Book review #22 of 2019. Happy Money by Ken Honda.

If you are anything like me then you have a less than ordinary relationship with personal finance and money in general.

I have been through and continue to go through quite a journey with my relationship with money and this book has helped quite a lot to see things in a less serious light and to shift my emotions and perception of money and all that it brings.

Honda is a very wealthy and accomplished entrepreneur and is, at his core an accountant. I mention this because, for me it gives more weight to this book. The book offers quite an ‘out there’ approach to viewing money as energy and without the author being ‘traditionally’ successful and grounded I think I may have battled to buy into the concept at a practical level.

My take aways from this book are numerous but here are three that I would like to share:

Practise gratitude every time you receive money. This might be your salary, a payment from a valued client to your business, a dividend or anything other form of payment. I realised that I take a lot of this for granted and I have begun to really appreciate this in my life and it feels good.

Wish your money well. This one feels a little odd at first but after practising it for a little while I get it. For me this is about being deliberate with how I spend my money and, as importantly, when I spend it to spend it with positive energy and good wishes. If you are anything like me, you will understand that this is quite different from my default which to resist and begrudge letting go of money, even when it should be a positive experience and transaction.

Understand and embrace that money, like energy needs to flow. This is similar to the above but at a more macro level for me. I have been, for the longest time quite obsessed with saving, accumulation and building wealth and it’s bloody exhausting. Taking a more open view to money and embracing that it flows in and out is a far better way to live and, interestingly often the way that we end up accumulating more wealth and with less effort and stress.

I wouldn’t call this book life changing, but I did really get value from it and it has been a very necessary reminder to not take myself and money so seriously.

I would recommend this book to anyone that has a less than perfect relationship with money.