Reader Mailbag: Soccer Season and Preschool

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Adding partner to credit cards
2. Partners and rentals
3. Healthy use of emergency funds
4. Services you’re not knowledgable about
5. Short-term investment choices
6. Low-income money advice
7. Pre-tax or post-tax retirement
8. Outspending your income
9. Mortgage prepayment at low interest?
10. GTD without a partner

My two oldest children are enjoying two new experiences this week.

First, their fall soccer league is starting and they’re both on the same team in that league. They’ll be competing against other preschool aged children in some friendly three-on-three soccer matches in the coming weeks. Our four year old has participated before, but this will be the first time for our daughter.

We also enrolled both children in a private preschool. In Iowa, the state funds private preschools up to a certain limit, meaning that the cost of a private preschool is minimal or nonexistent (depending on the specific school). We’re both happy with the school we’ve chosen and next year, when we have to make choices about kindergarten and so forth, we’ll revisit what we want to do for education (likely public schooling, because our local school district is incredibly strong).

I’m recently engaged, but we won’t be getting married until after I finish graduate school (2 years). Currently I have 2 credit cards that I’ve had for a couple of years. I’ve never carried a balance, always pay on time, etc. and though I have a relatively short credit history, what I have is good. I was thinking of adding my fiance as an authorized user on these cards because I was thinking it might improve our collective credit scores for down the line when we’re looking at applying for a mortgage. He wouldn’t even be using the cards, but this would be more in the interest of adding his name in order to improve his credit history (what he has is good, but since we’re both fairly young, it’s not much). My questions for you are: do you think this is a good move? is it worth it to do this now, or would the effects be negligible? can you add someone as an authorized user if they’re not related or married to you?
- Kelly

Most cards allow you to add anyone you wish as an authorized user, provided you give permission for it.

The thing I would make sure of is that you’re both using the card wisely, because this card is tied to both of your credit scores. If one of you makes a “mistake” with the card, it hurts both of you. I would encourage you to actually use the card a bit, but be careful what you do with it. Use it to buy gas and things like that and keep track of what you’ve put on it.

A note: at various times, FICO has considered dropping authorized users from their credit score calculation formula. Although it hasn’t happened, it may happen at some point in the future. Also, some credit companies don’t report authorized users at all when reporting credit information to the credit bureaus, so this may not help your partner’s score at all.

I am planning on moving in with my boyfriend within the next few months. This has been a long time coming and we are not taking it lightly. We’ve been together for nearly 5 years and have talked about doing this for years, but don’t want to rush or do it for the wrong reasons (saving money is the wrong reason, it had to be about our relationship). Of course money does come into the discussion because we’ll both free up some money. We each own our own homes and we’ll be living at his place because we both vastly prefer his neighborhood to mine and my place will attract more stable renters. The agreement we both think is fair is that we’ll each pay our own mortgages and we’ll split the rental income 50/50. So if my house is ever vacant, then I don’t give him anything in rent, and when I do have renters I give him 50% as my rent to him. It seems perfectly fair and like a great solution. But now I’m not so sure. Moving to his house is across a state line for me, and my income taxes will go up 8%. Also, I set aside some money each month in a targeted savings account for home maintenance, with renters I feel I should increase those savings since any repairs must be done more urgently and more professionally than with me living there. Based on other rentals I’ve seen in my neighborhood, I expect to rent my house for around $1000 (mortgage payment is $1450 – housing bubble hit hard around here) so bf and I would each get $500, but the net income for me would be closer to $300 plus the stress of being a landlord. Suddenly our agreement seems less fair and I find myself a bit resentful. Any suggestions? (These numbers don’t count any of the significant savings we’ll both enjoy from not driving back and forth 20 miles each way several times a week, having only one set of utilities between the two of us, no more pet sitter to medicate my cat when I have to travel for work, and likely much less eating out.)
- Jackie

It seems like you have a very strange arrangement.

In my eyes, the fair way to do this would be for you guys to let go of the idea of “mine” and “his” and look at this as a mutual situation. You have a shared pool of money. From that pool comes all mortgage payments. Into that pool comes all rent checks. You’re responsible to each other for what comes in and out of that pool.

In the end, if you’re that serious about the relationship, these things are effectively both of yours. If one of you is in a financial situation, the other one is in it, too.

My husband and I are both 25 and working to get our finances under control. We currently have about $5,500 in credit card debt, and $2000 in an emergency fund. Every month, we contribute approximately $1,000 towards erasing our debt, so we plan to be out of debt in the near future. However, the unexpected expense pops up every now and then. This month, it is a $300 dentist bill. Do you suggest paying for expenses like these out of an emergency fund, or paying less on our credit card for the month? (At this point we have no “regular” savings account, and won’t until we are debt-free.) We just arent sure which is the lesser of two evils: depleting a very modest emergency fund or putting off complete debt freedom.
- Lauren

If I were you, I’d just have a certain amount – a small amount – going into the emergency fund each week or month. Let’s say it’s $50 a week.

Whenever you hit a speed bump like an unexpected dentist bill, you certainly can pay it off from your emergency fund. If you’re adding constantly to your e-fund, you don’t have to worry about replenishing it and you also don’t have to worry about that bill.

The reason for doing this is so that if a big emergency hits you, it doesn’t force you to backpedal into more debt. That’s the exact kind of situation that halts the forward progress people make, over and over again. They begin to believe it’s impossible to pay it off because they see every step forward being met with a step backward.

Don’t fall into that. Keep an emergency fund.

Recently, my kitchen faucet handle came off. I could put it back on but when I looked under the sink the faucet was leaking and I found black mold around the pipe.

I don’t know how to repair plumbing, have no equipment, and I can’t get under the sink because of arthritis and knee replacements. I don’t know any local plumber so I called one with a big truck comes to your house with everything including the kitchen sink in it.

Last year I had a friend put in a laundry sink that cost about twice as much as I was expecting.

These truck people quote you a price. It was more than $400, so I had him put it in. Then he asked about the water heater. He said it had a pinhole leak in the intake valve that had calcium around it. He said it could spring a leak at any time. Since all my books are in the same room, I told him to replace it. (He did show me the pipe old pipe). So my bill was adding up.

I had a $35 off on phone book magnet. If my bill was over $500 I could pay $50 service contract and get a 10% discount and a free inspection in 6 months.

Confusing? What options do I have if a semi-emergency plumbing incident again.
- Linda

$400 to replace a kitchen faucet and a pipe under the sink? That seems high to me, even if you’re in an urban area where plumbers charge an arm and a leg. That’s a pretty simple repair.

Your best bet is usually to get estimates from multiple plumbers for non-emergency situations like this, especially the second one.

For most people – those who are able to get under the sink – I would usually suggest having some plumbing tape at home so that when such a leak occurs, you can wrap the leak thoroughly in plumbing tape for a short-term fix before calling around for estimates. However, in your situation (with arthritic knees), that may have just been an emergency you had to deal with.

I recently received a severance package from a layoff and am re-employed. From this severance, I paid off credit card debt and my car and now have $33,000 remaining in savings. I would like to ear-mark this for my 16-year old son’s college education which is coming up in a couple of years. Where should I put this money in the mean time? CD’s are earning awful returns!
- Jenny

Cash is probably the best place to keep it if you want to retain the balance.

There are no conservative investments that are returning very well right now, for various reasons. Thus, it’s not surprising that people are trying to find a better return for their money than would be offered in cash or CDs or bonds.

The problem is that the options that have the potential to return more are pretty unstable, especially over the short term. I would not put my money into stocks or real estate if I had to pull the money out in just two years – the risk is too great.

Your best bet is probably to open a 529 college savings account, put the money in there in something conservative, and wait.

I just graduated from school in May. I’m trying to make it as a writer because it’s what I love to do. At least to start, I’m not going to be making a lot of money. I have about $1,800 in my checking account. I’m still living at home, but will be working full time for a magazine, where I’ll get $750 dollars a month for 6 months. Then, the position hopefully will turn into a salaried one. I just opened a checking and savings account with ING. How much money should I keep in each account? Also, is there any way I should be saving for retirement now? I have about $4,000 in stocks and bonds from my grandparents, as well as $2,000 in another account from them. Would you recommend moving this money anywhere? I’m kind of lost right now. I’d really appreciate any advice.
- Ryan

Writing – especially early in a career – has extremely uneven income. There’s just no way around it – you’re not a known entity, so you’re going to have a heavy luck factor when it comes to finding work. You might get a bunch of it – or you might get nothing for months.

Because of that, I wouldn’t jump the gun on retirement savings until I had some sort of income stability. Instead, I’d hold the cash as an emergency fund.

As for the other assets, since you’ll probably be needing them for living expenses in the next year or two, your best bet is to move the money to someplace safe. I’d put all of it into savings for the time being, then perhaps move it into retirement or elsewhere if you find yourself in a stable financial position.

I am 23 and I started working at a new job, straight out of college and I am maxing out my retirement account contributions. My question is, should these contributions be going in pre-tax or after-tax? My income is very high for my age (~75K), so I am not sure of the benefits of pre-tax vs. after tax. I am currently contributing pre-tax money. I have heard this is a greatly debated topic. I also have a Roth IRA that I have maxed out since I was 18. I would like to take the money out tax free when I retire, but would that hurt me since my tax bracket may be a bit high right now?
- Eric

My gut feeling is that if you possibly can, you should be putting the money in post-tax accounts, like a Roth IRA. The exception to this is if you are getting matching in your 401(k)/403(b)/TSP at work, in which case you should get every dime of that before contributing to a Roth.

Why? Every indication is that income tax rates are at historic post World War II lows. There’s really nowhere for them to go but up. Our nation’s budget has an emormous annual deficit and at some point, it’ll have to be repaid. Social Security will have to be propped up. The way to do that is simple. Raise income taxes.

Thus, I’d always bet on post-tax investments right now so you avoid paying taxes on the gains later on.

My dearest childhood friend is in a situation that makes her miserable. She and her long term boyfriend both work less than 40 hours a week at low paying jobs. They want to have more money to spend, but they are both unwilling to seek a second job or find work on the side. Although they have a lot of free time, all of the things they want to do cost money. When we go out together, I try to make suggestions of cheap or free things to do, but they are not interested.

I don’t want to see my friend unhappy, but she and her boyfriend have unrealistic expectations. They don’t want to work more hours. They don’t jobhunt for a higher paying positions, and they are not interested in going back to school or otherwise improving their earning potential. Yet they are constantly strapped for cash and are not interested in a frugal lifestyle. They live hand to mouth with no savings, and they will finance any unexpected expenses on their credit cards. They are frequently depressed and feel trapped. How can I help my friend in this situation?
- Sara

I don’t think there’s anything you can do to help them. They feel depressed and trapped by their own actions. At some point, they have to come to the realization that they’ve created their own problems through overspending.

Your best option is to just be supportive. Don’t fight them on how they choose to spend their money – just make wise decisions about your own.

One move you could make is to just drop a copy of a strong personal finance book on their laps, something like my own book or Your Money or Your Life. You’d want one that discusses people extracting themselves from tough situations and finding financial freedom. However, it’s up to them to drink from the water.

I recently refinanced my mortgage (Just over $100k) to an adjustable rate mortgage that won’t change rate for 5 years. This gave me a very low interest rate (in the 4% range) and a monthly payment of $500, a $230 per month savings (and I was actually paying an additional $100/month toward the principle, so in reality, I have an extra $330/month). My plan with the mortgage is to pay it off in 5 years, which I think is a very manageable goal for me at this time. (My annual salary is around $110k, I already have $40k that I could pay toward the mortgage at this moment, and I have no other debts.) In retrospect, I should probably have paid the $40k and just remortgaged $60k but for some reason that thought did not occur to me until too late. Should I pay toward the principle bit by bit or save the money myself in an account that I would not touch until the time comes to pay it off? I’m leaning toward the 2nd option because I’d get to keep any interest generated from the money, rather than allowing my mortgage holder have the money early. I am very disciplined and do not think I would be tempted to use the money for some other purpose. If I should save the money myself, what do you see as the best way to do so? I think I could put the $40k somewhere and deposit $1000/month for the next 5 years and that would make my goal. (This $40k is basically money I’m not needing for anything else, I wouldn’t consider a part of my emergency fund or retirement funds, and I don’t have another use for it at the moment)
- Laura

There’s nowhere out there that will return 4% to you without taking on significant risk right now. So, if you just want a riskless 4% return on your money, prepaying the mortgage is a good idea, especially when you consider that the rate will adjust in the future.

The big benefit of being rid of the debt is the monthly cash flow. It eliminates a huge monthly required bill, which gives you a lot of freedom, career and otherwise.

Don’t second-guess or dwell on missed opportunities. It’s really a waste of time. Just learn what you can from it and move on with life. Dwelling on past mistakes means your vision is looking backwards, not forward to the opportunities ahead of you.

The one thing I’ve struggled with since adopting the Getting Things Done tools is that I really struggle with watching my wife NOT using these strategies and knowing that many things she agrees to will slip between the cracks and never get done, or if they do get done, it will only happen when it’s an emergency (i.e. car maintenance, paying bills, etc.). Do you have any suggestions on enjoying the benefits of GTD but not allowing frustrations with others in your life not using the system to boil over into arguments? I would love to help her adopt the system, since she is incredibly busy and could really benefit from the lower stress level that results from using GTD, but she doesn’t seem to have any interest. Any advice would be appreciated.
- Matt

You have to determine which one of you is responsible for which things within your marriage, then use GTD to take care of the things you’re responsible for. You can’t both pay the water bill, for example.

Then, focus on taking care of the things you’re responsible for. Leave it up to your spouse to determine a plan for the things she’s responsible for.

Obviously, if you’re bothered by her inability to complete some of the tasks she’s responsible for, you need to sit down and have a conversation about it. The best solution may be to trade responsibilities around a bit.

Got any questions? Email them to me or leave them in the comments and I’ll attempt to answer them in a future mailbag. However, I do receive hundreds of questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours.

Continue reading Reader Mailbag: Soccer Season and Preschool …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

Review: It’s Not About the Money

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

I’ve always been interested in the areas where spirituality and personal finance meet. Blogs like ChristianPF and people like Dave Ramsey who heavily tie their faith into their personal finance message bring a completely different flavor to the table, one tinged with a sense that personal fiance success is a method of getting more deeply in touch with one’s spiritual side and that there is a faith-based calling to better money management.

It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel takes another angle on the tension between money management and spirituality. Kessel is a Zen buddhist who practices yoga and spends much of his time seeking spiritual enlightenment. His argument is that in order to find spiritual abundance, one must be free as possible from the shackles of personal finance, and that requires good money behaviors and money management.

Throughout the book, Kessel ties together the principles of Zen buddhism and the principles of personal finance, making a great case for how the two walk hand in hand towards a life of true abundance.

Let’s dig in.

You Will Never Have Enough
Our nature, as humans, is to want more. We’re always looking ahead to the next journey, the next goal, the next desire. We always have a concern of some kind in our hearts and we’re always headed towards something. You’ll never have enough.

That seems to run contrary to most personal finance advice, which encourages you to figure out what “enough” is in your own life. Yet, on many levels, I think Kessel is quite accurate with this assessment. There’s always some new journey to take on, some hill to climb.

Our real challenge in life is not eliminating that desire for more, but figuring out what goals we have. What are we really striving for? What provides us with the most thorough joy? Those are the directions we should be striving for – it’s fine to strive for more in an area where you’re thoroughly and deeply passionate and engaged.

The Unconscious Wins Every Time
We all have a story about ourselves in our mind that determines what we think we deserve. That sense of what we think we deserve drives how we manage our money. If we believe we truly deserve more than we have, we tend to spend more to acquire it. Advertising and social cues often prey on that knowledge, doing everything they can to make us believe that we deserve more than we have and this product or this upgrade is what we deserve.

It’s challenging to rewrite that story. It requires a lot of careful introspection and thought about who we really are and what we want from life. From this perspective, it seems clear to me that part of the impetus for our financial turnaround was my impetus to change my story from “successful young professional” to “good parent.” That alteration shifted my goals and priorities significantly and enabled me to make some serious changes to how we spent money.

Throughout the middle third of the book, Kessel looks at eight different financial archetypes. These archetypes describe the positive and negative traits of a particular mindset. Kessel notes, of course, that every person has some combination of these archetypes, and some mix better for financial success than others. Whatever the story is we’ve written for ourselves in life, it requires that we adopt some combination of these archetypes to make that story happen.

The Guardian
The first archetype is the guardian. Kessel identifies the guardian as being alert and watchful, wishing to protect something. The guardian is often full of worry and anxiety, but is prudent and always aware of threats to whatever he or she is guarding.

I have a lot of the guardian within me. At one time, I zealously guarded my career. Now, I’m more focused on guarding my children – I now see my career as part of guarding my children. That shift in perspective of how I view my career was a big part of why I made the leap to being a full time writer. I made less money, but my time was much, much more flexible than before, which made it easier for me to be a better guardian for my children.

The Pleasure Seeker
The pleasure seeker puts a huge priority on pleasure in the here and now. They want to have fun and enjoy life now and not worry much at all about tomorrow. Pleasure seekers tend to be hedonistic and impulsive, but they also tend to have a high level of enjoyment of what they’re doing.

Over time, my sense of pleasure seeking has gone down a bit. I’m no longer as concerned with maximizing my enjoyment in the here and now. I’m much happier engaging in things that fulfill my other roles in life. For example, I used to go out almost every night and have fun with friends. Now, I rarely do that – I often have much more fun at home with the simpler pleasures in life.

The Idealist
The idealist believes heavily in creativity, compassion, social justice, and spiritual growth. They tend to believe that their efforts really can change the world – and for the better. Unfortunately, because of their idealism and the crooked nature of the world, idealists tend to often be very wary of others, particularly those they see as obstacles to a better world. Idealists tend to have a difficult time with trust and are often averse to the suggestions of others. However, they’re also often compassionate and have grand visions.

Over time, my idealism has gone up. After all, I went from working as a cog in a huge organization involved with projects that tangentially were helpful to the world to working solo on a website with the goal of helping others with their money problems. I believe that what I do does help a lot of people, but I sometimes fall into that “no compromise” trap that idealists tend to fall into.

The Saver
A saver is always looking for security and abundance. They believe this security and abundance can be found through the careful accumulation of financial assets. Quite often, this means that they forsake spending money at all in order to save more and more. They’re hoarders and penny-pinchers. However, they often are self-sufficient and they usually have more than enough to ride through any crises, which makes them very stable.

I’ve never been a saver unless I can clearly see how it matches a goal of mine. Right now, the heavy guardian in me forces me to see the benefit in saving, so my tendency to be a saver has definitely grown over the past few years.

The Star
A star’s self-worth is rooted in what others think of him or her. They’ll save if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll spend if it’ll make others think more of them. They’ll give money away if it’ll improve how others think of them. A star strives to be seen as cool or hip or classy, and that often translates into pretentiousness and self-importance. At the same time, the star is often a natural leader – they often ooze leadership skills – and they often do a great job of setting the tone or style of an event.

I’m about as far away from a star as a person can possibly get. I really don’t care much at all what others think of me. I try to get along with others, but I don’t have any need to be a trendsetter or to be seen as cool. I’m just me.

The Innocent
The innocent tends to avoid thinking about money at all. Instead, they rely on good luck and the kindness of others. They just simply believe that over the long run, things will work out for the best. Innocents often are helpless and they tend to avoid financial situations, but they’re often very adaptable to whatever situation comes their way and they have a great deal of hope for the future.

I’m also not an innocent. I’ve never believed that things will just “work out” in the future.

The Caretaker
The caretaker gives and lends money to others. Often, if there’s a person in your family that’s always lending family members money, that person is a caretaker. They’ve got tons of compassion for others and lots of generosity. Unfortunately, they’re also enablers, meaning that their presence often enables the worst behavior in others.

I used to be more of a caretaker, but it was often in conflict with being a guardian, plus I often felt like I was being an enabler. Thus, I’ve pushed this mindset more and more to the background.

The Empire Builder
The empire builder is someone who thrives on power. They want to create something of enduring value, something that will last for a long time, and they’re quite happy to step on others to get there. They want power. Empire builders are usually greedy and seek to dominate others, but they’re also very innovative and decisive.

This is another mindset that I rarely see in myself. I don’t feel the need to build an empire of any kind.

The Middle Way with Money
Obviously, there are good and bad aspects of each of these money archetypes. They each exhibit both bad traits and good traits, and people often mix and match them within themselves.

Some mix poorly. An empire builder and a pleasure seeker together in the same person will throw a knife in your back and twist it without ever thinking twice, but they enjoy life from their perspective and they’ve often got power. These people can be very difficult for others to trust.

On the other hand, a guardian and a caretaker tend to mix well, as they seek to protect things but often choose to do it with prudence. People that others think of as being “steady as a rock” often mix a guardian and caretaker mindset inside themselves.

What’s the best thing you can do? Work to cultivate each of the mindsets a little, so that the good traits can be utilized and the bad traits can be counterbalanced by the good traits of other mindsets.

The Conscious Investor
I felt that this was easily the weakest chapter of the book. Kessel argues here that a successful investor utilizes all eight of the mindsets in various ways to improve their holdings and he makes a good case for each one as a tool to an investor.

The only problem is that the overall investing strategy talked about here is all over the place. It involves simultaneous long term investing and very short term market timing. It involves some “hands off” investing, but also talks about technical analysis.

Rather than presenting a cohesive investing plan, Kessel mostly just describes how the various archetypes can actually be useful for a certain type of investing. The only problem is that the mentalities that succeed at short term investing, if left alone, would result in disaster, as prudence isn’t involved.

As always, the best solution is a good mix of archetypes – that’s true in investing and in life.

The Yoga of Money
Kessel closes the book with a look at money’s role in a broader and more complete life. After all, money is merely a tool to allow you to do what you want to do.

In a nutshell, Kessel argues that no matter what your desires are, you’re served by having money in the bank because your options are much wider open. Of course, for some archetypes (like the pleasure seeker), it’s harder than it is with other archetypes. That’s why a balance is useful – it allows you to find happiness now but also seek happiness later.

Good money management allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.

Is It’s Not About the Money Worth Reading?
It’s Not About the Money is a very powerful book to read if you’re interested in the spiritual side of money, no matter what your faith. Kessel does a very powerful job of connecting the spiritual to the financial through the precepts of Zen buddhism – there’s a lot of thought-provoking material here, the kind of stuff that will leave you thinking deeply about what your role in the world is.

This isn’t a particularly strong book in terms of specific money advice. Instead, it works in the sense that it helps you get your bearings in terms of what you actually want out of life and how it relates to your money. If you’re looking for specific advice and tactics, look elsewhere.

It’s Not About the Money succeeds in making you think. That’s what the best books do.

Continue reading Review: It’s Not About the Money …

From The Simple Dollar.

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