It’s common
knowledge that building muscles takes dedication to
a process of gradual strength training, but few people
realize that the same approach can be applied to creating
lasting wealth. In Build Your Money Muscles, Joan Sotkin
goes deeper than most personal finance authors by exploring
the most common roots of money problems, then providing
routines for developing muscles necessary for lifelong
prosperity.
Sotkin, an entrepreneur, prosperity
guide, and workshop leader, uses wisdom gleaned from
years of financial struggle to illuminate a new path
for individuals tired of the empty promises of get-rich-quick
schemes. Rather than offering a quick fix, Sotkin proposes
that everyone has a complex relationship with money
and that once its dysfunctional aspects are transformed,
money troubles will gradually vanish. Each of the book’s
nine exercises contains background information, real-life
examples, and specific actions readers can take to enhance
their relationship with money, some of which are as
obviously pragmatic as keeping track of finances, planning
for the future, and dealing with surplus funds.
Sotkin’s advice can seem
deceptively simple, such as her suggestions to record
notes in a prosperity journal, get a buddy to do the
exercises with, develop a habit of saving as little
as a dollar a week, and account for every penny spent
in a month. Yet her unique combination of psychological
insights and practical recommendations is based on the
premise that people’s money troubles stem from
thoughts, beliefs, and emotions (TBEs) that—often
unconsciously—regulate their financial situation.
To illustrate how this works, she introduces new and
important concepts such as what she calls financial
vagueness syndrome, an unwillingness to confront the
reality of earnings, spending, and debt, and the Identity
Factor, a self-concept mechanism that keeps individuals
locked in dysfunctional financial behaviors and income
levels even amidst a sudden influx of money.
The emotional component alone
can spell ruination for someone who has just received
a large inheritance, won the lottery, or landed a considerable
salary increase. Sotkin claims that “the prevalent
habitual emotions expressed through finance—abandonment,
shame, anger, deprivation, and sense of being trapped—are
invariably rooted in the past and support an ineffective
financial identity. Uprooting these emotions and cultivating
healthy money feelings instead allows an expanded financial
identity to finally take hold.” Toward this end,
she guides readers to get in touch the emotions they
are acting out through money and then shift their financial
behavior.
The bottom line: Build Your Money Muscles is an easy-to-use
manual for anyone ready to develop a new relationship
with their bank account and willing to dig a little
deeper to achieve lasting wealth.
Build Your Money Muscles:
Nine Simple Exercises for Improving Your Relationship
with Money by Joan Sotkin (Prosperity Place,
2006). Includes 15 charts and 8 b&w illustrations.
$24.95. ISBN 0-9711719-8-0. Available at bookstores
everywhere and from www.ProsperityPlace.com.
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