The Cure for Money Madness: Break Your Bad Money Habits, Live Without Financial Stress--and Make More Money! (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: financial intimacy, actual net worth, cure for money madness, Rainbow Portfolio, Madness Free Spending, Contracting the Condition (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sherman, founder and CEO of a small financial firm, offers sage and soothing advice for taking the emotional factor out of making money decisions. Money madness is the author's diagnosis for the unhealthy behaviors that stem from seeing how money was handled in childhood households and linger long into adulthood: e.g., the inability to talk about money, compulsive spending and debt, the conviction that no amount of money can keep one secure enough, ruthless self-measurement in terms of wealth. Sherman describes how these neuroses can impair income and undermine net worth by adversely influencing the financial decisions people make and keeping them in a state of anxiety, avoidance and fear. A series of scripts and charts offer strategies for tackling such common issues as credit card debt and portfolio diversification. Less a treasure trove of new information, this book provides a sensible framework to understand—and conquer—the emotions and habits that hold individuals back from financial freedom and security. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Sherman, wealth advisor and entrepreneur, offers his thesis that emotions learned in childhood—“money messages”—become “money madness” when they lead to self-destructive, irrational financial actions. Money madness behaviors include muteness as spouses are unable to discuss money; individuals spending more than they earn even when their salary increases; and individuals using money to manipulate others. Tips offered to tame money madness include keeping your financial intentions reasonable (do not set yourself up to fail); maintaining a money diary; and, at least quarterly, reviewing the numbers of your cash-flow statement and net-worth statement. The author also offers his Rainbow Portfolio for investing, which has three simple principles: diversify into a high number of asset classes, leave your portfolio alone when its value changes (except when there are large market swings), and rebalance the portfolio annually. All will not agree with Sherman, but he presents thought-provoking ideas to challenge a wide range of library patrons. --Mary Whaley

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767928555
• ISBN-13: 978-0767928557
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #318,427 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom in troubled times!, February 3, 2009

By	Charles S. Fisher (Woodacre, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What gratification to see someone you taught years ago grow into a wise and helpful human being. This book is the product of that growth. Spencer offers a font of advice on how to look into the money madness which grips so many people in this prosperous, yet often self-defeating society in which we live. Through insightful analysis of hidden childhood money patterns and useful exercises Spencer guides the reader into his or her individual "money madness" and suggests how to remedy it. He further teaches how people can invest, free of the pushes and pulls of the get rich quick schemes in books, on radio and TV. I always wondered why people, who want to sell me ideas about how to make a million, bothered. Why waste their time when they could be out making that million rather than trying to get my money? I guess much financial advice is like this. It is too good to be true.

Spencer puts this into perspective by showing how the money madness of both seller and buyer keep them from addressing what is really important in life: living with a sense of ease, living connected to your loved ones, and living so as to contribute to the world. Spencer's goal is to address the ways in which our hidden attitudes toward money keeps us from this deeper satisfaction.

Beginning with an exploration of your destructive patterns, Spencer presents ways they can be healed, particularly in our relationships to others. He suggests how one can save and invest without being driven by emotion (and he does this in very useful detail---something one can act upon at once). He touches on how money madness affects people at work, and how to address it to make one's self more effective. He takes on the myths about house buying (which given the housing bubble burst, makes his advice all the more relevant). He talks about philanthropy, offering ways to do it more awarely.

At a time of money fear, Spencer offers a way for people to see where they truly stand in it all, and how to take action based on a clearer understanding. The subject matter of this book is greatly needed and Spencer has done an excellent job of helping people find their way through a turmoil which may, in fact, be the result of our collective money madness. This is an important book to read.

Charlie Fisher, Associate Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fluff, May 19, 2009

By	Gerald B. Keane "jbkesq" (Sarasota, Florida USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book can be summarized in less than 50 words: (1)Emotions control our money decisions, (2) those emotions arise out of a childhood experience, (3) you need to think rationally before making money decisions, and (4) you should diversify your investments. [That's it: 27 words. There's not another thought in the book.]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IT'S NEVER TOO LATE, I'M A RETIRED WIDOW, March 13, 2009

By	More Relaxed (MA. USA) - See all my reviews

Not so surprisingly there's always something to learn. I found Spencer Sherman's book The Cure for Money Madness: Break Your Bad Money Habits, Live Without Financial Stress--and Make More Money!to be very useful. I love self-help books. This one looks at our conditioning to and with money.
There's an underlying relationship we all have with money that, regardless of outside circumstances, creates our ease or dis-ease around it.
This book helped me recognize, name, work with this underlying weightiness and learn how to release it.
Wish Spencer had written it years ago but it comes now, just in time.