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But can you stick with your goals? What kind of a spender
are you, anyhow? Find out that and more in the new book
Shiny Objects by James A. Roberts.
Money does some strange things.
Research shows that an overabundance of it makes people less
altruistic. It can cause depression and alter relationships.
It obviously puts us in debt - not to buy happiness but to
buy stuff, and lots of it.
Roberts says we really do live in a material world and we’re
“a nation in love with shiny objects.” That doesn’t make us
content: wealthy Americans are, on a happiness scale,
virtually equal with Maasai villagers in Africa.
Furthermore, we never have enough. When we reach the
financial goal we thought would bring us The Good Life, we
find that the goalpost has moved.
How did we get this way?
Roberts believes that this issue goes back 170 years. Before
then, people were more willing to work hard for what they
had, but the Gold Rush allowed folks to dream about getting
rich, quick. That eventually led to the so-called American
Dream of home ownership and, well, we know how that’s turned
out.
What we’re forgetting, though, is that recent economic
disasters are nothing new. We’re seeing a repeat of
situations that have happened before: in the 1920s, in the
late 1970s, when the dot-com bubble burst, and so on…
So how can you achieve “financial tranquility”?
Cut up those credit cards and use cash. Build a budget, pay
yourself first, and enlist friends to hold you to your
goals. Unplug the TV but say no to the mall. Rent or borrow
what you don’t need often and know your bank and debt
balances. Pay attention to the course you’ve charted.
So you overspent this year. Have the holiday bills started
to arrive yet? Whether they have or haven’t, it’s a great
time to read Shiny Objects.
Using easily understandable terminology and some gently
folksy humor, author and Baylor University professor James
A. Roberts explains how your checkbook ended up so empty and
why, and he shows you how you can change it. He covers all
bases, too, including money and religion, and how insidious
marketing can worm its way into your brain without your
knowing it.
I liked this book for its pointers and quizzes, for its
liveliness in a notoriously dry subject, and for its
relevance to what’s going on in the world. If you’re
interested in money or if you need an excuse to shop,
Shiny Objects is a safe thing to buy. |
