Financial Planning. RedEfined.
Our current model of financial planning - the quest for financial freedom - is a lie that keeps us trapped.
The promise: save enough money so your money earns money on its money, and then you’ll be free.
This traditional model of financial planning centers the accumulation of money as the overriding focus of your life with the promise that one day you can stop worrying about money.
It’s extractive and at its root is a concept I discovered called “Money Dysmorphia” that is causing most of us to sacrifice our non-renewable resources for money, which is infinitely renewable when you know how to access it, and use it wisely.
The indigenous call it “Wetiko”, a psychological illness that causes us to selfishly obsess about our relationship with money through greed, overconsumption, and the exploitation of resources at the expense of collective well-being.
Ironically, this even exists in people who like to believe that “money doesn’t matter” or “I’m not motivated by money” because it pushes into shadow the obsession rather than being in right relationship with money.
Money is the most powerful motivator in our collective.
To not understand how to work with money, and be in right relationship with money, means we are at risk of becoming a drain on our communities, so the belief that it doesn’t matter or doesn’t motivate, is to push away where it needs to matter and needs to motivate.
When we are in right relationship with money, we can use it to motivate The good.
When we are out of right relationship with money, we will be used by a system that preys on poor relationship with our resources.
Our current financial planning world can’t see the issue because the financial advisors, insurance salespeople, wealth managers, CFPs, etc have all been trained on a model that financially rewards accumulation of money in the stock market or insurance products. As a result, it's very difficult for advisors to provide the kind of “eyes wide open” guidance that could lead to your choice to invest outside of the traditional structures that could be better for you and your family.
Our entire system of financial planning, from advisory to software that supports it, is based on an idea that one day you’ll have enough money to “retire” and live out your days poolside or traveling in your RV, without needing to earn anymore money from your contribution to society.
It’s the American Dream.
If you’ve gotten “there”, you’ll likely know that while there may be some level of freedom, it doesn’t last long.
Where are the safe investments?
Who can you count on?
What if the stock market (or Crypto market) crashes?
Do you actually have enough?
Better hold on to what you do have, and not share it because there’s no more where that came from.
And, as you well know, for many it’s an American nightmare that keeps you trapped in a job you don’t like for longer than you want to stay there, giving your best, healthiest, most active and creative years to a future of retirement that may or may not even support the life you really want to live.
Worst of all, if you buy into this system, by the time you get to that retirement, you will have not developed the skills of creativity and contribution or the resourcefulness of a community of support that you may need to rely on in a world where we cannot count on social security or continuously rising stock market gains to support us.
It’s time for a completely new model of financial planning, along with the software to support it, and the advisors to support you to implement it.
I call it the Journey to Financial Liberation.
It’s a 4-stage spiral path, in which you will always have the clarity of knowing exactly where you are now, and where you want to go next, so you can focus your resources - time, energy, attention and money - on the exact next steps to get from where you are now, to where you want to go.
Because it’s a spiral path, you’re always on it, up or down the spiral. Up with clarity, down with confusion. And you can turn the wheel at anytime, by simply getting clear on where you are now on the journey and where you want to go next.
There are 4-stages on each turn of the wheel. And each turn of the wheel represents a level of income generation that is keyed to your own mastery of your time, energy, attention and money (your TEAM) resources.
The Journey to Financial Liberation is designed to help you see where Money Dysmorphia may be distorting your choices about the use of your resources.
Get my support with your time, money and taxes, for free.
Join the private Eyes Wide Open group here.
You’ll come to understand where it comes from and how to heal it, and then make your choices with your “eyes wide open” - understanding what you have, what you need, and how to create it and care for it wisely.
On the Journey to Financial Liberation, you’ll learn to be your own best advisor, first and foremost. Then, hire the right support for all of your legal, insurance, financial and tax matters without any risk of being taken advantage of, scammed or hurt in any way because you aren’t outsourcing your leadership, but instead have the criteria for decision-making so you get supported instead of ripped off.
On the Journey to Financial Liberation, you always know exactly how much you need to earn, in the time you have, and in alignment with your values. From there, you can focus your time, energy and attention on earning that money, and caring for it - as well as all of your other resources - wisely.
Once you’ve earned “enough” from your own contribution, or if you already have enough from an inheritance or selling a business or other windfall, you can be in right relationship with what you have, without worry about losing it or having it taken away while at the same time being as generous as you desire without worry.
This is just a taste of the Journey to Financial Liberation, a new model of financial planning.
There’s much more to come, including a book, lots of YouTube content, and regular updates by email to my “eyes wide open” newsletter list. Get on the list here.