Ray Boshara, a longtime Aspen FSP collaborator and contributor, has recently come on board as a Senior Policy Advisor within our Inclusive Saving and Investing portfolio. We sat down with Ray to learn more about his experiences crafting early wealth building policy and the opportunities he sees today for this vital work.

Tell us a little bit about what makes you tick. What are you passionate about? How do you prefer to show up in the world? 

I’ve always been motivated by the power of good ideas to improve people’s lives. So when—as a young Congressional staffer charged with finding new ideas to help move families up the economic ladder—I came across Michael Sherraden’s Assets and the Poor, I was immediately struck by how groundbreaking his idea was. Little did I know that idea would shape the remainder of my professional life.

When I’m not working, it’s my family, friends, and music that I’m passionate about; hearing live music with good friends and family really makes me feel alive. As I write, I’m flying to Denver to hear Gregory Alan Isakov at Redrocks with my daughter and son-in-law.

Share more about your long-standing relationship with Aspen FSP. How have you worked with our program over the years?

My partnership with Aspen goes back at least 30 years, starting with Peggy Clark’s Economic Opportunity Program and the precursor to FSP—Lisa Mensah’s Initiative on Financial Security.

But it’s Ida’s tenure that has really brought me close to Aspen FSP—first as co-authors of a book and then, earlier this year, becoming part of the team as a Senior Policy Advisor on Aspen FSP’s Inclusive Saving and Investing team!

Among the best things Ida and I did together, during COVID and while I was still at the Fed, was publish The Future of Building Wealth. As an advisor to Aspen FSP now, I’m eager to leverage many of the great thinkers and ideas we featured in that book, which tried to address the question, “What are some of the best ideas out there to broadly build saving and ownership among those who save and own little?” We elevated over 60 ideas and over 100 authors in that book.

Read the full article about early wealth building policy by Ray Boshara at The Aspen Institute.