True Wealth. - book reviews

Instead of striving for the almighty dollar, Paul Hwoschinsky exhorts us to strive for the good life, whatever that means to you. When you stop thinking about money as a goal, you start to see much more clearly what you really want.

Don't mistake this for a self-centered new-age book about attaining whatever you want. True Wealth helps you delineate your own higher and lower personal values. It has good discussions of setting concrete financial goals based on life goals, finding financial advisors who think like you do, and understanding where you fit into the economy. Money is looked on as a tool for the rest of your life, and not a terribly important one at that. --Paul Hoffman

Exercise: What, Really, Is Money?

Ask yourself the following questions. Read each one, close your eyes and get a sense of the answer, then open your eyes and write the answer. Go to the next question. Take a minute or two with each one. As you will note, they are all associated with each other and will stir up a lot of feelings and thought.

* What qualities do you attribute to money?

* What purpose does it hold for you?

* What are you willing to do for money?

* What are you not willing to do for it?

* What are you willing to do with money?

* What are you not willing to do with it?

Finally, take a few minutes to look over your responses. Did one or two of them strike a special note, raise particular feelings, or create tensions?

Be forewarned: if you are unclear or wishy-washy, an advisor is going to have to intuit or guess at your preferences and the degree of risk you are willing to take. If you leave your financial wealth in the hands of someone who cannot be sure what you really want or what you have in the way of financial resources, you put yourself at additional risk.

True Wealth

Paul Hwoschinsky, 1990; 178 pp.

$14.95 ($17.95 postpaid) from Ten Speed Press, P. O. Box 7123, Berkeley, CA 94707; 800/841-2665 (or Whole Earth Access)

COPYRIGHT 1992 Point Foundation
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