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  • Published: 4 June 2019
  • ISBN: 9780143788898
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $29.99

Happy Money

The Zen path to a happier and more prosperous life

Extract

PREFACE

Is Your Money Smiling?

A few years ago, I had a unique experience that became the inspiration for the concept and title of this book. A woman whom I had just met at a party asked if she could take a look at my wallet.

As shocking as this question might be to some, it isn’t particularly uncommon in Japanese culture to ask to see the contents of someone’s wallet. And since there were many other people in the room, I wasn’t afraid she would run away with my identity—or my money. So with little hesitation, I handed her my leather wallet.

I was a little startled, however, when she immediately went for the cash and began taking out all the large bills.

“This one’s okay. This one’s good. This one’s good too,” she said quietly to herself as she assessed each bill. For a moment I thought she was searching for something in particular. Perhaps there are special symbols or markings on the bills? But I soon realized she wasn’t looking for anything of the sort. Then she shocked me again and began sorting the bills in a way I had never seen before.

“Good job. All of your money looks good,” she said as she put the newly organized money back into the wallet and handed it back to me.

“That’s great news,” I said, confused yet somewhat relieved to have passed her test. “But, if you don’t mind me asking, what were you looking for?”

“Oh, I was checking to see whether or not your money was smiling.”

She went on to explain that money can laugh or cry depending on how it was given or received. If it is given out of guilt, anger, or sadness, the money will be “crying.” In contrast, if the money is given out of love, gratitude, or happiness, the money will be smiling—even laughing—because it will be imbued with the positive energy from the giver.

Money has the ability to smile or cry?

Money changes when it is given with a certain energy or feeling?

WHAT?

Even though I was already financially well-off at the time and thought I knew much about money, I was taken aback by these insights. You see, I had always been very fortunate with money. At the age of twenty, I made a choice to be happy and wealthy by the age of thirty. So I started my own consulting and accounting business, and during my twenties I helped many people with their financial and business needs.

In the process, I did all right—in fact, well enough that at the age of twenty-nine, when my wife and I had just welcomed a newborn baby girl into our lives, I had the freedom to decide to stay home and raise her. Those were some of the happiest days of my life—and it was the best decision I ever made. Not just because I was able to spend as much time with my daughter as possible, but also because it was with her that I discovered my second career: helping millions of others lead happy, prosperous, and peaceful lives.

It all happened when I was at a park with my daughter on a gorgeous day. We were happily playing, when I saw a mother and her young daughter—who was about the same age as my own daughter—fighting. The mother was distressed and in a hurry. She yelled, “Your mom has to go to work! So let’s go home.” But the little one kept saying to her mother, “We just got here. I want to play more! Please!” After a few minutes of battle, the reluctant little girl was dragged by her mother back home. I felt so terrible for the girl and her mother. I knew that if that mother had a choice, she would have wanted to stay in the park too. After all, it was a beautiful and sunny day. What parent wouldn’t want to be outside playing with their child? At that moment, I decided I needed to do something. I wanted to help not just this mother but all parents and people struggling to make ends meet. I wanted to take away her pain, stress, and frustration. So that very afternoon, after my own daughter was tired of playing, I decided I would write a short essay that would impart the wisdom I had gained over the years about making money and becoming prosperous.

When I first began, I thought I could write only five pages. But when I was finished for the day, I was amazed to see that I had written twenty-six pages in one sitting. I got so excited that I printed the essay out, stapled the pages together, and immediately started giving them away to friends. To my surprise, they loved it. Soon strangers began to call me and say they had heard about it and wanted copies of their own. So every day for several days I printed copies, stapled them together, and sent them to whoever wanted one. However, I quickly tired of stapling booklets together each day. After complaining to a friend about the process, he suggested a local printer. The salesperson on the phone talked me into ordering a 3,000 print run to cut down on costs. And, without thinking, I said okay!

Before I knew it, two trucks came to my home to drop off what looked like a warehouse full of boxes. You can imagine my wife’s face when she saw the pallets of books, which filled an entire room in our house. Being the nice person she is, she forgave me. Sort of. She would let it slide this one time with one caveat: I had a month to get rid of all the boxes.

So what did I do? I started handing the booklets out to everyone I knew—and people I didn’t. But when they were all gone, I continued to get requests and orders. At first I didn’t know if people were requesting them because the content was good or because it was free. Nevertheless, I knew I was onto something. And when I reached 100,000 copies given away, I definitely knew. At that point a publisher actually called me and asked me if I would be interested in writing an entire book. My first response: “No way! I am not a writer!” But the publisher was insistent: “You have all the time in the world. Why don’t you give it a try?” I couldn’t argue with his point. My daughter was on her way to kindergarten soon, and then what would I do with all my time?

I guess I could write.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Since that fateful day on the playground, I have published more than fifty books and sold almost eight million copies in Japan. Not bad for a retired dad who had an idea on the playground with his daughter. What began as a stroke of insight and an urge to help out a struggling working mother turned into not only a career but my purpose in life. That purpose, I realized, was to help others find theirs—and to become prosperous and free in the meantime. Needless to say, after writing fifty books, I thought I had this “money thing” pretty much figured out. But when my new friend, the Mysterious Wallet Woman, handed me back my wallet, I got to thinking again just as I had done all those years ago back on the playground.

This time I started to think about money as energy.

 

MONEY AS ENERGY

Holding the wallet my new friend had just returned to me, I thought: What a relief. All the money I have earned over the years and received came from happy people—grateful and joyful people. I then thought briefly about how I had earned my money. Yes, I had indeed received all my money through service. I had helped others become successful, wealthy, and empowered. I had helped others gain a sense of peace, joy, and gratitude. I thought how the people who paid me felt when they read my books or attended my seminars and workshops. (Throughout the world, I have given seminars to thousands of people at a time.) Then I thought about my books and how many people have changed their own lives because of them. They changed jobs, got married, had babies, and left unhappy or toxic relationships. I have heard from many who have started their own businesses. Some even have grown their businesses from nothing to publicly traded companies. I’ve also heard from others who didn’t become fabulously wealthy but who felt rich—and were very happy no matter what their bank statements reported. No longer affected by money-related stress, they were free to take out a new lease on life. Although I am often called a “money guru” or “money healer,” my real job over the past decade, I realized while standing there and looking at my wallet, had been to help others find the tools they already possessed within themselves to heal their own lives and relationships with money. Then it occurred to me that, yes, all the people who had given me their money had infused it with these feelings of gratitude and joy—so much happy energy. All this smiling money in my wallet was there because of others. Of course! Of course money is energy! Then I began thinking about my own feelings and the energy I pass along to others when I use money.

I stood there for a few seconds and I realized: There are so many emotions wrapped up in our money! So many of us walk around with all this energy, and it impacts not only ourselves but others as well. We like to think that money is just a number or a piece of paper, but it is so much more than that. Money brings with it so many emotions—more than we even realize. Even when we are aware of it—such as when we feel stressed about our endless stacks of bills, our meager paychecks, or our lack of savings for the future—we often think we are powerless. We feel hopeless and defeated. We even feel resentful and jealous of others who have more than us. We may even give up trying to earn more or receive more. Instead we say things like: “That’s just the way it is, and there isn’t much we can do about it!” So many of us think of money as the enemy, this dark force that is keeping us from living the life we’re supposed to have or doing the things we love. 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. After my new friend the Mysterious Wallet Woman gave me back my money, I looked down and noticed the cash tucked safely away in the pocket. And it got me thinking: So much money exists in the world. There is so much money out there right now spreading happiness and love. But so much is also spreading sadness and fear.

I wondered what, if anything, I could do to help infuse the world with as much love, gratitude, joy, prosperity, and peace as possible. I wondered how I could spread around as much Happy Money as possible. And so an idea came to me, much as it had all those years ago in the park with my daughter. I would write a book. I would share these insights with others—as many people as I possibly could. And this book, Happy Money, is the essence of what I have taught and learned from so many others. I’ll try to help you answer the questions that so many people have asked me to answer over the years:

  • How can I deal with money?
  • Can I have more money without incurring great sacrifice?
  • Can I have peace while I am alive?
  • What can I do to create a happy, fulfilling, prosperous, and purpose-filled life?

All those questions will be answered in this book. As my other books have changed millions of people’s lives, this book will change yours too. My greatest hope is that this book will help you look at your life in a totally different way and transform relationship with money. The comment I most often get from my readers is: “Wow, this is new. I’ve never thought of money this way.” I hope you have the same feeling. I hope it will be the start of your Happy Money life.

I guarantee it will be an exciting one.


Happy Money Ken Honda

Transform your relationship with money by following the Zen path to prosperity and financial peace of mind – based on the Japanese bestseller which has sold more than a million copies!

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