He Started Talking to His Kids About Money at Age Five
The Flexjet founder started with giving at age five, added full financial details at sixteen, and says his kids now report on their estates and spending.
David Senra · From a $27,500 Charter Company to a $4 Billion Private Jet Giant | Kenn Ricci, FlexjetAustin Ricci, the youngest of Kenn Ricci's three children, had never flown on a commercial airliner. His father, Kenn Ricci, the founder of the private aviation company Flexjet, decided they would fly commercial to Tokyo.
They waited in line, checked baggage, cleared security, and waited for their seats to be called. As the plane prepared to take off, Ricci asked Austin what he thought. Austin said, "Dad, there's people on this plane I don't know."
Ricci tells that story as part of a larger lesson about raising wealthy children. His point is that talking about money early, starting with giving, creates trust. He called the result with his own family "an amazingly trusting group."
The family had unusual time together. Ricci's three children are about six years apart, 12 years from oldest to youngest. He had each child skip eighth grade for six three-week trips over the school year, from 2005 for the oldest to 2017 for Austin. He homeschooled them on the road, and each child helped build a curriculum around places that child chose, whether World War II sites, India, or Asia. Ricci said he wanted "to give them a love of travel."
He required two stops for all three: Auschwitz and North Korea. Ricci, who said he has now been to North Korea three times, did not explain why he chose those two places beyond saying the travel changed their lives.
Separately, he started family money meetings when the children were five or six. The early meetings were about giving, not investing. His daughter chose animal causes, his middle son chose Catholicism, and six-year-old Austin wanted to give to Disney until his father told him Disney was not a nonprofit.
Only later, when Austin was about 16, did Ricci share complete details, going through spreadsheets each year showing where the money was, how it would transfer, and who controlled it. Now 37, 31, and 25, the three children report back each year to the family of five on their own estates and what they spent.
Questions people ask
Why did he make Auschwitz and North Korea mandatory?
Ricci did not explain his exact reasons in the interview beyond saying the trips were life changing. Auschwitz is widely visited to confront the murder of six million Jews and others in the Holocaust. North Korea offers a rare, tightly controlled look at life under a totalitarian state, which is almost the opposite of an American childhood.
Can Americans actually visit North Korea?
Yes, but it is difficult and now heavily restricted. The U.S. State Department has barred American passports for travel to North Korea since 2017, with very limited exceptions, after the detention and death of student Otto Warmbier. Ricci's family trips happened before or around that cutoff, with the last in 2017.
Is it legal to skip eighth grade for travel?
Yes, if parents follow their state's homeschooling rules. Most states allow parents to withdraw a child for homeschooling as long as they file paperwork, keep attendance or curriculum records, and cover required subjects. Ricci said he homeschooled his children and had them build coursework around each destination.