How to Worry Less About Money- Book Review

This book is excellent in its approach to the subject-pragmatic. It discusses threadbare money's hidden hold on every one of us, its role in giving us status, happiness, a better married life, dalliances, and opportunities to do good, for us or others, or whatever we choose to make of it. Especially the last. Without using it for something, it remains a pile of bricks. You could make a nice house out of it, but money does not tell you how to do that. That is up to you.

It is important to have a view about it, and a relationship with it, according to John Armstrong, the author. He quotes from or illustrates the lives of Goethe, Aristotle and also some mythical people to elaborate on his ideas. How much do I Need? analyses in a matter-of-fact way, needs, wants and absolute fantasy for each category of things you will use money for, in three columns. You can get by on the first, be comfortable with the second and luxuriate in the (mostly unattainable for an average person, but also unnecessary) third.

His message- I have to think about money rather than avoid doing so, but I should think of it as a resource. To live comfortably, and enable me to do things I like, and live a meaningful or fulfilling life. As long as the end uses are clear, I can figure out how much I really need. If I am in a financial jam, I will have to earn more or spend less by cutting costs. That is not a worry, it's money trouble. Worry has more to do with our relationship with money, and how we view it.

Further details can be found at http://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/how-to-worry-less-about-money/

4 comments:

Diamond Head said...

I was about to posit in a blog that MONEY is a tool to "BUY INTO a club" apart from the obvious need to socialize that humans find irresistible ...golf, networking events, gym, premium entry to social clubs like Linkedin that are software driven - yet there is always a freemium package -not really free if you really want to get benefits- which makes the need for Money even more critical (unjust but crucial) - where the only way to move ahead is PAY to PLAY?

Rajendra said...

Well, the economy needs a boost to keep up with the 'expectations'- and these pay plays do their bit!

Rajendra said...

In other words, the 'moneyed' have a role to 'play'..

smita said...

the author must have made good money out of this :)

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