The Money Trap: A Practical Program to Stop Self-Defeating Financial Habits So You Can Reclaim Your Grip on Life - Softcover

Gallen, Ron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060936320 ISBN 13: 9780060936327

Publisher: Harper Resource, 2003

Synopsis

Take The Money Trap Quiz

1. Do you have a "magic number" -- a certain am out of money-you know will leave you set for life?
2. Does your job require you to work long hours in order to get ahead and stay ahead?
3. Does your definition of what it means to be rich keep changing?
4. Do you take pride in your ability to manage your life on limited funds?
5. Have all your attempts at creating a budget ended in failure?
6. Do you swing between binge spending and the careful conservation of your resources?
7. Do your money problems stem not from irresponsibility or lack of control, but from depression or another psychological problem?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you may have a money disorder.

In The Money Trap, Ron Gallen identifies the most common causes of money disorders and provides a program to heal everything from out-of-control spending to workaholism to money obsession to underearning.

About this title

About the Author

Ron Gallen is a financial counselor who specializes in helping people with recurrent and addictive money problems. He has been a pioneer in the understanding and treatment of self-defeating relationships with money and work.

Ron was trained in addiction counseling and intervention at Rutgers Center for Alcoholism Studies. Working as a crisis intervention professional, he developed a groundbreaking approach to treating chronic money problems and helping those in recovery from other addictions to avoid relapse due to money issues. Ron was the first to identify the four main types of money disorders, their differential diagnosis, and to present a unified theory combined with a comprehensive treatment plan.

He is in private practice and has been a consultant to corporations, treatment centers, universities, and government agencies. These include Columbia University, The New York Times, The United Way, New York State Division of Substance Abuse, Cornell University Medical College, The Meadows Rehabilitation Center and the Employee Assistance Professionals Association National Conference.Ron has established The Institute for Financial Health, devoted to training clinicians toward understanding and treating those with money disorders and developing a Certified Money Counselor credential program.

A sought after speaker and teacher on money and debt, profiles of Ron and his work have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world including an in-depth profile in The London Times.

From Publishers Weekly

Gallen, a financial consultant, believes that readers can extricate themselves from financial difficulty by first understanding their attitudes toward money. He talks about his own money issues: having grown up in a house where money was very important, he learned about envy at an early age. After he began working, he spent his salary on luxury items, though he couldn't comfortably afford them. Finally, by coming to understand why he felt compelled to spend and what the purchases were intended to substitute, Gallen was able to take charge of his finances. He identifies different personality types, including overspenders; those who accumulate lots of money but refuse to spend it; and workaholics. Gallen gives real-life examples of the money-challenged. For example, Kelly grew up in the lap of luxury and can't hold onto a job; Bob earns a decent living but lives in a cheap basement apartment and only buys gifts for his family under duress. After explaining the psychologies of these and other types, Gallen offers unoriginal but sensible and helpful suggestions on changing financial habits. People must learn to track expenses, follow a spending plan and deal with creditors. While easy to follow, some of the information is cursory. Agent, William Clark. (Jan.)Forecast: Those with serious debt problems would be better served by books focusing exclusively on credit, rather than this mix of practical advice and pop psychology. Then again, in today's consumption-driven market, money guides that emphasize their self-help aspects have the potential for big sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Resource
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0060936320
• ISBN 13: 9780060936327
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224