Money operates above and below the waterline

Money is just a tool, though probably the most adaptable tool ever known to man. But unlike tools, money operates both above and below “the waterline.”

Above the waterline, we exchange money, its most basic level, for food, clothing, shelter and the many other things we enjoy in life; education, health care, vacation, sports camps, and the myriad of other things we take for granted.

Below the waterline money operates at an emotional level. There, money has the potential to break relationships, ruin marriages, control children, provide a false sense of worth or power. It also has the potential to build a marriage, provide for the needs of others, start a business, build a school, reclaim a neighborhood, or drill a well, just so folks can have clean drinking water.

Ask almost any middle aged American male how much money he needs to retire. Most will tell you quickly and easily, even if they haven't prepared a financial plan. They know what they need to have, financially speaking, by the time they retire from work, to support them for the rest of their days. But somehow, and it almost always happens like this, when they get close to having "the number" something goes off inside, they step back, and shotput their "number" way down the field, off they go in search of a bigger number than the one they thought would work.

Why? I wish I knew. I'm sure there are many reasons, not the least of which is if you don't enjoy what you have now, how could you be happier with more?

And so on some level, discontentment with what we have causes us to believe more will lead us to better life.

Vocation

Have you ever thought about the kind of work you do? Life is too short to work at something you don't enjoy, if you have a choice. Here's something I've found really helpful about vocation:

Frederich Buechner says Vocation – comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a person is called to by God. Buechner says there are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this: the kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored or depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren’t helping your patients much either. Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. From: Wishful Thinking, A Theological ABC, by Frederick Buechner

Worldmapper

I came across an amazing webtool - Worldmapper, which as the site says, is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. Definately a must see.

I don't know

"I don't know."

How many times have you heard that answer? Whether the question is, "Which colors do you like best, where do you want to go to dinner, or what do you want to do this weekend,” “I don’t know” sounds pretty much the same in any language.

Some questions, like the one the barista at Starbucks asks, "Leave room for cream?" you seem to answer effortlessly. Answers to other questions seem to get stuck in some perennial version of "I don't know."

Behavioral psychologist say our answers to life’s questions often have more to do with reasons that don’t relate to the question much less make any sense. Take our barista friend, for example. When she said, "Leave room for cream?” you said, “Yes,” never mind that you didn't want cream. You said “Yes,” because when you said "No," she filled your cup full and on your way to work, your coffee slopped out the plastic lid, down the double cup and all over the front of your nice clean starched shirt. That’s why you say “Yes.”

We went to work on implementing a financial plan for a wealthy family a few years back. We didn't do the planning, the CPA they used for years did. Upon determining that the family held too little money in equities and too much money in bonds, and after several meetings between the family and the CPA, we were brought in to see if we were all going to get along, you know, in the areas of investment philosophy, communication, style, and whether we were fans of the right ACC team. The accountant nodded his head, and we got the thumbs up. Great, we thought.

In meetings that followed, without the accountant, we probed deeper: “So," we said, "What do you want to do with your money?” The reply: “We don’t know, just make it grow.” Second try: “O.K., so what are your hopes and dreams for the future?” The reply: “Just keep on doing what we’ve been doing.” Third try: “So, how do you want to influence the future with your money?” You guessed it: “We don’t know.”

Want to know what happens when you do a financial plan and totally ignore your life meaning plan?

Stay tuned.

How Suite It Isn’t: A Dearth of Female Bosses

By JULIE CRESWELL
Published: December 17, 2006
Though more women are getting M.B.A.’s, few reach the corner suite.

Our management team (and Beth Michaels) should find this interesting given Jonathan Smith & Co. has a woman in a senior management position.

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship? Listen to this podcast from Kelly Green of the Wall Street Journal if you've every thought about volunteering after retirement.