We have a lifelong relationship with money
The next cohort of FF1 is May-June. Jung and Rumi say you should take it.
Another cohort of Financial Freedom 1 starts May 1 and runs until June 30. The description is here. My pitch on why you should take it is really about examining your relationship with your money, and thus your life. A couple of stories of people of people I know who will for the rest of their lives:
A couple in their 70s in California who have a $20 million nest egg. They continue to work (him as an executive, her as a lawyer) because they spend a lot of money and are afraid if they stop working, they’ll run out.
I know a woman in Portland who just turned 40 who went to a liberal arts college and then got a MFA, both on student loans. She now works retail at an arts store. I’m guessing she owes at least one hundred thousand dollars, but she doesn’t know, because she refuses to open her monthly billing statements.
These are extreme examples, but this is what happens when you’re unaware about money. Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” And that’s what we’re really talking about with Financial Freedom: bringing the unconscious to consciousness, and thereby having the freedom to make your own choices.
Our money shadows are the unconscious, childhood beliefs about money that control our assumptions, beliefs, and behaviors around how we work, how we spend, and how we relate to one another. It’s the first lesson in FF1 and informs everything we talk about from there.1 Once people see their money shadows, they realize how much of their choices have been guided by the hidden hand of their childhood unconscious. And they don’t want that anymore.
And at that point, people realize they can take control of their personal finances to live the life they want. That sense of freedom reminds me of a Rumi poem:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.
Waking up is really about consciousness. Consciousness about yourself, your hidden beliefs, and your automatic behaviors. And once you’re conscious, you’re able to make better decisions because consciousness means choice. You can’t live the life you want while operating under unconscious beliefs. Life happens to you and you’ll call it fate. You just continue to do what you’ve always done and think that’s just the way life is.
Consciousness means choice.
Rumi said that grapes want to turn to wine. There’s a Taoist saying, “When spring comes, the grass grows by itself.” People come to Financial Freedom 1 for all sorts of reasons: getting married, getting a divorce, having a child, getting a big raise, getting laid off, turning 30, turning 50. Some just realize they don’t want to work until age 70 or depend on their children’s future income to support them. As Anais Nin put it, “the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
The next cohort starts May 1 and goes to June 30. Trust me, it’s kinda fun. And both Jung and Rumi want you to do it. Maybe Nin as well.
If you’re afraid you can’t afford tuition, I can confidently say that taking control of your finances will pay for itself within months2. If you don’t think you have the time for it now, OK. But commit to yourself: when? Pretend you have a lifelong relationship with money (because you do). When will you sit down and look at it? There’s a better life for you out there, if you wake up and look at your money shadows.3
If you’ve already taken FF1, is there anyone you think should take it too? Forward the link to them. Also, in the comments, I would love it if you put down the biggest thing you got from the course.
Philosopher Solvoj Zizek says that culture is the thing you do without realizing you’re doing it. So it is with money.
What tuition really is is your commitment. I’m not concerned about the money for me; the money is your own internal commitment to transformation. Most everyone I’ve let in for free or reduced tuition doesn’t finish.
I would say that, even when you are aware of them, you’ll be dealing with your money shadows for the rest of your life. You’ll do something and then think, “Aha! There’s my money script about avoidance (or worship, or status, or vigilance)! But you’ll get to make a choice.