I’ve been gathering for a long time to write a review of “Happy money: the Japanese art of making peace with your money“, because I had absolutely no idea what to write about happy money and how to write it. The book was as positive as possible and you read it very well, so it’s time to start reviewing it 😉
I was very encouraged to read the guide by comparing it to Marie Kondo’s book “Spark Joy“, which is a very pictorial and friendly way of talking about the approach to cleaning. What to do, one by one, how to plan the next task in such a way that the Cleaning Mission is a success. I think the problem here is that I don’t really know what I expected. The book was supposed to talk about happy money and all in all it said… The author talks about our relations with money. It is important how we give them energy, how we approach them every day. Ken Honda, tries to show that a lot depends on us. If we are happy with what we can experience with our finances, our level of satisfaction will increase. In one of the chapters he talks about, among other things, that people often deal mainly with fundraising. First they want to protect themselves for a month, then for a year, for several years. They still think that they have not enough and cannot enjoy what they have. You know, life from first to first is not cool and safe, but you have to find some moderation and spend part of our income on pleasures such as holidays, an interesting book or going to the cinema with friends. It is important that we allow ourselves to take advantage of the pleasures that we can afford with money. In another place of the guide the author mentions that sometimes he pays people a little more for services than they expect, thanks to that he gives these people great pleasure, puts good energy into money.
What’s inside the book?
The guide consists of a foreword in which the author describes an unusual event that inspired him to write this book. It started with a woman he met at a party asking him to show her his wallet. Intriguing, isn’t it? Then we have an introduction where we find out what money is happy and what is unhappy. Then we move on to the main part of the guide, where in the next five chapters we consider what money is to us and how we feel about it. The author also discusses the topic of financial intelligence, consisting of a financial IQ (intelligence quotient), which concerns the intellectual abilities that we acquire together with our knowledge of investment and EQ (emotional quotient), which is needed to deal with the emotions that accompany finances. In chapter three, Honda talks about the role of money in our lives, making us wonder if we are its slaves. The author wants us to look at what emotions money evokes in us: fear, anxiety, joy, sadness? Or maybe something completely different? The next part discusses the flow of happy and unhappy money and how to make our means happy. As it turns out, a few simple actions are enough. You can make a donation to charity, send a gift to a friend, or give money to a loved one who is just in need. In the last chapter entitled “Your financial future”, the author talks about how he sees the future of money. However, he does not focus only on our resources, but on the general future of finance.
Finally, I’d like to add that I found out a cool curiosity from the book. It shows very well the ability to enjoy money:
“Research has shown that the level of happiness grows with earnings, but only up to $75,000 (about 300,000 PLN) a year. Above this threshold, the feeling of happiness no longer increases because the stress of having so much money exceeds the joy of having it”.
But the saying – which is not healthy enough – also applies to money…