When She Has the Money: Challenging Ancient Conventions and Supporting the New Normal

McKayla is the sole inheritor to the fortune her parents made in their business. While she does not have access to her full inheritance, she is the beneficiary of a sizeable trust that is intended to cover the cost of her education, health, and housing. She is the kind of person who seems blessed on every front – she is attractive, creative, funny, smart, grounded, and focused. In her early twenties, she began dating someone who seemed like a wonderful fit for her – he was hard-working, committed to ‘earning his own way’, and excited about a life full of outdoor adventures with his best friend, McKayla. They were living together in a house they rented and paid for jointly. They even started talking about marriage. When McKayla was twenty-five, her parents encouraged her use some of her trust money to buy a house and take advantage of a hot real estate market. McKayla did, and she and her boyfriend moved from the house they rented together into a house that technically belonged to McKayla’s trust, but that they had picked together.