Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

LAURA ROWLEY is an award-winning print and television journalist and the author of On Target: How the World's Hottest Retailer Hit a Bull's-Eye (also from Wiley). She writes the weekly "Money & Happiness" column for Yahoo! Finance and is a contributing editor for Self magazine. Rowley is a former reporter and producer for CNN Business News in New York, reporting on air for Your Business and Business Unusual. Her freelance writing has appeared in the New York Times, Parents, Baby Talk, and other publications. Rowley has been interviewed by Good Morning America, CNBC, Bloomberg Television, Oxygen, and numerous other broadcast programs and print publications, including the Wall Street Journal. She holds a master of divinity from New York Theological Seminary, a bachelor's degree cum laude in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a premier degree in French studies from the University of Burgundy in France. Visit her Web site at www.laurarowley.com.

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Praise for Money & Happiness

"Laura Rowley makes us all understand the money-happiness connection in our own lives so that we spend our time and our efforts wisely. She gets to the heart of why money can bring feelings of stress, joy, and freedom, and Rowley offers insight that every reader can use to make smarter decisions that will lead to living a rich life in every possible definition of the term."
Lucy Danziger, Editor in Chief, Self magazine

"This is a wry and companionable guide to getting your finances in better sync with your values, and who wouldn't be enriched by that?"
Melinda Henneberger, Contributing Editor, Newsweek

"Money and Happiness takes cold, hard, financial information and warms it up through the voice of your best friend. You'll find out how to achieve your life dreams, and avoid money nightmares. The cost of this book may be the best investment you'll ever make."
Kevin McKinley, CFP^™, author of Make Your Kid a Millionaire and host of public radio's On Your Money

"Let Laura Rowley guide you to a rational and rewarding life by helping you re-order your approach to your financial well-being. This book covers all the dimensions you need to know about how to plan properly for your reality. She teaches that you need not be loaded to be happy. And she shows you how to set, then achieve, your goals. For your sanity, Rowley is a welcome antidote to the wave of materialism washing over our culture."
Allan Dodds Frank, Bloomberg Television

Aus dem Klappentext

Wealth means different things to different people. That's why the road to financial happiness begins with identifying your values. When you know what you believe and are focused on your highest priorities, you have control. You can earn, spend, save, and invest in meaningful and effective ways. You can banish money anxiety forever. You can manage your money so that it reflects your energy, imagination, and passion.

In Money and Happiness, award-winning print and television journalist Laura Rowley reveals the secret to financial happiness: aligning your money and your values.Through powerful stories of real women-- their money choices, how money has shaped their lives, and how they've used it to facilitate their genuine happiness-- Rowley skillfully details the practical financial tools and positive strategies you need to create "the good life" in a meaningful way.

As the personal finance columnist for Self, a women's magazine with over 5 million readers, Laura Rowley has corresponded with many women who are ambitious, educated, and earn competitive salaries. And yet many feel overwhelmed by money and don't understand how to manage their money so it maximizes their happiness.

From self-assessment tests to checklists for analyzing your spending patterns, this book will give you the financial knowledge you need to succeed. But first, you'll find tools to help you discover the source of your values-- family, community, and personality-- and learn how your experiences and character come together to create a larger belief system about money. Here's where Money and Happiness moves on to discuss other important financial issues, such as: Controlling your spendinghabits, paying off debts, and improving your credit score Saving now for what you value most and the countlessways to make your money grow for your golden years The risks and rewards of the investment opportunitiesavailable to you "Money milestones"-- marriage, changing jobs, buying real estate, and having children

Rowley also explores three decades of scientific research into happiness-- and uncovers how to be happy with whatever you have in the bank, while you move toward your long-term goals. Through an imaginative approach to the art and science of personal finance, Money and Happiness will inspire you to find genuine happiness with money as your partner.

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Money and Happiness

Wiley

Chapter One

Julie D., 29, calls herself "a hippie at heart." The Florida teacher just bought her first house: a 1960s cement bungalow painted periwinkle blue, a shade inspired by the nearby Gulf of Mexico.

The charming three-bedroom home boasts a nicely landscaped yard, tiled patio, and a small pond with a fountain. New homebuyers like Julie typically spend $6,500 on furnishings and improvements in the first year of ownership, statistics say.

But Julie isn't the typical new homebuyer. Instead of shopping, she "dumpster dives."

"Every Thursday night, the town lets you put anything at the end of your street," Julie says with enthusiasm. "People throw away good stuff and it's free! We got wrought iron chairs and tables for the patio, little plant stands, and stuff for outside the house."

Julie earns $34,000 a year teaching preschoolers with special needs, a passion she stumbled upon in a high school child care course. "Being with children made me feel good," she says. "I wanted to do something that made a difference in the world." Julie has money automatically deducted from her paycheck for retirement and sets aside a little cash every month to splurge on travel. Last year, she was laid off after the state cut funding for the pre-K program where she taught. She took $2,000 out of her savings and went to the Caribbean for a month. "My boyfriend had a friend who was house-sitting a gorgeous villa," she says. "We stayed for free, we went to the grocery store, I brought a yoga tape and did yoga, and there was a boat for us to use. We pretended we were movie stars. That's why I save up money and why I have a nest egg-because if I get sick of it all, I'll be able to quit and go to the Caribbean and still pay my mortgage."

Marilyn N., 31, is also a saver, but in a town where it's tough to save-New York City. "I was always the kid counting my money in my piggybank instead of spending it," she says. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lived with her mom and sister in modest circumstances. Married with one child, Marilyn now enjoys a household income of around $300,000 a year. But old habits die hard: "As one of my friends says, we're the cheapest rich people she knows," she jokes. "We just don't want crazy things. That's part of my upbringing. I could never in a million years bring myself to pay $500 for any item of clothing-which a lot of people in New York do. When we buy extravagant things, like a car, we labor over the decision forever."

Like Julie D., Marilyn N. has found her calling, as a documentary film producer. When asked about her best money-related experience, she answers quickly: "Winning scholarship money in college. I have peers with a lot of student loans. If I had loans, there's no way I could have taken the jobs that led me to where I am now. I started in film as a researcher, at $10 an hour with no benefits."

While their incomes are miles apart, Marilyn N. and Julie D. have much in common. They have discovered the secret to financial happiness: aligning their money and values. What does this mean? They are clear on what is most meaningful to them, and focus their money around it. The way they earn, save, and spend is in sync with what's most important in their lives. Managing their money makes them feel "good," "smart," and "empowered." They consciously prioritize their money goals: They know what they want their money to do, and more importantly, understand how to manage it so it maximizes their happiness. They have defined "the good life" in a way that's authentic to them, and use money to realize a personal vision.

Back in the 1990s, I worked as a producer at CNN business news, and went to seminary at night. Few of my business journalist friends understood why I was studying theology. Few of my peers in the master's program (most of them ministers in training) understood why I was interested in Wall Street. I lived in a dualistic world, covering the financial markets by day and biblical Greek by night. I was fascinated by both, and still am: Today, I write a money column for Self magazine and teach a university course called "Contemporary Moral Values."

Here's what I have learned about money and meaning: You can't separate them. Think about the definition of cash itself: It's an entity that stores value. Understanding what value it holds for you can be life altering because we structure our lives around money; it defines the choices we make; it shapes the person we become. To be successful at achieving wealth, you first have to discern what wealth means for you.

Most personal finance books make this difficult to do. They define wealth as a numeric formula: The difference between your assets and your liabilities-between what you have and what you owe. They focus on financial instruments-those three-letter, three-number combos like IRA, Dow, 529, SEP, and 401k-and discuss investment concepts-diversity, liquidity, tax efficiency. You're smart enough to understand all this information-but what does it mean to your real life?

Theology poses the same problem: "Where theology becomes overly abstract, conceptual, systematic, it separates thought and life, belief and practice, words and their embodiment, making it more difficult, if not impossible, for us to believe in our hearts what we confess with our lips," says theologian and author Sallie McFague. The same is true for money: If you don't start with what you believe in your heart, all your money management is just lip service. You'll join your company's retirement plan because it seems like a good idea, then run up your credit cards because what you really value is a canvas lounger on a Caribbean beach in February. It's okay to value these things-but pursuing them simultaneously doesn't work. Your net result is a paltry 401k and a lot of debt. Both make you unhappy and anxious.

This book gives you the financial tools you need to succeed. But first, it shows you how to bring together your thoughts and your life, your beliefs and your practices, your words and their embodiment-so that you mean what you say and take action that achieves what you desire. You'll be able to fully engage your finances because you'll know how to put your money where your heart is. Your money will reflect your energy, imagination, and passion. This book also explains the findings of three decades of research into money and happiness, and helps you figure out how to be more satisfied with whatever you have, while you move toward your long-term goals.

The aim of this book is to help you create your own definition of wealth based on what you truly value. The first few chapters offer tools to uncover the source of your values-family, community, and personality-and explain how experiences and character come together to create a larger belief system about money. Once you identify unconscious beliefs that control how you view and use money, you have the power to change them and better align your finances and values. Later chapters tackle the nitty-gritty of getting out of debt, spending, saving, and investing, with a special look at money and relationships and what to do when you achieve certain financial milestones. The goal is to connect these financial concepts to real life, so the book is built on the experiences of women like you-stories about their money choices, how money has shaped their lives, and how they have used money to...