by –
Following our posts last week on mental accounting, here’s another concept I recently came across that you’ll probably love or hate depending on how emotional/logical you are 😉
(But you know me – I EAT THIS STUFF UP FOR BREAKFAST!)
Happy Money vs Unhappy Money:
“Happy Money makes people smile and feel loved and cared for deeply… It is in many ways an active form of love… Conversely, Unhappy Money is the kind of money you use begrudgingly… Money circulated in frustration, anger, sadness, and despair is Unhappy Money.”
It comes from personal development expert, Ken Honda, and is the focus of his next book set to be released this upcoming June: Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money
Here are some examples of these two types of money, taken right off their press release I got:
Happy Money is:
- The kind a 10-year-old boy uses to buy flowers for his mom on Mother’s Day
- When parents gladly pinch pennies to save a few extra dollars each week and send their kids to soccer camp or piano lessons
- Helping a struggling family member out of a bind
- Sending a few dollars to those affected by a hurricane
- Investing in a business or community project
- Receiving money for work or services from satisfied clients
- All money circulated with love, care, and friendship
Unhappy Money is:
- Paying or receiving money as alimony after an ugly divorce
- Receiving a salary for a job you don’t like but can’t bring yourself to leave
- Unwillingly paying off credit cards with huge interest rates (J$: unhappy, but very smart!! And will turn into happy money when you’re done!! ;))
- Receiving money from someone who resents paying you — like an unhappy customer who says, “You don’t deserve it, but I’ll pay you anyway to honor the contract.”
- Stealing money — from anyone.
YES to all of this! Haha… Money can 100% feel differently depending on how you use it! It doesn’t necessarily mean you can *control* a lot of these circumstances or that it’s *worth* a different amount, but it surely can affect your mood and a bunch of other things that could follow if not reigned in…
Which I think is the main takeaway here, at least for me. If you can figure out how your money *affects* you, you can better adjust it towards reaching those goals and lifestyle more. It’s not about having “the feels” and then letting them be, it’s DOING SOMETHING with them so you can achieve even more happiness down the line! Or at least suppressing the more negative ones as much as you can.
It’s very much Marie Kondo’esque, only for your *wallet* instead of your things 😉 Something the book plays off of, especially in it’s marketing, haha…
But look how rosey this sounds?
“I believe it begins with gratitude… Instead of believing there is never enough, you begin thinking: ‘I have all that I need and I am so grateful for it all. I am grateful for the work I do, the food I eat, the car I drive, and all the money I make.’ When money comes in, you say, ‘Thank you’ or, as we say in Japan, ‘Arigato.’ Even when money leaves you, you can say it again, grateful for how the money served you or what it is bringing to you now.”
How can you go wrong feeling so grateful? Even though I know we like to talk about how to continually get MORE day in and day out on this blog, haha…
Anyways, I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on a couple of copies to give away if you like this stuff, but in the meantime wanted to pass it along in case it brightens your day too. You can check out Ken’s website or the book’s Amazon page for more info.
Arigato, my fine readers of this blog! I appreciate you! 😉
