At last, a mindful book about money that anyone can appreciate and understand
The Little Book of Zen Money: A Simple Path to Financial Peace of Mind delivers easy-to-follow steps for combining sensible saving strategies with mindfulness practices to achieving financial peace of mind. Finally, you can know how to fix your finances without feeling stressed out!
In this book, you’ll find out that sound financial strategy is far more straightforward than the financial industry wants you to think. It reveals the path to mindful money simplicity, showing readers how to adopt behaviors that encourage responsible saving and spending.
You’ll learn about:
- How to journal your spending and saving so you keep track of the money you have coming in and going out
- Easy mindfulness exercises, mantras, and meditations that keep you centered, rational, and calm when it comes to your money
- Simple explanations of the financial industry and how to invest responsibly that anyone can understand
Perfect for anyone who doesn’t usually like books about money (or the complicated jargon they’re often filled with), The Little Book of Zen Money proves that you don’t need to be an expert, professional, or mathematician to get great financial advice.
Table of Contents
Preface 9
Money 9
Zen 10
A Little Light 11
Seeing Emotions Directly 15
Zen Money 17
Introduction 19
Humans are warm 19
Money Is Cold 20
Money only appears complicated 21
Money Is Just A Tool 22
Zen Only Appears Simple 23
Wanting Nothing 26
Infinite Financial Security 28
A Simple Path To Financial Peace Of Mind 30
Here and Now 31
Chapter 1: Zen and the Art of Money Management 32
No Judgement 32
Money Stress 35
The Playground 35
The Fairytale Trove 37
The Mis-Education System 38
Best Times 42
Expensive Times 44
Fear Of Missing Out 49
Avoiding Bad Times 50
Money Can Buy Happiness - On Average 51
See Money Directly 52
Money Is A Tool 52
Time And Energy 54
The Jungle Is Neutral 55
Money Is Neutral 57
Money Management 58
The Simple Path 58
Through A Complex World 59
A Burning Forest 61
Education Is A Path 64
Begin With Small Steps 66
The Right Path For You 68
Is It A Path Or A MISSION? 70
Don’t Wobble 72
The Frame 73
The Podium 74
The Floating Buddha 76
Schrodinger’s Observation 79
A Better Frame 80
A Clearer Picture 82
How Much Is Too Much? 84
"Maslow's StairMaster" 84
Torches Of Freedom 87
The Thumb Treadmill 89
Be The Experiment 91
FIRE Worshippers 93
How Much Is Enough 96
Enough Steps 96
Stepping Off The Chocolate Treadmill 101
Maslow's Ensō 104
Zen 107
Scarcity 107
Living 108
The Zen Path 109
Chapter 2: The Path Is A MISSION 111
From Money To Now 113
The Money Step 115
Money Pots 116
Life 118
Store 120
What Money Isn’t 122
The Income Step 125
Three Sources Of Income 125
Working for someone else 126
Work for yourself 128
Work Stress 130
Work Plan 131
The Saving Step 134
Saving Always Comes First 134
The Predictability Of Not Saving Second 136
The Sound Of One Hand Saving 137
You Only Spend Once 140
The Profit Motive 142
Motivation 143
What Are We Saving For? 144
Two Steps: A Tiny One, and Half Again 146
The Spending Step 149
Not All Spending Is Bad 149
But Spending It All Might Be 150
The Save Or Spend Trade Off 151
How much? 155
We Need To Write Things Down 156
Beyond Good And Evil 158
The Investing Step 163
"I Want What She's Having" 164
The Confused Path 165
The Long-Term Power of Compounding 167
The Risk Of Not Investing 167
R-RISK 170
Small Regular Investments 174
The Owning Step 177
Freedom From Financial Concerns 177
Debt Is Not The End 179
Financially Free 181
A FIRE Of Your Own 182
The Now Step 188
The Boring Power Of Compounding 188
Live In The Present 191
Now 191
Chapter 3: The Path Is Practice 193
First Steps 193
Step 1: Saving Comes First 194
Step 2: Count to 10 194
Step 3: Write Down Your Spending 196
Step 4: Breathe more 198
Step 5: Collect Receipts 199
Step 6: Build The Faith 199
Step 7: Look Back, Look Ahead 201
Baby Steps 203
Step 8: Make a Zen Tracker 204
Step 9: Important… Notice 205
Step 10: Secret Zen Tracker 206
Step 11: Better Get A Bucket 207
Step 12: Imbue 209
Step 13: Degrees In Needs 211
Step 14: Think About The Week 212
Crawl 213
Step 15: What Is It Like? 214
Step 16: Easy As Pie 215
Step 17: Crawl Before You Walk 216
Step 18: What Else Could I Do? 218
Step 19: Triangular Breathing 219
Step 20: Take A Picture 220
Step 21: How Does This Feel? 221
Walk or it’s not about the money 224
Step 22 Sit. Walk. Don't wobble. 225
Step 23 Go for a walk 226
Step 24: Box Breathing 227
Step 25: Because you're worth it! 228
Step 26 Wobble! 229
Step 27 Give Yourself Permission 230
Step 28: Look Back Down The Path 232
You might be wrong 233
Step 29: Write This Down 234
Step 30: Who Have I Become? 235
Step 31: Zero Risk Fallacy 236
Step 32: Breath The Ocean 238
Step 33: Mindful Screen Use 239
Step 34: Mindful Spending 241
Step 35: Where Are You? 242
Challenges 243
Step 36: No Spend Days 244
Step 37: Fast Gains 244
Step 38: Breathe 246
Step 39: Work For Free 247
Step 40: Read Another Little Book 249
Step 41 Push Yourself To Breaking Point 250
Step 42: Analyse Your Finances 251
The Journey 254
43: Money And The Door 255
44: Cut Out The Income Middle Man 256
45: Saving Is An Action 257
46: Mindful Spending 257
47: Investing - Avoiding Scams 258
48: Owning 259
49: Now 260
