Link love (the winter edition)

I’ve been reading a lot lately. Books about money, even! While it’s wildly idealistic and rather fluffy in parts, there were 5 particular passages in The Soul of Money that stood out to me.

• “I have seen the powerful grip that money has on our lives, the wounds and hardship that it can impose on us, and the immense healing power of even the smallest amount of money when we used it to express our humanity – our highest ideals and our most soulful commitments and values.”

• “We all have an identifiable, though largely unconscious and unexamined, relationship with money that shapes our experience of life and our deepest feelings about ourselves and others. Whether you count your change in dollars, yen, rupees, or drachmas, money is one of the central, linchpin issues in all our lives. It is in mine, and it is a central issue for everyone I’ve ever met, no matter how much or how little money they have.”

• “We are born into a culture defined by money, and our initial relationship with money is the product of that culture, whether it is one based primarily in poverty, in a country like Mozambique or Bangladesh, or a culture of affluence and wealth in a country like the US or Japan. From our earliest experiences, we learn money’s place and power in our families, our communities and in our own lives.”

• “No matter where we are in the political, economic, or financial resource spectrum, the myths and mindset of scarcity create an underlying fear that we, and the people we love or care about, won’t have enough of what’s needed to have a satisfying, happy, productive, or even survivable life.”

• “No matter how much or how little money you have flowing through your life, when you direct that flow with soulful purpose, you feel wealthy. You feel vibrant and alive when you use your money in a way that represents you, not just as a response to the market economy, but also as an expression of who you are.”

This week’s links

Why a paid off house is so important (hell yes to every point)

The importance of a ‘don’t be boring’ budget (hell yes to this too)

Things to move towards, and away from

Chatting about self employment

How to squeeze more out of your limited holiday time