Article: "Writing Master Your Money Type...
"Writing Master Your Money Type has been a refreshing change from my usual style of writing over the past 25 years. In all of my past books and magazine articles on personal finance, I have kept to a rather factual, descriptive style to help people understand the ins and outs of the various personal financial decisions they have to make, from how to buy a home or write a will, to how to get out of debt or allocate their 401(k) funds.
With Master Your Money Type, I am delving into the psychological and emotional underpinnings of people's financial decisions. People seem to make the same choices over and over in all of their financial moves, whether it be how they horde money (as a Squirrel), how they gamble it away (as a High Roller) or even how they ignore the subject altogether (an Ostrich). I hope that readers of Master Your Money Type will come to understand the reasons they approach financial decisions as they do within their particular Money Type, and therefore understand that they have a choice to make different and better decisions in the future. My prescriptions, both in the emotional and financial realm, come out of years of answering Americans' questions about every financial problem imaginable.
It was particularly satisfying to contact again the many, many people who had contacted me by phone and email over the years and delve into their backgrounds and understand why they ended up as the Money Type that they had become. Once I understood what Money Type behavior they were exhibiting, it became easy to give them practical suggestions on how to get out of their rut and look at their financial decisions in a new and more constructive way. By telling their stories in the book, I hope readers can identify with each Money Type, diagnose their own financial personality, and go on to improve their financial habits based on this understanding. I have tried to provide not only the emotional explanation of people's financial decisions and path to improvement—I also give specific and practical financial advice and resources to help readers improve their situation, whether it be how to put together a cash flow projection, how to get out of debt or how to make sure you are properly insured. I hope that the Money Type methodology will become widely adapted in the financial services industry and that it will help many people improve their financial lives significantly."
Copyright © 2005 Jordan E. Goodman