Conscious Finance: Uncover Your Hidden Money Beliefs and Transform the Role of Money in Your Life by Rick Kahler , Kathleen Fox Search Amazon for other books by or about Rick Kahler. Rating: Reviewed by: Marie Jones

Until we uncover and deal with our hidden, often subconscious beliefs about money and self worth, we will never be able to have a healthy and prosperous relationship with money. That is the crux of a very enlightening and empowering self-help book, Conscious Finance, written by a financial planner and his client, who together have discovered some groundbreaking techniques for unearthing old patterns, habits and beliefs that block the flow of money into our lives.

Rick Kahler is a professional financial planner, and Kathleen Fox is his client, and their work together provides the reader with tools for change that can break even the most deep-seated inner blocks we often have when it comes to money - having it, making it, wanting it and keeping it. Lack of knowledge alone does not cause financial difficulties, the authors state. Rather, our behaviors around money often cause our financial problems, and many of these behaviors are, at their roots, caused by events that happened in our childhood, family patterns, parental messages, and other "hidden" agendas that were impressed upon us by those outside of us.

This book is written in a very clear, straight-forward style that does not often venture into metaphysical territory, as many other prosperity books do. This book, instead, presents the personal stories of the authors and their suggested techniques and exercises for change, as well as tips on taxes and estate planning and investing, in a "how-to" manual that anyone can use to bust through the walls that are preventing a fulfilling relationship with money.

Beginning chapters cover such deep, psychological inner work as dealing with emotions over money and worth, living authentically and with the kind of energy that attracts money rather than repels it, identifying old money "scripts" and rewriting them to better serve us, and how our unconscious cycles affect our manifestation of money. The second half of the book delves into the outer work with money, such as saving and investing, day-to-day handling of money, learning about wills and estate planning, finding a financial investor to work with, and generally facing money problems and having the courage to look at our finances directly so that we can really see how much income and outgo we are dealing with. Once we become aware of the flow of money in our lives, we can then get a better grip on where we waste it, where we lack basic knowledge, where we trip up the flow of money, and why, once we have it, we often lose it all over again.

I found Conscious Finance fascinating as it delves into the past and our issues surrounding money and worth, and educational, too, for it doesn't just stop there. The book provides a truly balanced approach to financial "security" and fulfillment, combining tools for both inner and outer growth and transformation. Anyone who is having any kind of money issues can truly benefit from this wonderful book. And for those who already think their relationship with money is on solid ground, this book may help uncover some long-forgotten, hidden beliefs just in time to save you money, time, and a lot of grief.