Press Kit

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510-652-0215/publicity@newharbinger.com

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

About The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money

Even in boom times, money is a volatile topic for couples. Study after study has shown it to be a primary cause of arguments and divorce, and in today’s grim economic climate it’s a source of friction for even the most harmonious couples. Dwindling retirement funds, a beleaguered stock market, and skyrocketing real estate prices, have raised the decibel level of disputes over money and driven some couples into an all-out war over how to manage their finances.

            In his private practice psychologist Jonathan Rich has seen economic factors take an increasing toll on relationships and it’s why he wrote The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money. While dips in the economy can heat up disagreements about money, Rich says the real source of the problem is that everyone has a particular “financial personality” that influences their choice of lifestyle, their financial risk tolerance, and their willingness to accept financial help from outside sources. When disparate personalities get together the sparks can fly. In The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money Rich shows readers how to avoid the pitfalls that clashing money personalities can create. With step-by-step exercises and no-nonsense advice he shows readers how to:

§         Identify their own and their partners’ financial personality;

§         Merge different financial personalities;

§         Communicate effectively about money;

§         Negotiate money hot spots; and

§         Achieve their financial goals.

Rich also shows readers how their past experiences help to determine their financial personalities and how to stop ghosts from their financial past from dictating how they manage their money and communicate with their partners about finances. He then provides sound strategies for creating a secure financial future, building wealth, and staying clear of excessive debt. The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money is required reading for anyone who wants to recession-proof their relationship.

 

Suggested Interview Questions

1.      In the beginning of The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money you say that “nothing is more personal than money.” Can you explain this?

2.      Why is money such a volatile topic for couples?

3.      You have a chapter dedicated to the different ways in which men and women think and talk about money. How do attitudes toward money differ along gender lines and what are “Andro and Gyno Idioms?”

4.      The core idea of your book is that while economic volatility can intensify arguments about money, at the source of these disputes is really a difference in “financial personalities.” What is a “financial personality” and how can couples with clashing financial personalities resolve conflicts?

5.      Let’s take a hypothetical couple with conflicting financial personalities. Jane is a Spartan and her husband Paul is a Monarch. Their having an argument over how much money they should spend on a luxury item—a new stereo, for example—that Jane thinks is unnecessary and Paul says he can’t live without. First, what suggestions would you give them for diffusing the argument and then what would you recommend for creating a budget for luxury items that both Jane and Paul can live with?

6.      Are there problems that can arise from couples having similar financial personalities?

7.      What is “the money circle” and why do your recommend creating one?

8.      How do childhood experiences shape adult attitudes toward money?

9.      Debt is a serious problem for many couples and a source of tremendous strife within relationships. What are a few tips for avoiding excessive debt and what is “reasonable debt?”

10.  What is a “financial set point” and how can someone discover and change it?

About the Author of The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money

Jonathan Rich, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Irvine , California . He has helped hundreds of couples resolve conflicts over money. He was an instructor at California State University , Fullerton for seven years, where he taught counseling techniques to future marriage and family therapists. Visit his Web site at MoneyWorkBook.com.

What’s Been Said about The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money

“This workbook helps couples whose fights over money erode their good feelings toward each other, learn how their different core money styles lead to conflict, and how to resolve this conflict without getting a divorce. Every couple who fights about money should read this book before money issues come between them.”

—Matthew McKay, Ph.D., author of Couple Skills, When Anger Hurts Your Relationship, and Thoughts & Feelings

 

“Finally! A practical, easy-to-use manual to guide couples through successful communication about the troublesome area of money management.”

—Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D., author of Infidelity on the Internet and E-Health, Telehealth and Telemedicine

 

“Jonathan Rich delivers the most successful and helpful answers yet to couples in conflict over their coins in his powerful new workbook, The Couple’s Guide to Love & Money. This is destined to be a best-selling aid and will do for financially stressed couples what Spock has done for stressed-out parents! It’s a winner!”

—Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., clinical and corporate psychologist, author of Ticking Time Bombs: Defusing Violence in the Workplace and Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: P.S. It’s All Small Stuff, 1988