It's Not About the Money book

It's Not About the Money: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance by Brent Kessel is an interesting read.  The first thing that it does is help you pick your financial personality types (page 40).  The choices are the following:

The Guardian- always alert and careful
The Pleasure Seeker- prioritizes pleasure and enjoyment in the here and now
The Idealist- places the greatest value on creativity, compassion, social justice, or spiritual growth
The Saver- seeks security and abundance by accumulating more assets
The Star- spends, invests, or gives money away to be recognized, feel hip or classy, and increase self-esteem
The Innocent- avoids putting significant attention on money and believes or hopes that life will work out for the best
The Caretaker- gives and lends money to express compassion and generosity
The Empire Builder- thrives on power and innovation to create something of enduring value

This was super easy for me to pick the main two that I currently am (Guardian and Saver) and see others that described me previously (Caretaker and Empire Builder).  Do you see any that describe you or people you know? 

It is eye opening to read the chapters that describe you to a tee and read the chapters for the other types that you can totally see family and friends fitting into.  The book tells you that it is best to balance all of the archetypes to make the most well rounded person.  It has a great point because I think that it is human nature to be one way (like a Caretaker) and get burned taking care of someone so you totally turn away from that way of being and stop sharing and flip to a totally new behavior (like Saver or Pleasure Seeker).  Balance is always best but I think that it is hardest for human nature to accomplish. 

The last few chapters have lots of information about getting a will, life insurance, investing, and other helpful financial advice.  The main point repeated over and over is to get a fee based financial advisor to go over your plans with because it could make all the difference.  There are a lot of resources listed to find a financial advisor with websites like http://www.napfa.org/, http://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com/, and http://www.kinderinstitute.org/.  If you want to check out more on the author, his website is http://www.brentkessel.com/ and he references a ton of information that is available on his website.  This is not a page turner of a book but I think that it is less heavy then other books with the same information so I guess the information is presented in a interesting way.  If that strikes you fancy, feel free to check out his books at your local library or bookstore (at least long enough to figure out what type you are).  Hope that you like it or learn something interesting from picking it up like I did.