Recommendations on books to deal with insecurity about money?

December 5, 2017 5:19 AM

I have issues with incecurity around earning and money, in particular not earning enough, not having enough for retirement and not earning megabucks. These issues are impeding my quality of life. Looking for recommendations on books that might help with rationalising my thoughts

I've talked to two therapists about this but it's not helped. The next step is to read as much and as widely as possible to try and pinpoint the underlying issues that are making me feel this way. I'd appreciate any recommendations people might have.

posted by gadha to Work & Money (9 answers total)

The Real Meaning of Money by Dorothy Rowe was recommended to me by a therapist as an interesting take on the psychological components of money, examining where people's attitudes and discomforts around it come from.
posted by terretu at 6:07 AM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Suze Orman is not everybody's cup of tea, but several of her books deal with the emotional aspects of money and personal finance.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 6:47 AM on December 5, 2017

Elizabeth Warren's book is a little dated, but still, a good read that I found very helpful for building a framework for understanding how to deal with money and savings and all that.
posted by COD at 6:58 AM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Your Money or Your Life is a good one. You might also want to poke around some FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) blogs like Mr. Money Mustache. You'll find that a lot of being able to retire is managing how much you spend, not necessarily how much you earned.
posted by jabes at 7:02 AM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah some of this has to do with whether you have legit money concerns and are concerned about that, or whether you're really doing okay with money and have an anxiety issue (fellow sufferer, so I feel you). I agree that Suze Orman is good for this sort of thing. I also really liked reading fellow MeFite jdroth's book Your Money: The Missing Manual (his other books are quite good also) because it gave me a much better sense that I am doing everything right. I also liked this book from a decade ago Retire on Less Than You Think (also Get a Life: You Don’t Need a Million to Retire Well ) to help me get some perspective.

Personal aside: it can be tough to get a handle on this stuff because

- money stuff is hard and weird and a lot of people don't really talk about it making it also mysterious
- US culture in particular (don't know as much about the UK) is bonkers about it and so much of the info you get is from people trying to sell you something
- if you don't fall along the normal curve for whatever reason, it can be hard to determine what is appropriate for you personally as opposed to the average person like you
- It's easier to be a miser than learn to both save and spend and the latter is better for quality of life

Best of luck. I also found reading Hetty Green The Witch of Wall Street (she was the richest woman in the world for a time and also a terrible miser, mean to everyone around her because of her parsimony) as a cautionary tale.
posted by jessamyn at 7:03 AM on December 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: to clarify: I'm doing OK but have anxiety about it.
posted by gadha at 7:15 AM on December 5, 2017

Get a Life: You Don't Need a Million to Retire Well contests the view of retirement that is common today, which seems to be all about spending your working life amassing as much money for retirement as possible. One point that I thought was important was that many of the people who are supposed experts in what you need to do to retire make their money off of retirement investments, so of course they want you to invest as much as possible.
posted by FencingGal at 7:20 AM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Have you looked at Mr. Money Moustache? They raise living frugally to a whole new level that many are quite passionate about.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 8:25 AM on December 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

If you'd like an interesting perspective on the companies/people/services who often shout the loudest about money, I thought Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry was really great.
posted by mosst at 1:37 PM on December 5, 2017