Rising: Strategies for the broke, the at-risk, and those who love them
by Joon Madriga
I haven't even made it to the end yet, but this book is changing my money life, and as everyone here knows, that means all the other aspects of my life are being changed, too.
I have tried reading many money books. I did read Your Money or Your Life about 15 years ago, and though I have tried reading others in the interim, Rising is the only other book I've been able to stick with.
I am a spendypants who has re-committed to changing her ways, but this feels like an uphill battle against a rather strong wind. The other books were starting in a place that was already beyond my reach, often in a language I felt was off-putting, or didn't apply to my own circumstances/mind-set. Rising is starting exactly where I am, broke and at-risk of being that way for the rest of my life.
Joon Madriga's book is helping me through the emotional processes which have been the sticking point for me. I have self-discipline, I have good intentions, I have intelligence, and now Rising is helping me use all that goodness to work through the underlying issues which have been defeating my best efforts for change in the past 11 years.
In the two weeks I have been using this book and doing the exercises, I've seen radical changes happen.
This has also been true of my equally spendypants 19yr old daughter, who is just getting ready to move out, and who I realize now, after reading the title of Joon's book, is at-risk of being just like me. We are working through the book together, and she is seeing the light. She is inspired by Joon's story, and I know this will ripple out as added compassion and empathy for those in our society who struggle with serious financial/housing/health issues, as well as an understanding that major change is possible for anyone with the right tools.
I. Love. This. Book.