Money issues are a lot squishier than you have been lead to believe. The conventional approach to teaching finance teaches you the science of money, the formulas, and the math. But there is also an art to money. The emotional, spiritual, and psychological side. All the math in the world can’t help you navigate this side, which I argue is a much bigger and essential part of the equation.
We can’t ignore the math and devolve into magical thinking. What we can do is engage the creative side of our thinking and learn the art of money. When I saw that Bari Tessler wrote a book with that name, I was intrigued. What I found in her writing was an engaging balance of both the art and the science.
If you find the typical analytical financial advice works well for you, then you many not need this book. But if you are left cold and bored with them, this might just feel like sunshine on a beautiful spring morning.
Our Live And Money Require Creativity
Creativity in financial matters is rarely talked about except in a negative Bernie Madoff kind of way. Or maybe in the airy fairy “believe and you will achieve” nonsense. Behavioral finance has become a growing field of study. It has shed a great deal of light on what gets in the way of dealing effectively with money but I have felt it hasn’t gone far enough yet. There is still a strong bias toward the math and the assumption that you are always trying to maximize your financial resources rather than your life.
Are you maximizing your money or your life? Money is only the tool not the goal. Click To TweetEnter Bari Tessler and the Art of Money
Money is one of the last taboos. Mindfulness and conscious living have become a bigger part of more lives, and yet, the money side of our life is like the elephant in the room that no one will address. It sits there beside us intertwined with almost every aspect of our life. And yet we are afraid to look at it head on.
A Different Approach
Bari is a money therapist and a bookkeeper. A very unique combination that has allowed her to use a very different approach. Her conclusion is that absolutely everyone regardless of their age, race, gender, economic background, or musical taste, has shame and stuck places around money. So this is where she starts, with the healing process. Healing of the shame and the unhelpful stories of our upbringing has to come before the math.
It’s Not Just Numbers
Money is really about our relationship with ourselves. You won’t see a statement like that in a traditional financial book. But it is the foundation. If you can’t improve that relationship, and challenge the assumptions and old patterns, all the math in the world isn’t going to help. This is the first section of the book – Money Healing. Bari gives practical advice to help recognize what is keeping you stuck in old patterns and how to break free from them.
Money Practices
The second section of the book is about the rubber meeting the road. Success with money does require systems to keep you on track and daily practices that ultimately lead to your success with money. But even this practical section is unique in its approach. Have you ever thought about your financial practices as self-care? Or renaming your budget items to a spending plan based on your values? Calling your mortgage “Home Sweet Home” or your car payment “Freedom”? Have you thought about including your intrinsic and intangible assets (health, creativity, intellect,empathy, etc., etc.) when you are tallying up your net worth?
This is just a small taste of the reframing that she suggests. How you think and talk about your money changes how you feel and ultimately how you act. This is a critical step in developing helpful money practices.
“To be a wise and good steward of money is simply to save, spend, and invest it in ways that align with my truest desires and deepest values. It’s that simple (and that hard sometimes, too).” – Lisa Bryne
Money Maps
Section three is where it all comes together to help you build your money map. Traditional thinking is built on the idea that more is always better and that the goal is always maximizing for money. But Bari takes the approach that you are always maximizing for your life. Money decisions aren’t just based on the numbers. They are only the numeric part of the evaluation. Consideration of your values, your phase in life, big picture goals, fulfillment and meaning are just some of the considerations to building a money map as she recommends.
The Life You Want To Live
The foundation to a good money map is the life you want to live. But it is never that simple. Some money decisions have no quick and easy solution, no matter how many spreadsheet and lists you make. Your life is always evolving, and presenting new questions and challenges. You map needs to be evolving as well. Traditional thinking is that we are always pursuing an upward trajectory. Reality is much more nuanced.
I barely scratched the surface of all the insight and deep thinking that The Art Of Money provides. It is a desperately needed alternative approach to real success with money. One that integrates the reality of your life, rather than an idealized version. I hope that you give it a read.
In the meantime, how do you think financial advice needs to improve? What is missing in the current way it is discussed? How would you make it better?
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