Happy Money

So few of us see the potential that money has to bring us joy, gratitude, and happiness—especially when we give it away freely and with the same positive energy as we received it.

It is not how much you make or have that makes you have Happy Money or Unhappy Money; it is the energy with which your money is given and received that determines your flow. Whether you make a lot of money or very little, your money can be in either flow.

it’s those who figure out how to change their attitude toward and their relationship with money by healing their past wounds associated with money who seem to feel the wealthiest, regardless of what they have.

Sometimes people lose their money because they’ve spent way beyond their means, but other times it’s because the rules of money kept changing (or what constitutes “money” changes). Look at the real estate bubble of 2008. For years before that, people were told: “Invest in real estate. That’s where the money is.” Housing prices soared, and loans were easy to qualify for. But the “rules” changed. The housing market plummeted seemingly overnight. The houses that people owned—houses they were sure they could sell for double the price they paid, as they had in the past—were worth almost nothing.

People moved on to gold. “Gold is golden,” financial experts say when there is turmoil in every other market. But when the economy is good, gold becomes just a yellow metal that doesn’t generate any interest.

I would venture to say how we feel about money is what we can control. And that has more to do with our feelings about being wealthy than any real estate, stock, gold, or cryptocurrency market out there.

The concept of money is actually quite vague when you think about it. The money you think you have in the bank is not really there. Once you deposit your money, the banks lend it to someone else. So physically your money is no longer there. All that remains are those numbers you saw when you checked your bank account on your smartphone.

Most of us, however, trust the system we operate in. We trust that the banks will give us our money back when we ask for it, and we trust that we owe the amounts of our loans and that we have to pay them. We feel safe that our money is in the bank, and we feel stressed that we have loans to pay off.

“This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life.”

Some self-made millionaires try to show off their wealth as a way to compensate for other insecurities, but no matter how much they make or spend, their self-esteem never improves. They constantly feel that others are looking down on them or talking about them behind their backs.

But freedom can’t be bought with money. Even if you have all the money in the world, if your mind is not free, you lose the real advantages of that wealth. Unless you are able to find freedom in the present moment, you will always come back to the same emotional states even after you win the lottery or get a huge inheritance. Money can buy things that will make you feel happy temporarily, but without true fulfillment that comes from within, true freedom will escape you.

Just because you don’t have a lot of money, don’t think you can’t express love and gratitude for people. Big gifts are exciting, but we are really moved by the intention and feeling behind them. The amount of love given is not equal to the size or expense of a gift. We remember the emotional connections, our deep trust in people, the memories we have together.

Fear looks, sounds, and feels like control. Love, on the other hand, feels like the opposite. It is unconditional acceptance. It’s a willingness to trust that things will work out. It feels like letting go. Love feels a lot like just “being” in the moment—no anger about the past, no worries about the future. You’re happy to be here now. You are grateful. Intensely grateful for all you have, and where there is gratitude, there is joy and enthusiasm. And joy and enthusiasm make you happy.

“The key to success is, always lose just a bit every time you make a deal.”

Making money means being true to yourself and then being able to share your abilities with the world. As a result, you spread joy everywhere you go, and the money you receive is simply an expression of your clients’ or patrons’ gratitude.

Receiving means allowing yourself the freedom to receive and knowing that you have inherent value that is worthy of receiving good things.

For most, life is a competition: even when they earn something, there isn’t time to waste just enjoying it. They have to prepare for the next race! If they don’t, they believe that maybe next time they will lose to someone else. People in this competitive/scarcity mind-set are disconnected from the present moment. They regret their past failures or worry endlessly and needlessly about the failures to come. The result is that they never get to appreciate and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Isn’t that the same as having no fruits at all?

To experience abundance, you are required to be 100 percent in the present moment. In order to enjoy life and wealth, stop and smell the proverbial roses. If you’re always rushing through each moment simply to get to the next, you’re missing out on all the abundance that is available to you now.

Yet it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that many people are overpowered by doubt. And the road of self-doubt leads to only one place: fear. Fear of trying new things. Fear of doing anything. Fear of sharing your skills and talents. Fear of ridicule. If you want to become a Happy Little Millionaire, you have to muster confidence in yourself and your abilities.

People who are confident aren’t that way because they’re rich. They are rich because they are confident! You need to trust before you get money. All success is an outgrowth of confidence. And when we are able to trust the flow of money, both in and out of our lives, being confident comes naturally.

True abundance flows from enough; never from more.

Hoarder + Spender = the “Repressed Spender” type This is usually someone who saves up a certain amount and then spends (blows) it all at once.

Spender + Moneymaking Addict = the “Gambler” type Someone with this personality type earns a lot and doesn’t hesitate to spend a lot.

Hoarder + Spender + Moneymaking Addict = the “Worrier” type Someone who is a combination of all three active money types is most likely to spend every waking hour of their day worrying.

If you start imagining all the fun things you can do with the money you are saving, you won’t be able to worry at the same time. The human mind is very simple: it cannot process two emotions at once. Keep your mind focused on the fun, positive, and hopeful things. Your savings account—and your mind—will thank you.

Other findings are that people who love what they do are far more likely to be successful than those who are unfulfilled in their work.

If you price low, you’ll attract those who can pay those prices; if you price high, you’ll lose lower-paying customers but you’ll attract those who are willing to pay higher prices.

Wahei Takeda was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1932. The son of a local confectioner, he was taught by his father how to make cookies and sweets from a young age, and before long he was managing the family business. Wahei’s creativity drove the business, and when he offered the first cream-filled sandwich wafer in Japan, it was a huge hit. After his success in the confectionery business, he expanded into real estate and investing, eventually becoming so wealthy as to be known as the Warren Buffett of Japan.

If your money blueprint is full of happiness and joy, helping others and reaping rewards, then you will be wealthy. If it’s full of anger, hatred, bad memories, and feelings of competitiveness, your life will be filled with those same ingredients.

The goal is to feel as Wahei did: That you have enough. That you are grateful for everything you do have, and you feel you can give some away.

So a salary of $1 million a month in no way guarantees financial freedom. Our toys just get more and more expensive.

Joy and anxiety are emotions that come as a set. Running from fear robs you of life’s wonder.

We spend money so we don’t have to feel inferior in front of others or so we can feel superior to those around us. It’s that simple. That is why members of the upper middle class are constantly struggling to buy expensive brands to look wealthier than they really are. They don’t want to feel inferior to their more affluent friends, and they want to feel superior to those lower-middle-class folks they are trying desperately to separate themselves from.

Believe that you have more than enough, and if you need more, it will come from somewhere.

So what about the happy, prosperous people we sometimes hear about? They’re like unicorns! We’ve heard of them, but most of us rarely interact with them. But I assure you they are out there, and their relationship with money is completely different in every way. They earn money doing things that bring them joy—and that joy begets joy. It brings with it fun, excitement, and gratitude. When they spend money, they also feel happiness or appreciation. So stress is not a part of the equation at all.

All the memories, both good and bad, add up in your head and form a belief that money is a certain thing. For some people, money can create so many happy things. For others, money can cause pain and confusion in the family. It can be the source of anger, angst, and agony.

Your financial situation is deeply connected with your family history. As I said before, we are taught by our parents about life. However, we didn’t learn our lessons about money from them the way we learned our lessons at school. Instead we absorbed the lessons: everything we saw, heard, and felt from a very young age stuck with us. Perhaps you heard yelling and screaming over money, so you learned that you should yell and scream about money as well. Your parents looked grumpy when they paid the bills, and now you look grumpy when you pay yours.

For some reason we human beings instinctually equate our self-worth with our ability to get things or achieve things. If we receive good grades, accolades, or even presents, our presence on this planet seems validated. If good grades, compliments, or presents are withheld from us, we somehow take this very personally. Something must be wrong with us. Something must be terribly wrong. Then we look outward and compare ourselves with others.

You are responsible for the charge of energy you infuse your money with.

My mentor once told me that while money is energy, humans are like magnets. In nature, magnetism is a force, and it is incredibly useful in converting energy from one source to another. Money magnets—those people who seem to be in the direct path of the flow of money—don’t have to be morally righteous or ethical to be on the receiving end. Just as nature doesn’t discriminate—for example, a rock succumbing to the forces of gravity may fall on a good man or an evil one—money doesn’t discriminate either. Good or bad, money doesn’t judge. It simply goes where it is pulled.

Flow is your income. If you have assets, you can receive income from them. But if you don’t, you need to earn income by working. And life depends on what kind of flow you create. If you create a fun and happy flow, you can feel joy and excitement in everyday life. If you have enough assets, you don’t need to worry about work.

Blind faith and true faith are two very different things. Blind faith is a way of saying, “Everything will work out,” and then waiting for something to change. True faith requires that we put our faith in ourselves and our abilities, and use our knowledge about how money works to make sure we can move forward in a more positive direction.

If you have enough stock but not much flow, your money becomes a pond with little flow as well.

Happiness comes from working—and, yes, earning money and participating in the flow.

You often hear people say things like “What does that rich person have to complain about? I wish I had his problems!” Well, no, you don’t. Being perpetually bored, feeling useless, and having no purpose and direction is like being a prisoner who’s serving a life sentence.

One of the millionaire-producing occupations is, oddly enough, dry cleaning. Dry cleaners don’t have the glamour and prestige of, say, jewelers, but their money is as good as anybody else’s. Unlike jewelers, who have to work a sale over the course of several visits, a dry cleaner’s business is steady. They charge very little but they do so every day. And if they can do it for a long time, they can become very wealthy. Repeatable income is where many fortunes are made.

You know you’re in flow because, oddly enough, it doesn’t feel like working at all. Making Happy Money feels a lot like playing.

You can be insanely busy and still have peace of mind. Alternatively, you can have an empty schedule and be stomping on both your mental gas and brake pedals simultaneously. How long do you think you can go on like that before breaking down? In the age we are living in, our minds are more likely to spin at a thousand miles per hour during the moments when we have less to do.

The reason there are still shops everywhere, I believe, is that people still want to see things, be inspired, and have human interaction. We want to be where the people are, where there is great energy.

At its worst, life can be reduced to nothing more than aging, loss, suffering, and death, punctuated by only brief momentary pleasures.

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) estimates that 85 percent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 don’t even exist yet. However, AI is not going to make every job obsolete; in fact, it will create the need for a variety of new jobs.

There is a fantastic book called Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice by Gal Luft and Anne Korin, which is about creating alternative energy sources. The book draws on the history of salt, because for a long time salt was the only way to preserve food so that you could survive through the winter. This meant that salt was an all-important resource. Societies knew exactly where their salt came from, how much they had in reserve, and its value in relation to other things. It was, in other words, their currency.

The point is not that we will live in a world free of money; we will live in a world free of fear of lack of money. That is the key difference.

The pessimistic or scarcity mind-set, on the other hand, sees a future of class struggle in which the wealthy feel the need to hoard their money and invest only in things that serve their own narrow interests, while the middle and working classes feel resentment. And of course this ill will becomes a barrier to their own creativity, productivity, upward mobility, and happiness.

The rich constantly feel like their money is taken away to help others, and the poor feel like they are taken advantage of by the rich. No one is happy and everyone is afraid.

it’s intentional gratitude. The people who express gratitude often and consistently for what they have are the people who end up taking responsibility for their own happiness. They have a heart that is always saying thank you. And so, when it comes time to act, they are responsible—or, as I like to think of it, response-able. They have the ability to respond. They can navigate through the times of suffering, and they can also really enjoy the good times. They are able to be honest with themselves and others because they aren’t hiding from anything. They do their jobs with sincerity because they are actually sincere. A person like that is destined to create opportunities in their life. It is just a matter of time and the way it happens. It’s not up to chance. It’s not up to someone else. It’s simply one’s own response-ability to be grateful for what they have and be able to seize opportunities as they arise.

instead of worrying endlessly about saving and investing, you invest your time in relationships.

When you are totally connected to the present and living by your own rules, you can start over anytime you want. You don’t have to let the troubles or failures of the past paralyze you in the present.

We are afraid of so many things. We think it is about money, work, and people, but it is really about us and our fear of the future. We should not be fooled by anxiety and fear. Whatever we fear usually doesn’t become reality, and yet we waste so much of our energy on worrying. It’s such a waste of our time, talents, and potential.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t discover our gifts. The true tragedy of our lives is that we don’t even know what gifts we possess. I didn’t know that I could write until I started at the age of thirty-four. I was one of those folks who was surprised by what they could do! And I am sure you have some gifts inside of you waiting to surprise you too!

So many gifts go unnoticed and forgotten because of fear—fear of trying, fear of failure, fear of not measuring up to someone else’s ideas of who or what we should be, and fear of not having enough money to survive.

I have found that your gifts show up when you are ready to take responsibility for your own life. For some reason they announce themselves to us when we realize that we have only ourselves to count on for our happiness. That realization switches on all your senses and makes you feel ALIVE.

Everyone is born with certain gifts. Some people find them when they are young; others may need time to search. Uncovering your talents, and finding what brings you joy, is one of the most important things in life. If you are no longer burdened by the past, you will be surprised at how quickly your talents will be revealed to you. When you take an inventory of your life, all the dots begin to connect.

Trust and fear cannot coexist. It is one or the other. Trust makes us more active, creative, and free, whereas fear stifles our actions, counters our intentions, and creates resentment. When we trust, we are free from expectations.

When you are about to die, you won’t be worrying about how much money you made or how much you have in the bank. I highly doubt that on your deathbed you will be checking your bank balance. You will remember all the people you loved and the things you did. With any luck, you’ll be surrounded by those who loved you most when the time comes for you to depart this earth.