Happy Money / Ken Honda
RATINGS
Overall: 4 / 5 stars
Text Level: Medium
Entertainment: Medium
Self-Help: High
Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Philosophy, Self Help, Spirituality, Personal Finance
Page Count: 240
Is this book right for my inmate and me?
Do you feel that if you only had more money, all your life’s problems would be solved? Or do you feel all your troubles stem from not having enough money? This book can help change your emotional relationship about how you see money in your life.
Review By: Blackbird (Inmate)
Learning how to view money in an emotionally healthy way.
How do we react emotionally to the money we have? For inmates and the family member of inmates, this is often where our financial troubles stem from. Many of us come from lives and homes where money is a scarce resource, and from a young age experience negative emotions about money. These childhood experiences and feeling that ‘there is just never enough of it,' continue to shape how we see, make, and use money throughout adulthood. Numerous inmates grew up in poverty and this has skewed the way we approach our financial situation to be fear-based, or to believe that if we only had more money, it would solve all other problems we face.
Author Ken Honda in Happy Money challenges the reader’s perceptions towards money, so that we can change our financial circumstances first by building a healthy emotional view towards money, ourselves, and our capabilities. He introduces the concepts of Money IQ (intelligent quotient) and Money EQ (emotional quotient), presenting that for us to achieve happiness AND financial wellbeing, both are necessary. While many finance books focus on teaching readers financial intelligence on topics like stock investment, Ken Honda’s book digs deeper into the intentions and motivations behind how we make, spend, protect, and increase money. His goal is not simply to help us become a ‘millionares’ but to guide us into becoming ‘happy little millionares,’ who make money by offering our passion and unique talents to the world, investing in things that make us happy, sharing our wealth to expand happiness. Additionally, he defines numerous Money EQ Personality Types, such as ‘The Hoarder’ (the one I most associate with personally!), asking us to look closely at our own money habits, especially how we perceive and engage with money, so that we can change our fundamental relationship with money towards something positive and abundant.
Most importantly, he teaches us that a person must see oneself as worthy and valuable, first without money, before we can learn its true value. If our goal is to make more money for the sake of only having more money, then we can never find peace in life. This type of viewpoint leads to always viewing yourself in competition with others. Then we never realize that we are meaningful to this world no matter how much or how little money we have in comparison to others.
Many of us inmates have spent life in pursuit of more money because of social status, and in chasing the idea that if we can just have a little more, everything will turn around. However, this often creates anxiety and stress, and many of us start to see money as something to be used to show superiority over others, a status symbol. Being a ‘Hoarder’ type, I have spent a lot of money on things I didn’t need, on things that I couldn’t afford. I spun into a vicious cycle of needing more money to fulfill an emotional gap, which further deepened my need to hoard, spending even more on vanity items. Ken Honda’s book has made me aware about how my emotional insecurities lead to financial insecurities. It’s easy to lose sight of what is truely important in life; this book is great for first looking inward, to find inner value to realize we can solve all our life’s problems without seeking money as the exclusive answer.
Quotes:
“Start trusting life without money”
“Instead of comparing yourself with others, compare who you are today with who you were yesterday.”