Rating: 
Summary: An Important Work
Review: An extraordinary work. The structure of suffering with pain and innocence is a wonderful description of the struggle that we all have. Kinder describes and illustrates this with sensitivity. The examples that he uses profile the hman condition. As a financial planner, I found the goal exercises a practical way to outline and clarify what is important for me and for my clients. I have recommended the 7 Stages of Money Maturity to many of my clients. If you are experiencing pain or fear around money, if you are feeling an emptiness in your life you need to read this book! If you are a financial planner, it will make a profound difference in your practice
Rating: 
Summary: Understanding spiritual & psychological issues around money.
Review: Are money and spirituality separate and incompatible? The Seven Stages of Money Maturity is my answer to this ancient, perennially vexing question. Like many of us, I used to think the two realms had nothing to do with one another. But now, after many years as both a Buddhist teacher and a certified financial planner, I realize that only when we fully understand the spiritual and psychological issues surrounding money is true freedom possible.In The Seven Stages of Money Maturity I show readers what I have been sharing with clients and lecture audiences for years - the skill and wisdom needed to achieve financial peace, freedom, and security. The journey begins in understanding that we approach our relationship with money by moving through a series of developmental stages. Just as the title implies, The Seven Stages of Money Maturity lays out the emotional dilemmas presented at each step on the path and demonstrates how to move through them toward the sense of ease around dollars and cents that is money maturity. The Seven Stages of Money Maturity shows readers how to identify internalized messages about money, understand the feelings that affect financial decisions, develop new skills in dealing with money, and take on money tasks with enthusiasm and optimism. The payoff is great: the deep freedom that comes from letting go of old patterns and painful habits and the boundless satisfaction of living a life that is fulfilling both financially and spiritually.
Rating:
Summary: Life Changing Message
Review: As a Certified Financial Planner(tm), I did not expect this book to have the impact on my PERSONAL life in the way that it did. I bought the book after client observation made it clear to me that wealth and happiness are not DIRECTLY correlated. I knew that my clients, though indicating a desire for greater wealth, were really seeking happiness and contentment. Sometimes, to achieve their version of contentment, more wealth was necessary. Often, it was not. I hoped that the book would help me to understand how money, happiness and contentment are interrelated so that I could share that knowledge with my clients and help guide them through troubled waters. The book delivered. I am now able to advise my clients much more effectively and accurately. But, the REAL gift of the book was that it revealed to me my own angst with regard to money. It unlocked doors that had not just been closed to me but had been invisible. I now have an understanding of the role that money plays in my life and can make financial decisions with clarity and ease...even when there are no "easy" choices. Though the word 'maturity' in the title didn't connect with me when I bought the book, it most certainly does now. I feel like an adult for the first time in my nearly 40 years. It is a welcome relief for me to know that whatever challenges life holds, with regard to money or otherwise, I now have the tools to meet them with grace. I highly recommend this book for those feeling ANY sort of pain around issues relating to money. If you read the book and bring attention and awareness to the exercises, your relationship to money will be transformed, regardless of who you are or how much/little you have in the way of financial assets!
Rating:
Summary: This is the best book on money I have ever read.
Review: As an investment advisor for the last twelve years serving the needs of clients with assets ranging from $50,000 to $50 million, I have been most struck by the similarities among my clients rather than the differences. The 7 stages have helped me deal with money issues that are shared by all of us. These include: guilt around having too much money, not being able to save money or spend money, worrying too much about money, being too carefree about money, feeling that money corrupts, thinking that earning money must be a struggle. This book relates stories and practical techniques that have helped me and my clients become more at ease around these money issues. As I and my clients have worked through these money obstacles, our business, work, and family lives have improved, and our self-esteem has increased. Money is the most difficult issue to address--more so than sex. This book provides the tools and the inspiration to help all of us delve into the issue that brings up so much emotion. We spend so much time on money (making it, worrying about it, spending it), and so little time using it for personal growth and transformation. We marry without having the necessary money communication skills to deal with our spouse--yet money is the number one cause of divorce. We all need to get more comfortable talking about money, discovering what we value and why, and shedding old or disabling beliefs about money. This is the perfect book for anyone who earns money, spends money, or thinks he or she would be happier with more money.
Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, poor writing style
Review: For an author who was working on a PHD in English from Harvard, it is a great writing style. A better writer with the same concepts and information could have made this a great book, instead of a good book. Everyone should read the Challanges of Wealth by Amy Domini first before reading this book. Don McNay...
Rating: 
Summary: good on spiritual, short on practical
Review: George Kinder is clearly an advanced and sensitive soul, and he's done an nice job using his client's stories to explore the spiritual and philosophical aspects of money. If, however, you're interested in more practical money handling guidance, I'd highly recommend The Mindful Money Guide. It's a good read, cuts through much of complication cluttering most financial guides, and never losses sight of the fact there's more to life than the bottom-line (while not ignoring the importance of financial security either).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, non-"traditional" insights into personal finances
Review: George Kinder takes us to another level in our lifelong obsession with money and what it can "do" for us...but this level is very, very different from that which we'd expect. As with Jacob Needleman's "Money and the Meaning of Life," Kinder's book delves into the much deeper meaning and impact of money...and "stuff"...in our lives. He develops insights into the earliest inklings about money we encounter in our young lives and gently leads us through the seven (by his count) stages of maturation we experience on our march through life. George comes to us from a holistic practice of money understanding...an avid financial practitioner who has worked with thousands of individuals, helping each through their financial lives. Often, he has encountered multi-generational money/financial needs, with the varied and unusual outcomes that materialize as new and different perspectives are applied to age-old money situations. This book is a must read for: the financial practitioner; those who have "angst" about their financial well-being - whether a feeling that there's not enough, or, seemingly paradoxically, a feeling there's too much; those who're starting out and want a better understanding of their feelings about income/assets and what it can/should do, especially in achieving life goals requiring financial wherewithall; and those who are et the tail-end of their lives and wish to consider "resolving" their aggregation and, perhaps, insuring a legacy of gifting/giving - whether to inheritors or to charitable organizations. George himself is what financial planners should be - considered, considerate, caring, informed and comprehensive. He's a model practitioner, his book helps us understand the philosophy that has made him such a respected mentor in the field of financial planning. Put this book on your 1999 "must read" list!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, non-"traditional" insights into personal finances
Review: George Kinder takes us to another level in our lifelong obsession with money and what it can "do" for us...but this level is very, very different from that which we'd expect. As with Jacob Needleman's "Money and the Meaning of Life," Kinder's book delves into the much deeper meaning and impact of money...and "stuff"...in our lives. He develops insights into the earliest inklings about money we encounter in our young lives and gently leads us through the seven (by his count) stages of maturation we experience on our march through life. George comes to us from a holistic practice of money understanding...an avid financial practitioner who has worked with thousands of individuals, helping each through their financial lives. Often, he has encountered multi-generational money/financial needs, with the varied and unusual outcomes that materialize as new and different perspectives are applied to age-old money situations. This book is a must read for: the financial practitioner; those who have "angst" about their financial well-being - whether a feeling that there's not enough, or, seemingly paradoxically, a feeling there's too much; those who're starting out and want a better understanding of their feelings about income/assets and what it can/should do, especially in achieving life goals requiring financial wherewithall; and those who are et the tail-end of their lives and wish to consider "resolving" their aggregation and, perhaps, insuring a legacy of gifting/giving - whether to inheritors or to charitable organizations. George himself is what financial planners should be - considered, considerate, caring, informed and comprehensive. He's a model practitioner, his book helps us understand the philosophy that has made him such a respected mentor in the field of financial planning. Put this book on your 1999 "must read" list!
Rating: 
Summary: A Faux-Buddhist Book for those with too much money.
Review: George Kinder's pedantic attempt to "cash in" on the popularity of Suze Orman's 9 Steps to Financial Freedom has failed miserably. If the reader is an over-priveledged white person who needs to feel better about their personal abundance, then this may be a choice find. However, I am sure Mr. Kinder would prefer you pay full price for his noxious self-help guide. The book is intended to gently lead the reader to the final and ever elusive stage of ALOHA. Good Luck! Return the book for full price at your local bookstore!
Rating:
Summary: Great book on coming to terms with money
Review: Great book on how to gauge what money means to you. And then on how to control and discipline yourself about it. I particulatly likes what he says about "Leave your toughts, and let your feeling be."
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