The key ideas

The Energy of Money

Maria Nemeth, 1997

Psychologist Maria Nemeth ran a course about money for seventeen years and noticed something strange: people know what to do with money, but they don't do it. She looks at money as energy and shows what stops you from putting it to work, not a lack of knowledge, but inner blocks: fear, the habit of pretending, the endless "I don't have enough." This isn't a book about where to invest your money, it's about how to stop getting in your own way and start acting.

Who it is for

For those who have read books about money, understood it all, and changed nothing. And for those who earn well yet still feel there's never enough.

The way you deal with money is the way you live your life.

The voice that said "don't do this"

Maria Nemeth held a check for thirty-five thousand dollars and was already lowering her pen when something inside spoke clearly: "Don't do this." The money wasn't even hers, she had borrowed it from a relative. She signed the check anyway. A few months later it was all gone: the man she had trusted turned out to be a con artist.

Nemeth is a clinical psychologist; she had read books about investing and saw clients. She knew how it was supposed to go. When a journalist called to ask why smart people fall for scams, Nemeth suddenly heard her own voice: "I was one of them. And you know the real reason? Greed." Telling the truth turned out to be a relief. After the article, people started coming to her with their own money nightmares, and that's how her course "You and Money" was born.

Over the years of her work she noticed something strange: people know what to do with money, but they don't do it. Nemeth looks at money as energy, she quotes the mythologist Joseph Campbell, who said money is frozen energy waiting to be put to use. And she notices that the way you handle money repeats the way you live. The relationship with money itself is, for her, a Hero's Journey: a road with fears, failures, and a reward at the end.

This book isn't about where to invest your savings. It's about what stops you from putting the energy of money to work, and how to stop getting in your own way. If you're ready to look honestly at your money, you've already taken the hardest step.

Money books gathering dust on the nightstand

One woman admitted to the author: "On my nightstand I have the best money books in the world, and they're collecting dust. It's as if I'm waiting to absorb them in my sleep." She had started reading them more than once, and never once changed anything in her life.

Nemeth knows the feeling herself. She read books about investing, went to seminars, and still handed thirty-five thousand dollars to a con artist. She knew how it was supposed to go. But knowing never became a deed. The problem, the author says, isn't intelligence or a shortage of advice, it's inner blocks: fear, haste, the habit of not looking at the numbers.

One financial consultant put it honestly.

That's why advice without action is just a book on the nightstand. Take one thing you've long known about your money, and this week do at least one real action. The author has a formula: knowledge plus wisdom gives you power, but it only switches on in a deed.

Read in Livria

About the author

Maria Nemeth is a clinical psychologist with many years of practice and the creator of the course "You and Money," which thousands of people have taken. She teaches people to handle money consciously.

All books by this author: Maria Nemeth

Terms from the book

  • Mark
  • Hero's Journey
  • Campbell
  • Frank
  • abundance
  • authentic action: For the author, a deed in the real world that reflects who you are and brings you closer to your goal, rather than just filling time.
  • Margaret: A participant in the author's course, a programmer who rented out a room and hid that income.
  • Border: For the author, the moment when an idea crosses from a dream into real work and suddenly demands far more strength than it seemed to.
  • Recess: A state in which you step back and look at your problem from the outside. According to the author, it comes when you tell yourself the truth.
  • Sylvia: A participant in the course, the owner of a garden business, who long pretended things were going well.
  • Life's Intentions: In the author's system, the deep "who I want to be": to be a good parent, a master of your craft, a generous person. Goals grow out of these.
  • Standards of Integrity: In the author's system, the qualities you value most in others, which means they are in you too: honesty, courage, loyalty.
  • monkey mind: What the author calls the inner voice that doubts, criticizes, and frightens you without end. The image comes from Buddhism; it's not a scientific term.
  • scarcity: The feeling of "I don't have enough and never will." The author distinguishes it from real limits: it's not about the amount, but about how the mind lives through any lack.
  • Esther: A participant in the course; no matter how much she earned, she always wanted "just a little more."

All terms

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