THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF MONEY

Sociologist, entrepreneur, and financial wellness coach Vickery offers a timely volume of financial advice and sound, positive encouragement.

The author makes a strong case for understanding financial trauma as something that one must work through, despite the hardships of daily living. Drawing on wisdom from other self-help titles, such as Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), Vickery builds trust with readers by tactfully using terms of therapy to reconfigure misconceptions about money and its emotional responses. Her compassionate voice makes the text appealingly readable as she empathizes with people with a wide range of money worries. Above all, Vickery values communication as a key method to find new ways to understand financial matters, whether one is communicating with parents, spouses, children, or, above all, oneself. The author illustrates several scenarios from her clients, bringing real-life resonance to various lessons; some focus on couples’ financial dynamics in particular. These slice-of-life chapters are where the book truly shines, and its reflective questions to help readers carry on with further work are a bonus. Some readers may balk at talk of “abundance,” but it’s important to note that Vickery doesn’t stray into ideas of manifestation; instead, she stays grounded in here-and-now money matters. Helpful topics include budgeting, gender inequality, travel, scarcity mindsets, debt, and unemployment. Readers will find themselves in good hands when later chapters discuss advertising and consumerism, and their effect on the collective psyche; Vickery’s takeaways feel notably helpful regarding such fraught topics. She effectively reminds readers that financial wellness is never out of reach and must be viewed as a dialogue between one’s framing of a situation and one’s material needs and wants. By the conclusion, readers will agree that one should discuss financial matters in such an open and emotionally healthy manner more often.

A sage and caring guide to facing one’s fears about money.