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In 'Happy Money' Ken Honda challenges our view on money and offers practical ways to cultivate a happier relationship with it. With real-life stories and research, he suggests ways to change our money mindset and use it to bring joy, gratitude, and peace.

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What’s in it for me? Learn how to live happily with money

Who are the happiest people you know?

Are they the richest people? The ones with the best paying jobs, or the biggest house? It’s possible – but not especially likely.

Money is involved in the answer, though. The happiest people in the world are the ones with happy money.

For the author, Ken Honda, money isn’t really about quantity. It’s about energy – how do you feel when you give or receive money? Do you pay for stuff willingly and enthusiastically? Do you say thank you at every chance you get?

Or do you let the thought of money weigh you down?

In this Blink, you’ll find out how to turn the money you have – and the money you put out into the world – into happy money.

There are two types of money: happy money and unhappy money – and the difference is energy.

In Japan, it’s not quite as weird as in the west for a stranger to ask to look through your wallet. But it’s still a bit weird.

When Ken Honda, the author, attended a party one day, this is what happened to him.

A woman he’d only just met politely asked him for his wallet. So he handed it over. She went straight for the bills.

“This is a good one,” she said, after examining the first bill. The second was good too – and the third. As she handed him his wallet back, she congratulated him. His money was all good.

She’d been checking to see if it was smiling or not.

Now, the author has written many books on money – he knows a thing or two about it. But this? This was new to him. Money can smile? And so, equally, money can frown?

The mysterious woman explained to him: it depends how the money has been given and received. Hand over a bill in anger or out of guilt, and that’s unhappy money. Joyously present it to a loved one, and it’s happy money.

In other words, money has energy. Money is energy.

And immediately, the author understood.

After all, he’s dealt with a lot of people in his career, offering financial advice to rich and poor alike. And he knew – he’s seen – that happiness isn’t simply about the amount of money you have.

He knew rich people living in fear of losing it all, or battling with a sense that their gains were ill-gotten – people with high-paying jobs they hated, for instance, or those who’d won a big divorce settlement. Of course, he also knew people struggling to pay their bills, who felt trapped in a very different sort of unhappy relationship with money.

And he also knew some people – admittedly not as many – who had happy money. They loved their jobs, made time for their families, and often gave generously to good causes. Were they the richest people he knew? They were not. But they were, of course, the happiest.

The good news is this: it’s up to you. Because we’re talking metaphorically here: maybe the mysterious party woman did possess some magical powers, maybe not – but the key thing is simply that whether money is good or bad is about attitude. It’s you, the giver and receiver of your money, who infuses it with your energy. It’s in your power to make your money happy.

Developing a healthy money EQ may involve asking difficult questions about your past.

It’s easy to say things like “trust” and “share” – but it’s hard to actually change your money EQ habits. How you feel about money is wired into you from a young age – even from early childhood.

One of the author’s clients was a wealthy 70-year-old man, who opened up about his early years. The man remembered that his mother had so little money, she struggled even to buy food, and couldn’t afford a birthday present for him either. He broke down in tears, as if he was a child once again.

It’s up to you whether you infuse your money with positive or negative energy.

Here’s a simple exercise for you: go to the mall. Just take a seat somewhere and watch. You’ll start to feel the money flowing all around you: who is buying stuff? How do they feel? What’s the energy like?

Let’s go back to that question from earlier. What is money? One simple answer would be: currency.

Kernaussagen in Happy Money