The Little Book of Zen Money

THE SEVEN DOLLAR MILLIONAIRE is a group of financial literacy enthusiasts, who make learning about money accessible and engaging, and the author of Happy Ever After: Financial Freedom Isn’t a Fairy Tale. They were quoted in the Financial Times in November 2020 saying “No one thinks about being financially literate per se. But they do want to be financially secure, to not be in debt and misery”.

Preface 9

Money 9

Zen 10

A Little Light 11

Seeing Emotions Directly 15

Zen Money 17

Introduction 19

Humans are warm 19

Money Is Cold 20

Money only appears complicated 21

Money Is Just A Tool 22

Zen Only Appears Simple 23

Wanting Nothing 26

Infinite Financial Security 28

A Simple Path To Financial Peace Of Mind 30

Here and Now 31

Chapter 1: Zen and the Art of Money Management 32

No Judgement 32

Money Stress 35

The Playground 35

The Fairytale Trove 37

The Mis-Education System 38

Best Times 42

Expensive Times 44

Fear Of Missing Out 49

Avoiding Bad Times 50

Money Can Buy Happiness - On Average 51

See Money Directly 52

Money Is A Tool 52

Time And Energy 54

The Jungle Is Neutral 55

Money Is Neutral 57

Money Management 58

The Simple Path 58

Through A Complex World 59

A Burning Forest 61

Education Is A Path 64

Begin With Small Steps 66

The Right Path For You 68

Is It A Path Or A MISSION? 70

Don’t Wobble 72

The Frame 73

The Podium 74

The Floating Buddha 76

Schrodinger’s Observation 79

A Better Frame 80

A Clearer Picture 82

How Much Is Too Much? 84

"Maslow's StairMaster" 84

Torches Of Freedom 87

The Thumb Treadmill 89

Be The Experiment 91

FIRE Worshippers 93

How Much Is Enough 96

Enough Steps 96

Stepping Off The Chocolate Treadmill 101

Maslow's Ensō 104

Zen 107

Scarcity 107

Living 108

The Zen Path 109

Chapter 2: The Path Is A MISSION 111

From Money To Now 113

The Money Step 115

Money Pots 116

Life 118

Store 120

What Money Isn’t 122

The Income Step 125

Three Sources Of Income 125

Working for someone else 126

Work for yourself 128

Work Stress 130

Work Plan 131

The Saving Step 134

Saving Always Comes First 134

The Predictability Of Not Saving Second 136

The Sound Of One Hand Saving 137

You Only Spend Once 140

The Profit Motive 142

Motivation 143

What Are We Saving For? 144

Two Steps: A Tiny One, and Half Again 146

The Spending Step 149

Not All Spending Is Bad 149

But Spending It All Might Be 150

The Save Or Spend Trade Off 151

How much? 155

We Need To Write Things Down 156

Beyond Good And Evil 158

The Investing Step 163

"I Want What She's Having" 164

The Confused Path 165

The Long-Term Power of Compounding 167

The Risk Of Not Investing 167

R-RISK 170

Small Regular Investments 174

The Owning Step 177

Freedom From Financial Concerns 177

Debt Is Not The End 179

Financially Free 181

A FIRE Of Your Own 182

The Now Step 188

The Boring Power Of Compounding 188

Live In The Present 191

Now 191

Chapter 3: The Path Is Practice 193

First Steps 193

Step 1: Saving Comes First 194

Step 2: Count to 10 194

Step 3: Write Down Your Spending 196

Step 4: Breathe more 198

Step 5: Collect Receipts 199

Step 6: Build The Faith 199

Step 7: Look Back, Look Ahead 201

Baby Steps 203

Step 8: Make a Zen Tracker 204

Step 9: Important… Notice 205

Step 10: Secret Zen Tracker 206

Step 11: Better Get A Bucket 207

Step 12: Imbue 209

Step 13: Degrees In Needs 211

Step 14: Think About The Week 212

Crawl 213

Step 15: What Is It Like? 214

Step 16: Easy As Pie 215

Step 17: Crawl Before You Walk 216

Step 18: What Else Could I Do? 218

Step 19: Triangular Breathing 219

Step 20: Take A Picture 220

Step 21: How Does This Feel? 221

Walk  or it’s not about the money 224

Step 22 Sit. Walk. Don't wobble. 225

Step 23 Go for a walk 226

Step 24: Box Breathing 227

Step 25: Because you're worth it! 228

Step 26 Wobble! 229

Step 27 Give Yourself Permission 230

Step 28: Look Back Down The Path 232

You might be wrong 233

Step 29: Write This Down 234

Step 30: Who Have I Become? 235

Step 31: Zero Risk Fallacy 236

Step 32: Breath The Ocean 238

Step 33: Mindful Screen Use 239

Step 34: Mindful Spending 241

Step 35: Where Are You? 242

Challenges 243

Step 36: No Spend Days 244

Step 37: Fast Gains 244

Step 38: Breathe 246

Step 39: Work For Free 247

Step 40: Read Another Little Book 249

Step 41 Push Yourself To Breaking Point 250

Step 42: Analyse Your Finances 251

The Journey 254

43: Money And The Door 255

44: Cut Out The Income Middle Man 256

45: Saving Is An Action 257

46: Mindful Spending 257

47: Investing - Avoiding Scams 258

48: Owning 259

49: Now 260