charged a ski trip with classmates to her credit card. When she couldn’t pay it off, debt collectors called her college dorm room. “I literally knew, in that moment, wow, I’m repeating the cycle,” she says, “Nothing was worth that anxiety that I felt, no trip, no belonging, no being with my friends.”

Even though we are talking in a penthouse pied-à-terre, her recurring nightmare is waking up one day with nowhere to live. “I’ve been dealing with that relationship with money since I was an intern at Ariel at 19 years old,” she says. Getting a job in finance, “I was like, this is my therapy,” she says. With money, “it was never about quantity, it was about knowledge. And I’m still on that same quest.” 

Hobson has worked at Ariel for more than three decades, and jokes that she is the only one of her classmates who has had the same number since graduation. Ariel’s founder, John W Rogers, impressed with Hobson’s intelligence, work ethic and verve, acted as one of her mentors, tapping her early on as a potential leader for his firm. She began in the client services and marketing department, but travelled with Rogers everywhere he went for years, a pseudo chief of staff. Introducing her to Vanguard founder Jack Bogle on a train ride from New York to Philadelphia, Rogers told the businessman he wanted Hobson to be president of Ariel by the time she was 30 – the board wouldn’t let it happen before then. 

I want the book to be something that people actually buy and read

Indeed Hobson’s superpower might be in her ability to attract extraordinary mentors and teachers, and see every knock as an opportunity to learn. Her stories are often in the form of lessons and anecdotes from others. She credits former senator Bill Bradley with giving her difficult feedback at a breakfast when she was 23 – he told her not to be a “ball hog” (Bradley was also a professional basketball player). It transformed the way she carried herself. They remained close. He walked her down the aisle when she got married. As she rose within Ariel, becoming president in 2000, she gained board spots at Estée Lauder and Dreamworks Animation, where she served as chair. (Talking about the movie business at a conference was how she met Lucas.)

Hobson is a regular red-eye flyer, zipping between the West Coast, Ariel’s headquarters in Chicago, and New York. She spends most of her time outside of San Francisco on Skywalker Ranch with her family. “We don’t show up at parties. We watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy with an 11-year-old,” she says. “The other day, George tried to get Everest to watch The Golden Girls.”

She recognises that Everest’s financial reality is vastly different from her own experience, and she works consciously to manage the way she perceives value and abundance. Every year, Everest brings some of her birthday presents to donate to a Chicago church, where she learned that not all kids get new toys, not all kids live with their parents and not all parents are fortunate enough to have jobs.

“We tell her, you just got lucky – you’re not special. That’s a message that is hard to deliver… That she didn’t earn any of it, but also not making her feel burdened by any of it so she feels safe and secure but not entitled,” she says. “I’m very aware of some of the excess in my life, and I’m very aware of where I must be very intentional.” 

Yoda’s dad also provides a helpful grounding. “George always pushes,” continues Hobson of her husband. “He’s like, you want joy. Joy lasts a long time. You don’t want pleasure. Pleasure is very fleeting. You can only live on pleasure for a little bit and then you need more.”

She fell in love with Lucas’s mind – as well as their shared values. Lucas did not have the funding to go to art school; he got his earliest break in cinema thanks to a Warner Brothers’ student scholarship. “I’ve always been in awe of him,” she says. “He has big ideas all the time… Like building a museum. Who builds a museum, for God’s sake?”

Currently, the couple are working together on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will focus on all forms of visual storytelling, including painting, photography, sculpture, illustration, comic art, performance and video; it is expected to open in Los Angeles in 2026. “It’s as important as anything he’s ever done,” she says of the project. But it turns out building a museum is “really hard. Hard. Hard”. 

“George said to me just this week, when it’s open we’re going to be proud of it and we are going to know that this is an important thing for society. It’s not for self-aggrandising, it’s just that we can leave behind something.” 

Despite her achievements, Hobson is not too bothered by her own legacy. She tells a story I heard about a time when Lucas told her that he had no doubt she was going to get to the top of whatever mountain she was climbing – he just worried that when she got there, it was going to be cloudy and she would say, “I can’t see anything!” “I think he was trying to help me see that there is no perfect ending,” she says. “Most things aren’t black and white. There’s so much grey in everything.”

More immediately, she has another book to write. Priceless Facts About Money is conceived as the first of a pair of books. Another for young adults is planned for when Everest enters high school. It will deal with more complex concepts, like debt and credit cards. Hobson still uses the same green Amex card she got in 1997 – a nod to one of her idols, Warren Buffett. “It’s never been declined,” she says.