When reviewing the financial literature of the moment, one of the questions I ask myself is whether a particular book or story can dethrone The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason as the best entry-level read for absolute beginners. Ken Honda's book entitled Happy Money could have been such a candidate.
Through no fault of the author, the book did not make the cut. Coming from a Japanese perspective, the book was crowned a best-seller, but bench-marked against books from the US, however, it seems more spiritual than practical.
There is hardly any practical investment advice in this book.
The ideas in the book are based on two tropes - one found in many finance books, the other, an important part of Japanese culture.
The first idea, which is quite Western in origin, is the idea that your thoughts can shape your reality. There is this belief that if you approach your financial planning
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