BlogHer Book Club: Lost and Found

I come from a financial background. My parents both have accounting degrees, and I worked for a bank for almost a decade. I taught Junior Achievement. I like to think that I'm fairly financially savvy, but I snow there is so much more I could be doing. Sometimes, I like to stick my head in the sand. While I pay off my credit cards every single month, I haven't yet deposited my 2011 Roth IRA contribution because... well, I don't have a good reason.

I'm pulling my head out of the sand a little bit more, and driving that check over to my financial institution is on the docket for today now. I finished reading Lost and Found by Geneen Roth, which is the current BlogHer Book Club book, in which Geneen tells stories of how she lost all her money in the Bernie Madoff collapse and how she coped and found "life" afterwards.

How often do you hear people talk openly about money, let alone honestly about the disasters they've faced with it? Or even think about why we want and need the money we think we do? It doesn't happen nearly often enough, and I firmly believe that more of it would help empower all of us to take charge of our money and prevent it from having as much mystical power over us as it does today. After she lost her money, Geneen freed herself from the habits and patterns she'd fallen into and created a new and far more fulfilling life for her, focusing not on what she doesn't have but instead on what she does.

We're all so often guilty of that - focusing on what we think we want and focusing on the "more" that we don't have - and we rarely question why we want it or if having it will truly make us happy. The book is full of little stories and pearls of wisdom that caused me to reflect on my attitude towards money and why I have the attitudes I do. It isn't preachy in any way, which I appreciate. It is simple, open, and honest.

While I would never wish the loss of their life savings on anyone, it was fascinating to me to see how one can rebuild from that and the - in a way - positive impacts the loss of that money did have on Geneen Roth. We talk about wanting to find balance in our lives, but how many of us have truly thought about the cost that every extra hour we put into getting ahead costs us in terms of stress and time with family and enjoyment of the moment? This week's discussion at BlogHer Book Club deals with just that. Whether you've read the book or not, come join us and share your thoughts.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a copy of "Lost and Found" by Geneen Roth for review purposes. This is also a compensated campaign as part of the BlogHer Book Club, but all opinions remain my own.