The Seven Stages of Money Maturity : Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life [Hardcover]

George Kinder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 1999

"A vital, seminal breakthrough work... Kinder penetrates money's enigmas and mythologies with the artist's delicate touch, the critic's discriminating eye . . . and the insightful sensitivity of a good human being. This book is a gift."
--Richard Wagner, former chairman, Institute of Certified Financial Planners

Replace anxiety, self-sabotage, and self-doubt around money with the sense of ease and freedom you deserve in The Seven Stages of Money Maturity, a one-of-a-kind guide in the life-changing tradition of The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom and Your Money or Your Life. A renowned Buddhist teacher as well as a Harvard-trained, nationally prominent certified financial planner, George Kinder draws on both disciplines to guide us toward a full understanding of the spiritual and psychological issues that surround money.

Although many of us may assume that issues of money and spirit are separate, incompatible questions, George Kinder shows us that we must explore them together to attain true peace, freedom, and security in our money lives. Tracing the same path to transformation on which he has led his clients and lectured audiences for years, Kinder leads us through the Seven Steps of a journey to the profound liberation of awakening to a world of abundance and possibility.

Revealing practical, market-tested wealth-building skills as well as the wisdom that contributes to understanding and enriching the role money plays across our lives from the surface to the soul, Kinder teaches us how to:

Understand feelings that impact taking financial action
Develop understanding and knowledge about money
Eliminate stress and anxiety around money
Let go of old patterns and painful habits
Approach money tasks with energy and optimism
Design a money life that is fulfilling both financially and spiritually

A powerful new way to look at your money and at your life, The Seven Stages of Money Maturity will help us experience each encounter with money as a step toward awakening and a powerful lesson in understanding the relationships we share with others and with ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Seven Stages of Money Maturity, by financial advisor and Buddhist teacher George Kinder, presents a totally original look at the ins and outs of individual economics. Drawing on timeless spiritual wisdom in addition to modern fiscal doctrine, Kinder deftly combines the philosophical and the practical to help readers broaden their understanding of the overall role that money plays in life from childhood onward--and, more importantly, put themselves on firmer footing with it today.

Most financial advisors and books about money approach finance as if it were simply a skill to learn, the same sort of thing as hitting a fastball or speaking French like a diplomat. Money maturity does include skills, such as understanding investment options and using a budget effectively, but it goes much deeper, to the feelings, the heart, and, yes, the soul.

By following three composite characters throughout the book and examining their experiences through the prisms of his own background and development, Kinder explains how to evolve naturally through these seven specific states (innocence, pain, knowledge, understanding, vigor, vision, and aloha) to achieve both financial and personal security. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Compared to other personal finance books that offer specific financial steps and planning strategies, this book focuses on the search for spiritual meaning in wealth. Kinder, a certified financial planner and former tax accountant, focuses on three composite figures, based on real people, to illustrate the seven psychological stages people go through in their relationship to money: Innocence (not knowing anything), Pain (discovering that we need to work to earn money), Knowledge (of such skills as saving and investing), Understanding (more sophisticated emotional wisdom about greed and inequality), Vigor (energy to reach financial goals), Vision (directing vigor outward, perhaps to a community) and Aloha (altruism without expectation of gain of any kind). Kinder provides useful questionnaires in which he urges readers to reflect on various questions: What are your three earliest memories of money? Why and how did money first enter your relationship with your mother, your father? While readers comfortable with spiritual self-exploration may enjoy Kinders approach, they will still have to turn to more traditional personal finance books for nitty-gritty money advice.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Edition edition (May 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385324049
• ISBN-13: 978-0385324045
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

George Kinder is a poet, spiritual teacher, life planner, artist and photographer. He has been coming to Hana since 1979, and makes his home in both Hana and Massachusetts.

George leads his seminar, the Seven Stages of Money Maturity, in locations all over the country. For more information visit the Kinder Institute of Life Planning - http://www.kinderinstitute.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Psychology of Money, April 17, 2006

By 

Munro C. Richardson (Kansas City, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Seven Stages of Money Maturity: Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life (Paperback)

In January 2002 my wife and I hit rock bottom financially. We owed nearly $45,000 in credit card debt alone, another $20,000 in student loans, and another $30,000 or so in car loans, personal loans, etc. We rented a ramshackle house and had no savings or investments whatsoever. And yet I found it impossible to pass up a bookstore without a new book in hand or the latest CD. I had read a number of books about personal finance, but I understood that there was something deeper that I was looking for. Something that would help me to understand the psychology of money, to understand why I made the choices that I made.

Fortunately, I came across an ad for George Kinder's book in Harvard Magazine in 2002. As a Christian I can understand that some might be put off by Kinder's infusion of Buddhist philosophy throughout the book. I studied East Asian studies in college, so I wasn't that bothered by it. In fact, I think Kinder's metaphor of the seven chakras, or energy centers, correlated perfectly with the seven stages of money maturity.

The main problem with most popular approaches to teaching personal finance is that they start at level four or five. But you haven't addressed the fundamental issues of levels one through three. This gap helps explain why the average American household has a negative net worth. We are doping ourselves at the mall with our credit cards!

Four years after reading the Seven Stages we have paid off all of that old debt (no bankruptcy!), own our own home, and are closing in on six figures liquid net worth. Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad helped me to realize that The Matrix had me in its grasp; Kinder helped me see the code.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Integrative Model for Navigating Personal Finances, February 23, 2004

By 

Mary Kay Wright (Walnut Creek, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Seven Stages of Money Maturity: Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life (Paperback)

My experience of George Kinder's breakthrough book, The Seven Stages of Money Maturity, has been life changing. As a financial planner I was first drawn to reading it out of professional curiosity and to learn something about the emerging "Life Planning" movement within financial services. What I discovered was the most comprehensive understanding about how our relationship with money forms, and what throws us out of balance with money, that I had encountered. As the book progresses through the Seven Stages, what emerges is a clear and specific model that leads one out of confusion, fear, distortion, or insecurity about money and personal resources. The process progresses towards a healthy, vigorous state that supports appropriate choices and strategies that allow one to financially organize the life that is genuine and congruent with whom an individual is, the values that matter, and the activities one wants to be engaged with. There are numerous case histories that illustrate the unfolding stages, including the obstacles that had to be addressed and the layers of change that occurred.

One of the outcomes from the study of the Seven Stages is that I now have a much more expanded vocabulary and conceptual framework for describing and communicating with myself and with clients about subtle issues concerning money. Money and finances are tough subjects for many people to talk about - there are still many taboos in our culture about open and frank discussions of money. As my clients read The Seven Stages of Money Maturity and begin working through some of the basic exercises Kinder has designed, a new capacity for clear and direct conversations emerges. I watch as embarrassment, denial, and anxiety lessen, while enthusiasm, engagement, and exploration increase. Defining one's real goals, implementing new strategies, and tracking the progress over time have increased the sense of empowerment and possibility in my clients, and for me as their advisor.

My recommendation is that anyone who has an interest in having a healthy, functional relationship with their financial and personal resources would benefit from reading this book and going through each exercise honestly and thoughtfully. It will have an impact, and may bring awareness to habits, patterns of thought, and personal beliefs that are no longer helpful or useful in our adult development and growth. In addition, I found The Seven Stages of Money Maturity to be beautifully written and insightful as a text about being human and the challenges of everyday life.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best book on money I have ever read., May 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seven Stages of Money Maturity : Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life (Hardcover)

As an investment advisor for the last twelve years serving the needs of clients with assets ranging from $50,000 to $50 million, I have been most struck by the similarities among my clients rather than the differences. The 7 stages have helped me deal with money issues that are shared by all of us. These include: guilt around having too much money, not being able to save money or spend money, worrying too much about money, being too carefree about money, feeling that money corrupts, thinking that earning money must be a struggle. This book relates stories and practical techniques that have helped me and my clients become more at ease around these money issues. As I and my clients have worked through these money obstacles, our business, work, and family lives have improved, and our self-esteem has increased. Money is the most difficult issue to address--more so than sex. This book provides the tools and the inspiration to help all of us delve into the issue that brings up so much emotion. We spend so much time on money (making it, worrying about it, spending it), and so little time using it for personal growth and transformation. We marry without having the necessary money communication skills to deal with our spouse--yet money is the number one cause of divorce. We all need to get more comfortable talking about money, discovering what we value and why, and shedding old or disabling beliefs about money.

This is the perfect book for anyone who earns money, spends money, or thinks he or she would be happier with more money.