Deborah L. Price - Money Magic: Unleashing Your True Potential for Prosperity and Fulfillment

N EW W ORLD L IBRARY
N OVATO , C ALIFORNIA

New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949

Copyright 2000 by Deborah L. Price

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, or transmitted in any form, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

Front cover design by Mary Ann Casler
Text design and typography by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Price, Deborah L.

Money magic : Unleashing your true potential for prosperity and fulfillment / by Deborah L. Price.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-57731-244-9

1. Finance, Personal Psychological aspects. 2. Money Psychological aspects. I. Title.

HG179.P7354 2000

332.02401dc21

00-056089

Previously published as Money Therapy.

First Paperback Printing, January 2003

ISBN 1-57731-244-9

Printed in Canada on acid-free, partially recycled paper

Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to my daughter,
Anjelica Price-Rocha, for the love,
beauty, and wisdom she has brought into
my life, and in loving memory of my friend,
Barbara Lossos, whose spirit is with us still.

It took a village to write this book. I am blessed to have an amazing community of friends, family, and colleagues who have encouraged and supported me in my efforts to write this book. With gratitude and thanks, I acknowledge each of you. I would like to specifically acknowledge:

My agent, Sheree Bykofsky, and Janet Rosen for believing in this book in the first place.

My editor, Georgia Hughes and everyone at New World Library for their efforts in making this book possible.

Carol Weser, for being my eyes when I couldnt see.

Charlotte and Rodney Strong, for the gift of my life at Toad Hollow.

My daughter, Anjelica, for her immense patience and understanding.

The Wild Women of Healdsburg for all those Friday nights that saved me.

James Black and Julie Simons, for their care and feeding.

My wonderful friends and family Marge Abrams, Brenda Ferreira, Elizabeth Harlow, Leslie Gainer, Marian Morioka, Mary Rubio, Carol Bell, Molly Light, Benjamin Schick, Caite Mathis, Julie Greenwalt, Kris Cuneo, Randy Price, Stephanie Skidmore, and Bob Rembowski I love you all.

My mother, Pat Price and my sister, Tricia Davisson for their love and faith in me.

Sandy Plone, for the foreword of this book and for being my dear friend.

My clients who have stood by me and supported me through my lifes many changes. I am grateful.

Peace and blessings to every one of you.

This wonderful book, Money Therapy, represents a previously missing tool to help individuals reconstruct their financial lives through the perspective of their spiritual development. Deborah Price has honed her knowledge, beliefs, and concepts into an amazing blend of expertise, in order to guide and educate others toward their highest potential. It is an outstanding contribution to the field, and those who have the courage to read and utilize its wisdom will benefit.

Many authors have written about prosperity including about how success, power, fame, and money are interrelated with spirituality. As a clinical psychologist, I have learned from my clients (and my own) struggles and conflicts what a core issue money represents in our psyches, our relationship, and in all aspects of our lives.

My first contact with Deborah Price was as my financial consultant, and subsequently, a dear friend. Her wisdom, dedication to helping her clients, and a level of integrity that transcended that of most people in the business world are apparent. She began the task of educating me about financial matters, gradually guiding me from innocence into accepting responsibility for my financial life. My journey had been dedicated to helping others heal childhood wounds and master the complexities of modern life. We both became acutely aware of the overlap between financial consulting, psychology, and the spiritual path we shared.

Money seems to represent the ultimate taboo! Many authors and therapists alike agree that people find it easier to reveal sexual confidences, for example, than to speak of money matters. Yet the power of early experiences and deeply held beliefs about money is clear. When individuals explore their treasured myths, conscious or unconscious, it becomes possible to better understand blocks or patterns that then guide their financial decisions. Money can be a symbol in families for love as well as a symbol for violence. It may be used as a weapon in relationships, manipulating conflicts about sex, love, or power. Husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings were all prey to the anger, envy, love, compassion, or worries about money in these complex relationships.

Having a harmonious relationship with ones finances is part of the mind/body/spirit connection to living a balanced and healthy life, and the prosperity principle is an attitude about life. A consciousness of abundance can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as can a consciousness of scarcity. When clients ask how they might accomplish this shift, I encourage them to find a trustworthy advisor, to read available books on the subject, and to illuminate, understand and then remove destructive myths or childhood beliefs that may block the path to prosperity.

Deborah Price has integrated sound psychological principles and universal spiritual beliefs with her extensive knowledge of financial planning in an easily readable, articulate form. Therapists will be recommending this book to couples as part of premarital counseling to help prevent later conflicts, and to young and mature individuals alike for a journey of self-discovery toward a peaceful and prosperous life.

Sondra Plone, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Los Angeles, California

Today, in the wealthiest country in the world, the symptoms of fear, stress, and anxiety over money permeate our society. They affect both rich and poor and are perhaps the tie that most binds us and makes us more alike than we realize. Although the symptoms are different for each person, almost everyone suffers from one form or another of the condition. While many drugs are available to help us manage other fear and anxiety disorders, one has yet to be invented to cure us of our money problems.

It has always been my nature to observe. I have spent hundreds of hours and countless days of my life just sitting and watching the human drama play out before me. I love life and people immensely and have always held great hope in my heart for humanity. In the last few years, however, what I have seen has alarmed and disturbed me so profoundly that it has become increasingly difficult to remain a silent witness of what I see unfolding before me.

In my work as a financial consultant, I have also seen disturbing behavior in people struggling away to acquire more and more material possessions, with an ever-increasing sense of hopelessness and financial despair. People come to me seeking financial security and searching for something more meaningful in their lives. Unfortunately, far too often, more means a new car, a boat, a bigger house, some thing, which only serves to increase their burden and further complicate their lives. Repeatedly, I have watched people become enslaved by their insatiable need for more things, so much so that their lifes energy becomes depleted. I do not make this statement with any judgment. Rather, I make it because I believe that we have been living in a consumer coma for too long and that the consequences of this mass unconsciousness greatly affect our psyches and are reflected in the devastated world around us. We have become so numb to the reality of what is really happening that we have become too immobilized to take any action and to make the changes necessary to sustain our lives on this planet.