Atul Sethi from Farnam Tree gives his insights.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
• I was at a talk recently where a spiritual teacher spoke about how money and mindfulness are friends, not foes.
• The values that meditation promotes can help in making better financial decisions.
• The mental clarity that mindfulness practices seek can help one curb emotional decision-making and avoid costly mistakes.
• A balance between being aggressive and cautious is key in all matters of risk. Even if you do not meditate and have no intention to, appreciating these relationships may be helpful.
Friends, Not Foes
Money, mindfulness and meditation can help each other thrive, contrary to what many may think. I was at a talk recently given by a spiritual teacher who used to be an investment banker in Hong Kong. The subject of his speech was how the pursuit of money fits well with a spiritual pursuit. He believes that there is an impression that ambitions related to making and growing money exist at odds with spirituality. Chasing financial success is something impure and driven by greed.
The argument was simple: everyone has a karmic debt to repay through some form of work to society. The more you work and aggressively pursue money today, the more time you have later in life to devote yourself to spirituality. Even if I do not agree with all his points, they make sense and are eye-opening. It made me appreciate money and mindfulness are not mutually exclusive. Both are tools- one external, and other internal – that can help us create a life of greater fulfillment.
There are clear benefits that meditation and/or mindfulness practice can have on financial-related matters. Even if you do not meditate and have no intention to, appreciating some of these relationships may be helpful.
More clarity, better decisions
Meditation can sharpen our ability to focus and reduce impulsive behaviour. These skills transfer well when related to financial decisions. Making decisions in the heat of the moment often ends up being regarded as mistakes later. Being able to better control emotions can combat this. Keeping the long-term goal(s) in mind can help when things are tough. If you invest your savings, there are likely to be ups and downs. Nothing goes up in one straight line – not even Bitcoin. Mental clarity can help one stick to the plan and better combat some of the bumps along the way.
Finding balance
The balance that mindfulness promotes can be applied in many ways to finances. Financial market are described as swinging back and forth on a pendulum where the two ends are fear and greed. Too aggressive or too cautious rarely serves someone well in the long run. The appropriate balance somewhere in between can allow compound interest to run rampant.
Atul Sethi is the founder and CEO of Farnam Tree, a licensed boutique investment firm based in Bangkok. Atul has over twelve years’ experience working in investment banking and as a research analyst, prior to starting Farnam Tree.
