Ken Honda (Japanese author/teacher) shares his personal journey and philosophy on money: he frames money not only as financial IQ but as "money EQ"—an emotional relationship shaped by childhood experiences. He recounts a formative childhood memory (his father crying after a client’s family suicide tied to debt), explains the idea of "money wounds" (including generational transmission), and describes how healing these wounds transformed his life and career and can bring people peace and freedom from fear around money.
Chapters
When I say money, meaning not only money iq, it's more about money, emotional intelligence, money eq. Because we make so many bad decisions based on money eq, we make certain decisions because we are so afraid. So once we are free from fear or money anxiety from money, imagine what would you do if you are free from money worries. So that's something I want to share. Hello, my name is Ken Honda. I'm the Japanese author of many books which I'm going to talk about. And I've been teaching about happiness and money over the past 26 years and supported so many people to find peace with their money. So I'm often called a Zen millionaire or a happy panda. I love either one. But wherever I go, I attract a lot of people. People come to see me and they make lines. I usually sign my books for 600 people or more. I think I have this Zen type of personality. I teach how to run business, how to make money. So I'm a rare kind of philosopher and also a practical businessman. And that's sort of one in me. So I started early. I started my company when I was 21. I have a long history of teaching and consulting. But I got tired of making already wealthy people become wealthy. My passion was more to share my ideas and knowledge with individuals who want to have more time with their family, more meaning in their life. That's why I focus my work toward individuals. When my wife and I found out that she was pregnant, we decided to take a little time off. And that retirement lasted for four years. And that is the happiest time of my life. I got to see when my daughter first started to talk, started to walk and started to say, Daddy. So all those things, I'm so proud as a father that I could witness those things. And I am the happiest father. So while I was enjoying my semi retirement, I bumped into a situation. I saw a young mother trying to pull out her child off of a swing. She said, you, mommy has to go to work. The girl was crying because she didn't want to leave, but her mother says, I have to go to work. She was there for five minutes. I was witnessing all that and I realized why she has to work. It's because of money. To make a living, you have to just work for certain hours. That means less time with the family. I thought at the time, if these people know a little more about money and if they have freedom financially, you don't have to be super wealthy to have some time off. And I decided to write a few paragraphs Every day for those families, I feel. I feel like human beings are slaves of money. All of us suffer because of money. So my mission is to free people from slavery of money. So when I think of money, I have one experience when I was very small. I was about 9 or 10 at the time. I came home from school one day. It's usually a happy moment. And I opened the door of the kitchen, and here I was to witness that my father was crying like a baby. And I couldn't believe that my father cried. Because I didn't know that men are capable of crying. Until then, I never seen anybody, any guys cry in public. While my father was crying, I stood there, didn't know what to do. My mother found me and she took me aside and she was explaining what happened to him. He found out that his client committed suicide. And not only just by himself, but he killed entire family. So it's called ikkashinju, family suicide in Japanese. That's the first time I learned this term from my mother. The reason why he did it is he tried to save the dishonor of borrowing money and going bankrupt. So he killed entire family to save honor. And then he killed himself. I understand everything now, but at the time, I thought money was a bad guy. So at the age 9 or 10, I started to read and learn about money. I asked all the adults about money and I asked him, what is it? How can I make money? How can I keep money? How can I increase money? But the funny thing is, nobody knew. I had to look for the right teacher. That was the beginning of my quest for money and teaching around money. Money wounds originate when you're small, but it kind of keeps piling up. So a lot of people, by the time they reach 30 or 40, they with money wounds. Unless you heal the money wounds that happened many years ago, you just fight over something that it's not happening right now. Money wounds you have are not only yours. It's generational money wounds that are handed down to you. And that's why we are so afraid of money. We're scared of money and we don't know what to do. So as much as we want money, we don't want money. Because money causes problems. So that's why it's super important to face your money wounds and heal them. Learning about these things, I first began to face my father. And I started to heal our family wounds. And after talking about that with my father, both of us cried and we had such a deep connection. Since then, my money situation changed incredibly. And My career situation changed after healing the family wounds. You feel supported by your parents, grandparents and ancestors. And I realized how peaceful you get after healing your money wounds. I started to heal money wounds with my brother, my sister, and with my friends. And miracles kept happening. So I was so excited to share this knowledge with my close friends and my close friends parents situation changed, their financial situation changed. The most comments I get from my students is that can I finally find peace in me? So it's nothing to do with money. I realize that each one of us, even though he or she is super wealthy or seems very comfortable on the surface, we all have money wounds. And after talking about and healing about money wounds, people shift their consciousness and you look at the world in a different way. You feel more safe in the world, you feel more safe in the workplace, or you feel like whatever you do will be supported by your friends and society. So in this quest, I'm going to teach you how to find peace in everything you see. You may be frustrated with financial situation, your work situation, in your family situation, but by taking a look at your relationship with money and heal it in the process, you find peace instead of frustration. So life can be lived in a different way. So I hope you find peace with money and in life too.
