There are a lot of books about business, money management, long term strategies, short term gains, economics, etc.

So, why, oh why do I stay in an industry saturated with advice and noise?

Because, there are some “simple,” yet profound realities that keep pulling me back to “itself.” (Itself: as if the financial industry has a persona, and guess what, “It” does…)  It speaks to people, driving their unconscious desires and fulfilling their “inner worth meter.”  It (the financial persona) crafts lifestyles, studies behavior, forges cycles of generational wealth/poverty/power, and drives overall earning and spending.  It is often a hard, hard task master.  It works to fill personal and psychological holes with material objects.  It acts as tangible “human” caulking, filling in the cracks, and crevices of hidden desires with the “next monetary purchase.”

There are characteristics (or patterns) to the financial world from my vantage point.  I speak from a perspective layered in history.  I also speak as a woman with systemic power and years of formal and informal training.  Noticing patterns has taught me to look and listen along my Way.  Sometimes I see trends, sometimes I don’t.  It is a third eye for me. To look. To listen. To feel and see what arises around me.  What is being “said” to people in the financial airways? Life is a dynamic existence that moves at.every.moment like the tidelands taking us/me downstream – without much consideration (unless I intentionally guide it) – across the ensuing days, months, and years.

I listed some Noticings (below) that I consider all the time.  I capitalized “Noticings” on purpose; this is the label I substitute for “seeing.”  I look and listen in order to notice the underlying financial script that is playing out day.by.day in the breezeways of corporate conversation, radio chatter, and crafted advertisements, etc.  The cash flow script constantly ebbs and flows.  The script is guided by a large assumption of consumption. There is a systemic someone thinking about the path I should take as a consumer.  I often wonder, “Am I thinking more intentionally about My life and My Path than that systemic someone?” In other words, who and What is driving me?

Noticings:

True Cost: The true cost of many expensive realities are never calculated in a United States Existence (i.e., cars, college, cell phones, and cable – to name a few). Calculating the true cost sounds weird in English sentences because it goes against the common script. Who says, “Cable will be $1,800 per year?  Would you like to sign up today?”  Nope. Never. Nunca. It is not the accepted English script.  However, cable is $150/month. That’s better.  I can stomach $150/month.  It’s a different consideration. Isn’t it? A car will cost $400/month.  Not, $4,800 per year + insurance $100/month = $6,000 per year or $24,000 after four years.  O.k. you get my gist…the true cost has a different weighted value when considered in the present moment.

Money and Morality: Money and Morality go hand in hand which gives people the inherent right to judge and shame each other.  I start with the premise that there are many ways to live life.  I also believe that there are advantages, luck, hard work, planning, health/personal crises, personal power, desires, etc. etc. that all converge into the big pool of life.  All of these moments impact one’s financial existence.  My heart/medicine for people is to tease out the “hair ball” of the convergences so that folks are invited to consciously slow down, see the patterns of their life, and consider their next step.  It is not easy to manage the expectations that come with money.  Drop the burden.  Drop the judgement.  Work on yourself. I tell myself this all the time.

Vantage Point: Looking at your feet. Not the horizon:  Time has been disconnected from money.  This concept is linked to true cost (above).  Looking at one’s feet casts a short term view of the next step.  I walk all the time as a daily practice. I’ve noticed there are moments in my life where my head is turned downward, introspective (yes, perhaps?), but this bodily positioning also shortens my view.  When I literally look up and out, my vantage point is different.  It is helpful to consider the vision of one’s life in terms of time.  For example, can you “see” out three months, six months, one year, five years?  Vision casts a direction.  In addition, Vision (or envisioning the horizon) is subversive because it is not what the financial script is inviting you to do.  The financial script would like you to disconnect time and money.  I see this all the time in regards to amortization schedules (i.e. Schedules which link time and money).  It is very rare that a financing company will calculate an amortization schedule and say, “Hey, before you buy this or that – or before you enter college – here’s the total cost of your education or your purchase once you start making payments.” Again, the common, dominant financial script does not support this bedrock, grounded, rooted level of consciousness.  So, it is a subversive act to link your purchases and earning to a Vision across time.  It is subversive to consider the present moment spending/earning activities with a future mindfulness. And because it goes against the common, systemic narrative (or financial script), it is a powerful stance.

I love helping people See. 

It is in the “Noticings” of one’s life where patterns are highlighted and desires are considered.

…AND what is forever palpable to me is my continual growth and development.  My work in the world, works on me!

Adios. Buena Suerte. & Seguir Buscando. Keep looking! & Noticing,

Hillary