Color is perceived from refracted waves of light.  Light is the primal source of energy and life on this planet.  Color is much more than a palette for preference or adornment.  In color resonates the pure energies of all creation.

When we speak about the colors of money, we are not referring to the color of any specific currency. For our purposes, the color of money refers to the vibratory frequency of different colors and how they affect our physical bodies, our emotions, and our thoughts. (more…)

Ed Grimley, the Martin Short character from Saturday Night Live, used to dance around with a maniacal grin saying, “I’m going mental.”  It was funny, but what he really meant was that he was letting go of his emotions.  Sometimes it’s easy to confuse the two because they are so interdependent. What and how we think determines much of what and how we feel.  This is especially true with our thoughts and feelings about money. (more…)

Music touches the deepest recesses of our emotional being.  As silly as it may sound, for all of the great music I have heard in my life, one piece of music that always brings to me a feeling of contentment and joy is a song by Simon and Garfunkel called “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin Groovy).” For any Baby Boomers reading this there is no need for explanation.  The lyrics (“slow down you’re movin’ too fast, you got to make the moment last”) and the signature hook (“lookin for fun and feelin groovy”) are indelible imprints on our collective teenage consciousness; one minute and fifty-six seconds of pure adolescent emotion. (more…)

If some of my clients insist on responding to the current recession by getting completely out of the markets, buying gold, or stuffing their mattresses with cash, what is my responsibility as their financial planner?

I recently participated in an online discussion of that issue with some professional peers. One of them raised an important question. How far should planners go to try to keep people from making what the planner views as a serious mistake? It’s important to respect someone’s competence and ability to make their own life decisions. On the other hand, should a planner stand idly by and watch someone walk off what the planner perceives as the edge of a financial cliff? (more…)

People learn best from stories, both from living them and from the telling.

My first car was a bare bones Datsun, and when I married we had a Toyota Corona. Those two cars provided me as much enjoyment as any form of transportation I have experienced since, probably because my only criteria for an auto at that time was to get me where I wanted to go as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Over the years we progressed through Volvos to a succession of Mercedes. I chose the Mercedes because, late one evening on a trip to southern Indiana to visit my mother, I was pushing the speed limit, going over eighty mph, when the transmission seals on our Volvo wagon overheated. We lost our transmission fluid and came to a halt.
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One of the most heavily reported economic stories of recent weeks was the widespread anger over bonuses paid to AIG executives. What isn’t making the news, but is probably far more significant, is a different type of anger that I am hearing from friends and clients.

Suppose, like most of my clients, you have worked hard all your life. You educated yourself and found a good job. You showed up daily and did everything you were asked and more. If you went into business, you took risks. You learned to live on less than you made and saved as much as you could.

It wasn’t easy. You went without some of the luxuries that others enjoyed. Instead, you plowed the extra back into your business or put the maximum into your IRA and 401(k) plans every year. You paid your debts and your taxes on time.

For years you have been responsible and “done the right thing.” Today, you are mostly debt free. Your retirement account has grown. You don’t consider yourself rich, but you are doing okay financially.

If this describes you, I have a hunch that you are mad as hell. And it’s no wonder. Continue reading on FinancialAwakenings.com

Money usually begins with the physical.  It is where we have the most direct contact with money and the stuff we buy.  We can feel the coins and paper currency.  We write checks make bank deposits, use our charge cards.  We see, touch, hear and smell our cars, food, fuel, houses, iPods, computers, books, clothes and all the other many toys, diversions and necessities of life.  Physical money is not at all interior.  It is by definition exterior yet has no meaning or purpose without some interior reciprocal quality or faculty.  A physical manifestation is defined and realized by how we perceive and value that thing.  Think of the old adage “If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it does it make a sound?” (more…)

Money issues span every part of human consciousness. There is no part of us that thinks, feels, or knows that is not intimately affected by money. That is why we need so very deeply to better understand money. In my book, The Colors of Money. Finding Your MoneyForce, I discussed how money works on four distinct but unified parts of human awareness. There is physical money that we touch, and the physical manifestations of that money. There is emotional money, our deep feelings about money and wealth. In the mental plane we think about money and form abstract, but often seemingly concrete theories and philosophies of money. Finally, money has a soul level where we harbor the deep intuitive knowing about money and its true meaning. Each interior level has a color, which not only symbolizes that area but also resonates with, and defines the deepest qualities, attributes and faculties of that aspect. (more…)

One of my clients was blessed early in 2008 with two new grandchildren. As he had done for his previous three grandkids, he opened 529 college savings accounts for the two newest family members, with initial deposits of $500.

At the end of the year each new account was valued at $336.36. He told me, “They would have been better off if I had bought them each a piggy bank and put five hundred-dollar bills in it.” He was right, at least for this year.

Each January, this man adds $500 to each grandchild’s 529 account. This year, he’s hesitating to send in the new deposits. He can’t help but wonder if it would be wiser, just this once, to put the money into CD’s at his local credit union instead. True, the return isn’t much-only three percent-but at least it would be a gain instead of a loss. He’s questioning whether it might be a good idea to get that three percent gain, and then put the money back into the 529 plans a year from now. By then, he hopes, the accounts will have started to recover. Continue Reading at FinancialAwakenings.com »

The Chileans are perplexed with us. On a recent visit to Santiago, Chile, I was talking with a colleague who said, “You were the ones that taught us about the free markets, and now here you are abandoning those principles and moving toward socialism.”

He has a point. I get the growing sense that we are witnessing the transition of our economy from a “market economy” to a “political economy.”

While I’ve been pleased with President Obama’s cabinet selections to date, his January 9 speech at George Mason University was unsettling. Continue Reading at FinancialAwakenings.com»