Financial Recovery, Karen McCall, 2011, Non-Fiction, Financial, paperback, $14.95, 978-1-57731-928-3
In her recent book, Financial recovery, Karen McCall shares the principles and methods she discovered in her personal experience and fine-tuned in working with thousands of people from all walks of life in finding the hope, courage, and ultimately, freedom in recovering from confused and wounded relationships with money and earning. Her approach offers more than a pragmatic scheme, but rather a process that is well designed to slowly unfold a new relationship with money without “crash budgeting” and giving up essential dreams. In the end her approach amounts to a “chop wood, carry water” kind of spiritual practice of the mundane and offers a real and sustainable solution to the, often intense, shame and overwhelm that surrounds much of our personal and cultural relationship with money.
It is not a get rich quick scheme nor is it a course in investing or early retirement, but rather a series of simple pavers in a path, that spiral inward on a journey to financial confidence and freedom.
She starts with a series of case studies, that she refers to as stories she hopes “will give you the hope and courage you need to find your own “Golden Gate.”” – an image symbolic of her own profound and inspiring recovery from financial turmoil. She then turns to a re-telling of some classic financial counseling reminiscent of books like, “Your Money or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, like distinguishing between needs and wants, tracking and paying yourself first.
However Financial recovery is different in a few really profound ways. While she alludes to possible freedom from the daily grind, instead of suggesting that every reader get on an early retirement plan based on a specific investment strategy, she re-weaves the old classics with the empathy of the Sage and tenderness of the Healer and offers a balm for being right where you are.
*This article first appeared in the Winter 2012 edition of Lillipoh magazine
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