A baby in a highchair, seated alongside their parent at a home office desk; this single photo captures so much more than a moment. It’s a vivid flashback for parents reflecting on the long, sometimes winding road to graduation season. Wasn’t it just yesterday when your biggest worry was nap schedules and spilled applesauce? Now, those days feel like a distant memory, replaced by college choices, job interviews, and the bittersweet pride of watching your adult child step into the world. Graduation doesn’t just mark a milestone; it brings every chapter, every emotion, rushing back all at once.
Whether someone you care about is walking across a high school stage, finishing college, starting a first job, or preparing for a new chapter away from home, graduation marks more than the completion of a school year. It marks a transition into greater independence.
At Schmidt Financial Management, many of our clients are not only thinking about how to celebrate these milestones but also about how to support the next generation in meaningful, practical, and lasting ways.
A graduation gift can be more than a check, a suitcase, or a congratulatory card. It can be a doorway into important conversations about responsibility, confidence, money, values, and adulthood.
There are many thoughtful ways to celebrate a graduate. Some families choose to give cash, contribute to a 529 plan, fund an existing UTMA account, or give shares of stock in a company that has meaning to the graduate. Others choose an experience, a practical tool for the next stage of life, or a book that can help prepare them for what comes next.
The most meaningful gifts are often the ones that do more than mark the moment. They help the graduate take the next step. That is especially true for young adults who are entering a season full of firsts: their first apartment, first full-time job, first real paycheck, first benefits enrollment, first budget, first tax questions, and first major financial decisions.
For parents, grandparents, caregivers, partners, and other trusted supporters, the challenge is often knowing how to help without overstepping. Many people want to offer support while also helping the young adult in their life build confidence, independence, and good decision-making skills.
That is where financial education can become one of the most valuable gifts of all.
Earlier this year, advisors Evan Schmidt and Dominic Hubert had the opportunity to speak with Dialog Founder and author Raffi Grinberg. Raffi is a previous Boston College professor and the author of How to Be a Grown Up: The 14 Essential Skills You Didn’t Know You Needed (Until Just Now), one of the Next Big Idea Club’s recommended reads from 2025. (Watch this video if you want a humorous glimpse into the book's intent.)
The conversation centered on a topic many families care deeply about: how to help young adults prepare for real life in practical, confidence-building ways.
Raffi’s book is not only about money. It is about the broader set of skills young adults need as they step into independence. But financial decision-making is woven into so many of those early adult experiences. Budgeting, managing bills, understanding tradeoffs, navigating work, and asking good questions are all part of becoming more capable and self-sufficient.
For high school and college graduates, this kind of guidance can be especially helpful because it meets them where they are. It does not assume they already know everything. It also does not talk down to them. Instead, it gives them a practical starting point.
One of the reasons we found this conversation so valuable is that it was relevant not only to graduates but also to the people cheering them on.
Many families, caregivers, and mentors want to talk about money, responsibility, and independence, but they are not always sure how to begin. A book like this can create a natural opening. It gives the graduate something useful, but it also gives their support system a shared language for bigger conversations.
Questions like these can become easier to discuss:
What does financial independence look like at this stage?
What expenses should a young adult be prepared to manage?
How can loved ones offer support without removing responsibility?
What skills would make this next chapter feel less overwhelming?
What does it mean to make thoughtful decisions with money?
These conversations do not have to be formal. They can happen over dinner, during a graduation celebration, while helping a student move into a dorm or apartment, or as a young adult prepares to start a new job.
This graduation season, Schmidt Financial Management is sharing Raffi’s book with many client families whose high school or college graduates may benefit from it, as well as those who have adult children making some of their first life decisions.
To make the book even more useful, we also created a reading companion with Schmidt's insights and advisor takeaways. The goal is to help graduates, young adults, and families engage with the material in a way that feels approachable and relevant.
We know not every graduate is equally excited to sit down and read a book about life skills or financial responsibility. So, the companion offers several ways to engage with the material, depending on the individual reader or graduate. Some may want to read the book cover to cover. Others may prefer to focus on the chapter most relevant to their next step. Parents, grandparents, partners, or mentors may use it as a conversation starter or a door into having conversations that matter. The point is not to make financial education feel like homework. The point is to help young adults feel more prepared for the decisions ahead.
Graduation is a moment worth celebrating. Schmidt knows it is also a natural opportunity to pause and ask: What kind of support will matter most in the years ahead?
For some graduates, the answer may be financial help. For others, it may be practical wisdom, encouragement, accountability, or simply a trusted person willing to answer questions as they arise.
At Schmidt, we believe meaningful financial education can help families bridge that gap. It can turn a milestone into a conversation and a gift into something that continues to provide value long after graduation day.
Schmidt clients have access to the full author interview with Raffi in our Client Learning Center. But we will also share select clips and insights on our social channels over the summer. We hope these moments help graduates and the people supporting them think more intentionally about what it means to step into what comes next.