Every so often I’m asked to review a new book for Abandoned Cubicle. It’s a fair trade—I get a free book, a few hours of reading, and sometimes useful life lessons. Happy Money by Ken Honda delivered on all three.
The full title is Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money. My hardcover copy is 211 pages and comes with a bright yellow jacket that already feels cheerful.
Honda is billed on the jacket as Japan’s Bestselling Zen Millionaire. That description makes you curious: how does Zen relate to building wealth?
The back cover summarizes his background: Ken Honda has sold more than seven million self-help books in Japan since 2001. He learned finance running businesses, and his writing blends money and personal growth, focusing on building wealth and happiness through honesty with oneself. He’s the first person from Japan voted into the Transformational Leadership Council, is fluent in Japanese and English, has lived in Boston, and now lives in Tokyo.
Right away, the book grabs you. Who wouldn’t want more money and more inner peace? Some themes here overlap with the purpose-driven ideas I write about: you can earn and save more, but first you need to make peace with money.
Read Honda’s bio and you’ll see him as Japan’s version of Mr. Money Mustache. He chose to retire before 30 to raise his child—an unusual move in a culture still working out work-life balance.
Happy Money traces the origins of Honda’s “money as energy” idea back to childhood. His father was an accountant, and young Honda would serve tea to his father’s clients. Some clients were constantly anxious about money—what Honda calls “unhappy money.” They often lost money regardless of their actual finances. Others were calm and at peace, and they tended to grow wealthier. They treated money as a tool to support what mattered, not as a score to keep.
That early contrast is threaded through the book. It raises a key question: does calmness around money create wealth, or does wealth create calm? I kept circling that while reading.
Honda picked up the phrase “Happy Money” in college when someone at a party examined his wallet and called his cash “happy money.” It’s a quirky cultural moment—here in the U.S. we guard our wallets more closely—but the phrase stuck. For Honda, happy money equals happy life; unhappy money equals unhappiness. Since money touches so much of life, making it “happy” becomes a path to a happier life.
One of Honda’s main points is that richer people aren’t always smarter or harder working. He also stresses that the rules around money change constantly. He doesn’t give specific investment picks—no push for index funds, real estate, or stashing gold—but he warns that you must stay engaged. Tax laws shift, markets change, and fortunes can swing at any moment.
He links FOMO and the scarcity mindset to money stress. Social media shows our friends’ best moments—new cars, dream vacations, perfect homes—and it can turn harmless envy into real unhappiness. Combine FOMO with a belief that money is limited, and happy money slips away. Honda echoes other experts: an abundance mindset sees wealth as something that can grow, not as a zero-sum game.
Another lesson is to let go of past failures and future worries. Focus on the present to free your mind from stress. As Honda writes on page 41: “…money cannot buy happiness.” He argues that keeping money from dominating our lives opens the door to contentment. But how do we make money “happy”?
Honda doesn’t prescribe aggressive debt payoff or specific financial hacks—though I’ll still tell you to kill high-interest debt. Clearing worrying debts clears your head and lets you focus on people and purpose. He also touches on the common finding that household income around $75,000 is where gains in life satisfaction level off; above that, more money usually brings less extra happiness while sparking more competition for bigger houses, better surgeries, and luxury toys.
Honda draws a clear line between money IQ and money EQ. You can know markets and build assets, but have you mastered the emotional side of money—the habits and attitudes you bring to it? He maps common money personalities and how they behave, including some playful combinations and types who try to ignore money entirely. I liked how he breaks down behavior; balance matters, and there are many ways to go off track.
Chapter 4, “The Flow of Money,” gets to the heart of Happy Money. Honda asks us to treat money like energy you can charge. The core idea is simple: gratitude and appreciation attract happy money. Bring a positive attitude, show appreciation to others, and practice gratitude. These habits make you a better steward of money and more likely to create wealth. If you live in fear and scarcity, happy money will stay out of reach.
Applying gratitude everywhere may feel hard at first—strained relationships, difficult coworkers, or a long run of bad luck won’t switch to sunshine overnight. But small steps make the next steps easier. Even if your generosity isn’t reciprocated, you can take satisfaction in having done your part.
I’ll close with this: Honda lists five steps to obtain happy money later in the book. Full disclosure—I didn’t embrace everything on my first read. My head was wired to money IQ, so the EQ ideas were unfamiliar at first. Summarizing the book helped it click.
I recommend picking up Happy Money. Dog-ear it, jot notes in the margins, highlight passages that stick. It’s a pleasant, useful book that belongs on anyone’s shelf. There’s plenty of gratitude and appreciation to go around; what’s scarce is how often we express them.