Book Review The Seven Stages of Money Maturity

Book Review The Seven Stages of Money Maturity Author: George Kinder By Kiran Telang

Author’s Introduction George Kinder is recognised internationally as the father of the Life Planning movement. The Harvard educated Kinder is the founder of Kinder Institute of Life Planning. He has been a practising financial planner and tax advisor for over 30 years. Website : www. kinderinstitute. com 2

Idea Behind The Book Money can be seen as a place where our internal selves engage with the external world. If either side, internal or external, self or money- is slighted, the whole life suffers 3

Is it relevant to us as individuals What do we want to do ? Why do we behave the way we do? Are we focusing on the right things? (How much or what has money got to do with who I am? ) 4

As planners �Why is the client behaving in a certain manner �Is there anything that we can do to change his behavior to his benefit- so he gets a better life and is better off financially �The stickiness factor �Charge for the depth provided in planning 5

Will Indians accept this kind of advisory service? 6

Seven Stages �Childhood �Innocence �Pain �Adulthood �Knowledge �Understanding �Vigor �Awakening �Vision �Aloha 7

Mahealani Sapolu �Coming from an impoverished background. �Father’s words on money- ‘You get money by working very hard’ �Mothers’s Views- ‘You have to trust. When money is needed, it will come’ 8

Derrick King �Middle Class upbringing. �Father’s words- ‘Money makes the world go around. When you get down to it, it’s a game. It’s the way we tell who wins’ �Mother’s words- ‘You have to take good care of your family. That’s all that matters. ’ 9

Susanna Swartz �Coming from affluent background. �Fathers’ words- ‘Money is one thing you will never have to worry about. ’ �Mother’s words- ‘None’ 10

Childhood-Innocence �Beliefs that we hold dear no matter how untrue they are. �Received from parents and environment when growing up. �Affects all adult behaviour 11

The Traps We Set �Overspending/hoarding �Choosing between money and integrity �Dread, panic and disempowerment around money �Inability to attend to practical necessary financial tasks �Getting swayed by ‘get rich quick’ schemes 12

Wisdom of Opposites �Time is money �Child-time is for play �A penny saved is a penny earned �Penny pincher 13

Both sides of the belief Don’t count your chickens before they hatch -A prudent, thoughtful approach to investing and saving will protect your nest egg -failure to take risks will cut you out of the most productive investments Money doesn’t grow on trees -It takes work to get money -The most important things in life don’t carry a price tag 14

Indicators of Innocence in Money Matters �Resentment and Blame �Conspiracy �Oblivion and Addiction �Magical thinking 15

Pain The Bell of Awakening 16

Working on pain addresses many problems like �Economic differences between colleagues and friends �Difficult work situation �Caught in the rat race �Bouts of money anxiety �Shutting down rather than facing money issues 17

Sources of Pain Childhood Pain: �We are richer than some people and poorer than some. �We will have to work for a living �Envy , treachery, betrayal Adulthood Pain �Loss of job �Divorce �Bad investments 18

The Cycle �The cycle between innocence and pain-New ‘innocent belief’ to counter it 19

Hell & the Human Condition �George’s discovery that he needs to work for money �Job=Pain (Father always working and not enjoying the nature) �Made deal with wife-each one works for 2 yrs �When his chance came to work-thought of things like farming �Chose tax consultancy as it is part time �Belief 1: Job=losing ‘life’ �Way out=make job a part of your life �Belief 2: relationship with soul is fine-making money got in the way. 20

Filling the hole �Humanity and relationships are being replaced by things money can buy. �We rush to fill our souls with accomplishments and acquisitions, perhaps neglecting more traditional ways of connecting. �Pain is the energy that fuels the rat race 21

The Probable Solutions �Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional �Pain is a bell of awakening. If you become sensitive to it, you know whenever it rings, it time to wake up, do the work of adulthood and move toward freedom. 22

Adulthood Knowledge Understanding Vigor 23

Adulthood Knowledge revolves on learning the specific, pragmatic and intellectual skills needed to handle money. Understanding concerns the heart; here we find ways to transform suffering around money. In Vigor we develop energy to actualize ourselves in the world, to make our dreams true. 24

Finding our Enterprise Adulthood we must turn inside to discover our purpose and strengthen our understanding. Resentment and blame, however, pull us outward; prompting us to look for a culprit in the exterior world to point as the cause of all our woe and suffering. 25

Three stages, one challenge Understanding what you want to do Having the knowledge to see it through Actually working to get it done 26

How you might retire in twelve years by saving 12% a year Successes and failures Reason for failures: �Lacking insight into own emotions �Lack of focus �Lack of discipline 27

Mature people go beyond the simple notion of comfortable retirement to achieve a deeper sense of who they are, making themselves better people in the process ……. . and it all begins with Knowledge 28

Knowledge I Money’s Virtue 29

Two Layers of Knowledge �Money speaks of human character �Practical layer-developing skills needed to handle money 30

Money’s Virtue �Money and integrity are intertwined �You can’t expect everyone else to have integrity and get away with cheating yourself �Confucius says- ‘its fine for a wise person to gainprovided the gain is right’ 31

Where freedom and Integrity Intertwine �Knowledge is a step towards freedom �Freedom not only in material terms, but knowing and living as our true selves �Money should lead to freedom �The Midas Touch �Maintaining Integrity to escape the Midas trap 32

Knowledge II Planning, Props & Practicalities 33

The Components �Budgeting (Mahealani) �Goal Setting(Derrick King) �Giving the children best education �Keeping the marriage together �Providing financial freedom for self �Pathologies towards goal setting Inability to express goals � Inability to execute a strategy � �Susanna: Getting professional help 34

Understanding The Deep Heart’s Core 35

The difference understanding makes �Innocence, pain and knowledge teach us to let go of old patterns and aquire skills �Understanding changes our lives so that we experience the richness of money even in midst of the most difficult and painful situations in life 36

Understanding �Letting thoughts go and letting feelings be �The Observer �The Kindly Mother �The Warrior 37

Practice of Understanding in Work & Relationships Practice can be employed in any and every difficult situation. …chronic over-spenders, self employed people who charge less than what the market will bear…. 38

At Work �The Client from Hell …taught him more than anyone else about how to handle anger, frustration, annoyance, sadness, fright and despair… 39

In Relationships Feel the feelings and accept them…experience them rather than pushing them away…no matter how difficult or frightening they are. 40

Lessons from the Wise Ones Practice of Understanding can come from mentors like osmosis. Who do you know who’s a really a good person? Rather than looking at the world as a collection of people out to defraud us, we can treasure certain individuals we know are trustworthy. 41

Living Virtue Pay attention to what we do everyday and bring a consciousness of the consequences of our actions to bear on the choices we make This is what living virtue means 42

What motivates you to work? �Money? �Doing good? �Making a difference? 43

�A way of life that incorporates honesty, sincerity, integrity, trustworthiness, kindness and all other good qualities, builds Understanding as nothing else can. �Living virtuously pays off. It ends the rat race and delivers a new freedom from care. 44

Vigor The strength to carry through Would those who say it can’t be done get out of the way of those who are doing it 45

What does Vigor Mean �Vigor in the money world represents the energy to accomplish financial goals. �It arises from the dream of freedom, the pinch of necessity and the desire to serve �It is not simple busyness but springs from a profound inner aim- ‘Lakshya’ 46

What gets in the way? �Blame & resentment �Fear �Dependency �Self doubt �Veering from our truth �Reality v/s fantasy �More money will solve my problem �Procrastrination and lethargy �Mere busyness 47

Paths to Vigor �Eyes on the prize �Doing the work you love �The practice of letting thoughts go and feelings be �Lessening depression �Authentic relationships �Finding your voice �Eliminating dependencies and other vices �An awareness of death 48

Paths to vigor �Facing necessities �Getting paid what you are worth �Inspiring stories �Keeping healthy �One step at a time �Dive right in 49

Awakening : Vision & Aloha 50

Vision Seeing Far, Inside and Outside 51

The wise who are trained and disciplined Shine out like beacon-lights They earn money just as a bee Gathers honey without harming the flowers And they let it grow as an ant-hill slowly gains in heights With wealth wisely gained They use it for the benefit of all. 52

Varieties of Vision �Spiritual/religious: Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa �Community Visions: Martin Luther King �Political Visions : Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln �Product: Mc. Donald’s, Walt Disney �Artistic: Vincent Van Gogh 53

�Vision is more active and community oriented aspect, Aloha is its quieter and more personal side �Vision focuses our energy on a goal that reaches beyond our beings into a context larger than ourselves. 54

Cultivating Vision �Seeing how you can integrate your visions with your routine �George Kinder �Tax returns calculations-seeing more than numbers to help people �Art and literature and spiritual work- used in books and seminars 55

�Its not what we do. Its how we do it. �Each and every action of daily life performed with consciousness of human context and done with intention of helping others draws our vision into the world and makes it a better place. 56

Aloha Blessing, Pure and Simple 57

……timepieces can be bought but not the morning…. 58

Aloha is the humility, kindness and blessing that passes from one person to another. It lacks economic distinction. 59

In the realm of money we are too used to thinking that knowledge is everything, that money is simply about the facts of insurance, investments, budgets etc. But knowledge is uncertain, fragile and incomplete. Kindness though takes everything in. No matter how much you know or own, in the end all the rest falls away. Only kindness counts. 60

Aloha isn’t a substitute of economic endeavor, but a part of it. Since every exchange of money is in fact a reciprocal giving of gifts, Aloha can be an inherent part of every financial dealing. ‘When a client presents a difficult personal and financial problem to me, I look for a way to be giving and gracious, but I still charge for my consulting time’ 61

�Mahealani’s success �Derrick and Alexandria’s move �Susanna’s lesson 62

Thank You 63