Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money

Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money by Ken Honda explores a calmer, more balanced way to think about personal finances. It is presented as a guide to developing a better relationship with money through a Zen-influenced approach.

Synopsis

The book suggests that people who feel most at ease with money often move lightly between having too little and having too much, finding balance between apparent opposites such as indulgence and austerity, success and happiness, and motivation and inspiration. It frames these not as either/or choices, but as points on either side of a doorway we pass through.

It also recognises that money can be an unavoidable source of stress, with personal finance described as complicated, time consuming and, at times, dispiriting. Drawing on Japan’s wider familiarity with Zen approaches to life, Ken Honda sets out a pathway towards rethinking attitudes to money, including beliefs learned in childhood, and presents the idea that healing fear and anxiety around money can lead to prosperity and peace.