MINDFUL MONEY and how it relates to happiness….

This is a book about money and happiness for which I wrote a foreword.  This is quite weird, actually, since for much of my life I’ve had relatively little of it, money that is, though it seems I was born not to miss out on a good chunk of happiness, for which I am grateful to the core.  I have worked with the author, Jonathan DeYoe, for many years. A decent, happy man, and student of Buddhism, he’s taught me a lot.  Primarily that my instinct to leave investments alone, and not worry whether they’re falling or rising in value every second, as some folks apparently do, is OK.  Also his cheerful no nonsense manner relating to financial matters makes it possible for me to bear knowing I’m required by law to save some money; and to take in stride the fact that so far this requirement has not helped me at all with taxes.

Just as I advise a close reading of other helpful books, for instance, WHEAT BELLY, by William Davis, I advise reading MINDFUL MONEY.  Coming back to this country recently after several months in countries where people are generally much slimmer and appear healthier, I was saddened to see so much suffering – at our country’s continuing decline in values of caring and respect – expressed in bodies that are seriously overweight.  If indebtedness is added to this stress, along with incomprehension about how money can work for us, and not against us, as it does in the form of debt, there is little chance for improvement.

MINDFUL MONEY reads beautifully also.  There are a few names of big wigs and “successful” but lethal institutions that may well make some of us cringe, but the learning is worth hearing about inevitable shadowy undersides of a business  that is  inscrutable to most people.  Just how does one approach the mysterious beast that controls so much of our lives, and is about as mindful as a modern day Minotaur: American Money? I would say by at least seeking to understand it.

It should go without saying but maybe not: the hardest part of investing (after realizing you must) is how to figure out how to support (invest in) what is good, or at least harmless.