Welcome back to Modern Financial Wellness! I'm your host, Jim Grace, and on today’s episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Tim "Jai" Baker—wealth advisor, founder of Luminess Wealth, and author of “The Awakened Investor.” We explored not only the technical side of what makes up true wealth, but also dove deep into the intersection of finance, mindfulness, and personal transformation.

Tim brings a truly holistic perspective to the financial world. With nearly four decades of experience as a wealth advisor, he’s founded multiple firms, including Luminess Wealth, and has recently authored “The Awakened Investor.” Tim’s journey—from a career on Wall Street, through personal tragedy, to deep spiritual exploration and founding a new kind of wealth management firm—shapes his philosophy that wealth isn’t just about money, but encompasses our well-being in multiple dimensions.

This conversation is much more than a discussion about money or traditional financial planning. Tim shared his unique story of transformation, including how meditation began to shape his life, especially after the tragic loss of his daughter. We discussed why financial success doesn’t always lead to life satisfaction, the pitfalls of mainstream financial services (including the crucial distinction between “fiduciary” and “suitability” standards), and the importance of addressing one’s mindset and inherited beliefs around money.

We also explored how the most effective wealth management considers a client’s entire well-being—drawing from Blue Zone research on longevity, examining family money scripts, and integrating mindfulness, health, and life satisfaction into financial planning. If you’re curious about the intersection of spirituality and personal finance, or want to understand why your financial journey is so entwined with your mindset and life story, this episode is for you.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Wealth is Holistic, Not Just Dollars and Cents: Tim emphasizes that true wealth is much broader than just financial assets—it includes health, relationships, environment, and personal fulfillment. This echoes the original etymology of "wealth," which referred to prosperity, well-being, and health, not just currency.
2. Know Thyself: Mindset is Everything: Our deepest beliefs and attitudes about money are often formed in early childhood, and can drive financial decisions unconsciously for decades. Becoming aware of—and consciously reshaping—our money scripts and mindset is essential for both financial and personal progress.
3. Not All Advisors Are Created Equal: The Importance of Fiduciary Duty: Tim explains the difference between “fee-only fiduciary” advisors and those who operate under the less stringent “suitability” standard. Only about 10% of advisors are true fiduciaries, committed to putting the client’s interests first.
4. The Power of Daily Practice (and Teamwork): Just as true personal or spiritual development requires daily effort (think of Tiger Woods’ golf training, or regular meditation), financial growth needs consistent practice, regular reviews, and a cohesive team dedicated to your wellbeing—not just isolated experts.
5. Transformation is a Journey, Not a Destination: Tim’s own experience—from Wall Street to spiritual retreats in India—underscores that awakening (whether financially or personally) is continual work. Setbacks and triggers are natural, and the goal isn’t perfection, but ongoing growth and alignment between our values, goals, and resources.

Resources & Next Steps

If today’s conversation resonated with you, I highly recommend picking up Tim’s book, “The Awakened Investor” (available on Amazon in all formats, including audio). Visit luminouswealth.com to explore Tim’s work, and while you're there, take the Human Archetype Assessment to better understand your own money beliefs and patterns.

Thanks again for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, share with friends, and stay tuned for more conversations at the intersection of money and meaning.

Take care,

Jim

Alright, everybody. Welcome to Modern Financial Wellness. My guest today is Tim Jai Baker. He is a wealth advisor, founder of Luminess Wealth, and the author of The Awakened Investor. Tim, welcome, and thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.

Jim, I appreciate, you having me on your show today and look forward to our conversation.

Likewise. So I immediately we had a quick kinda get to know you session before we scheduled this recording, but I was hoping to learn a little bit more about you, and I think it'll be really informative for our listeners to understand a little bit more about your background and and who you are. So I I I think to get right into it, you've never explained where Jai came from in your name. I assume that's not your your god given middle name. Can you tell us more about that?

Sure. Actually, my my older brother named me after his favorite TV show, Lassie. Well, he didn't name me Lassie, but he named me after his owner, Timmy. And and that's what, at birth, my my parents named me, so I was always this little Timmy. But in in 02/2005, I had, quite a year. At the beginning of that year, I was scheduling, going to a retreat by doctor Deepak Chopra in San Diego. That was gonna be in September, late September. And then I was gonna also go the following January on a temple tour to India with his partner, Roger Gabriel, and 20 other people.

A couple of weeks after I scheduled these two events, I canceled the temple tour. I didn't think that I could take that much time away from work. I was too important to my clients to leave for that longer period, and I canceled it. But as the year unfolded, come September second of that year, I lost my daughter, 21 years old, to an auto wreck. Well, when that happened, I put the temple tour back on my calendar. I just needed to process life and just time away. And so I went to the, event in, in San Diego, Secrets To Enlightenment. That was fantastic.

And then went to India in January in the Tamil Nadu region. That's South India. And we flew into into Chennai, visited five cities. Also had an evening with the prince of Tanjore and his palace. We agreed it with a fire parade, had, spent time alone with the prince in conversation. We had five course meal with belly dancers, and we toured the palace, and he sent us away with a fire parade. And so it was quite quite an event, quite a couple of weeks. But, we were in the city of Tiruvannamalai, and that's at the base of, and there's the largest temple there in South India, and it's at the base of Mount Arunachala.

On the other side of the mountain, is a Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi Ashram. And, I was staying at the Ashram and got up one morning, and, at 4AM, did a two hour meditation, walked down this long wide path to the ashram for breakfast. And along the way were these breakfast vending carts on one side and the saddues wearing orange robes on the other. They've renounced materialism. It could be a 46 year old attorney with a wife and six kids, and he goes home one evening and says, I'm out of here after tomorrow. I'm just gonna try to live on the land. So these guys come to the temples and ashrams for some help. And so I went over there and I gave these guys money so they could get breakfast that morning.

And then I went on down the path for mine. But as I did, this one little guy comes running up behind me. He came up to about my chin, at a bald head, big smile, and he put his hands in prayer position and says, thank you. I name you Jai. I said, Jai? He said, yeah. Jai in Hindu means victory. Today was my victory. You gave me food.

And then he put this holy ash on my forehead, and then I spent about a day and a half with him in the Ashram while I was there. So that's where where Jai came from and brings up a lot of great memories. Mhmm. And, so that's where where Jai is.

Yeah. So that must have been quite an amazing experience, having that personal tragedy and and losing your daughter and then, you know, spending time, you know, fulfilling those retreats that you had prior can't prior, canceled.

Yeah. Such a bittersweet experience. Right? And one that will obviously never be replicated. It was the most experiential time in my life in those two week periods.

I bet. I bet. So for somebody that was gonna schedule week long retreats and temple tours and, you know, capable of two hour meditations in the morning, you obviously had been practicing meditation for quite some time, I'd imagine. Right? This is this is something that had been part of you and your journey for for many, many years.

Yeah. In 1997, it all actually, it all started for me playing a round of golf. I was playing a round of golf, and, I grew up playing. I went to University of South Carolina on a golf scholarship. I was a captain there and played pro for a year. But this was many years later. In '97, I was playing around the golf, and on the fourteenth hole, I swung the club, and it felt like a knife went through my left shoulder. Mhmm.

And, I couldn't couldn't finish the round. I went home. I couldn't even put on a suit coat, much less go to the gym and and do bench presses. And so I went to a physical therapist and, went to Martina Navra's personal trainer, and she did acupuncture. And that felt great, but it didn't heal the shoulder. And then I went to a orthopedic surgeon, and he put a, you know, a foot long needle on my shoulder and said, I sit down for the next two weeks. And if it's not better, we'll we'll operate well. It wasn't better after two weeks, but I really wasn't excited about getting operated on.

So I just had this dull pain in my shoulder for for many months, and I sit down every night. But I wasn't going to the gym. I I couldn't put my suit coat on. And then I was, reading a book by doctor Chopra, and in the very back of it, he mentioned in two or three sentences this thing called meditation. Well, when you read one of his books, you can't just read one. You have to buy another one, and so I did, and the same thing with the second book. So I started going home in the evenings and just, sitting on the hearth of my fireplace, closing my eyes, and just looking at the back of my eyes, and I would just repeat silently to myself, thy will be done. Well, after doing this for some weeks, it it get me I got really intrigued in wanting to to really learn how to do the meditation technique, and I found a teacher through doctor, Chopra in Bedford, Virginia.

And I went there for a three day weekend, learned my mantra technique, and then went back home, and I would meditate in the morning for an hour and an hour in the afternoon. And on the third day of doing this at home, I was I was driving back, and I realized just by holding the steering wheel that my left shoulder, the pain there was gone. Oh, wow. And go home, I'm putting on my suit coats. I'm doing push ups. I'm going to the gym and working out again. It was gone, and I haven't had an issue with it since. I wasn't looking for meditation to do this.

I was just curious about the technique and what meditation and the does. I wasn't looking to heal my shoulder, but it healed. And it healed because, you know, the word meditation means what? To you, Jim, what does meditation mean?

I would say that it means to sit in quiet reflection, kind of be with our our mind and our our thoughts, try to control those.

Well, that's what we're doing, but, really, what we're being is, is sitting with our higher self. So the word meditation means to become familiar with. Familiar with what? The light that you've been incarnated into this body from. And when you sit in that light, you're bringing homeostasis and balance to all 60,000,000,000,000 cells in your body, and that's how healing can take place. Now there's many other benefits and attributes of and qualities of meditation, but that is one of them. And so through the years, and so since 1997, I've continued that practice. I went back and deepened it in Wollongong, Australia with, doctor Chopra, learning the, the chakras and the meditation techniques and the sutras for each chakra through the body. And we would and and that retreat, we would meditate two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and recapitulation at nighttime before you go to bed.

Can I ask can I jump in? And and it may sound like a a wild left turn for some people, but I think it'll make sense, later in the conversation. Where were you at professionally at that time? What what's going on in your career? Were you an adviser at that point? Or what in '97, where where were you professionally?

In August of ninety seven, I left the, Wall Street industry to form my own firm, T. Monier Family Office.

Got you. Okay. So And

so it it was part of my transformation.

Right. So it wasn't just this spiritual journey that you kicked off and finding meditation. You're also kinda going through a a career transformation, professional transformation, and leaving Wall Street and trying to create a new type of firm in the way that you thought people should be, taken care of and and and and advised. Is that fair to say?

Yeah. So when you spend that much time in in emptiness is which is where you get when you're in a meditation, you tap into your authentic self, that higher self. And so that's and so then that gets expressed in all aspects of your life.

Mhmm.

And in this way, it was channeled in into my my new work and and what my vision was for for serving other people.

And what would you mind sharing what that vision was? What did you have in mind for for serving folks as you left Wall Street?

Well, you know, Wall Street is is a product oriented world. For Wall Street, money and motion is profits to them. Now they don't mind if the consumer makes money, but they're gonna make theirs first, and then the broker selling those products is gonna get theirs. Mhmm. And so usually, the consumer is third in line that food chain. The consumer needs to be the first one in line. And so my vision was to, to act in the best interest of the client to become a fiduciary for the individuals and families and institutions that we were working with.

Mhmm.

And, and so that was the the major change agent. You know, obviously, I started out when I started out with, that was me and an assistant. And then I I was able to organically build out my model and my processes for working with families in the very best way.

Mhmm. Mhmm. Could you explain, fiduciary, to folks that are listening? Because I get this question a lot as a financial planner, and I think it's a good one. Clients ask, am I a fiduciary? But I suspect that that is one of the questions that they were told to ask and might not have, like, a real full understanding of exactly what that means. So that might be a good, you know, clarification.

So it's it's actually a universal principle. So it's keep it's having the client's best interest at heart. It's placed in the client's interest ahead of your interest. And it it also reminds me of of a time where a reporter, asked Ramana Maharshi the question of, how do you treat others? And Ramana said there are no others. So that's what a fiduciary is. You're treating that individual that's placing their trust, into your guidance, and you have to act in their best interest.

Right. And I think most people would assume that that's just the industry standard, but it's not. Is it in all all

No. Most of the industry because and I say most, 90%. Only 10% of, truly, of all the financial people that you walk into their offices, only 10% are fiduciaries, true fiduciaries, true fee only planners or advisors, not fee based. A lot of people can hear somebody will say, who are you? And and a guy will say, well or girl, I'm fee based. And that and that person said, oh, well, you're the person I'm looking for. But, no, they have to be fee only. Fee based means they can manage your assets for a fee, but they also have the ability to introduce other products and services that charge a commission. So now the and and the client doesn't usually isn't even told that there is a commission or what the commission amount is.

Mhmm. And many times, they can't even see where the commission went on their statements.

Mhmm.

Because the insurance company has a interesting way of hiding these things.

Yeah. And that's

So and and so most of most of the industry is working under what's called a suitability rule. And that is the product just has to be suitable for the client. It doesn't have to be the best product. The client has to be suitable enough so that if the product doesn't do well, they can afford to lose that money. So they're operating under suitability standard, and they don't have to look for the very best strategy, the very best, investment choices available to the consumer. It just has to be suitable.

Right. Right. It's always surprising to me. There's always a, an article. There was one recently, and I forget the trade publication that it was in, but it was talking about how because of the change in administration and, you know, what effect that might have on the Department of Labor, this moving the entire insurance industry, I think it was, into a fiduciary standard from the suitability standard was gonna be put on pause. And it's always again, it's surprising to me how much money and influence goes into lobbying regulators to kinda keep the industry under this less stringent suitability standard rather than just bringing everybody to the, you know, where we all should be, which is under this fiduciary standard. Not really a question there. Just more of a rant on my own thoughts on the industry.

No. I understand. It's, that was actually started about five or six years ago, that movement where it was gonna be required in order to, manage retirement assets that a person needed to have a, to be a fiduciary, to have a series 65, a fee only Mhmm. Method of managing those assets. And then, the powers that be in Wall Street industry, said that's going to put a lot of our guys out of business Mhmm. And the insurance industry. And so money got in the way of that good decision for the consumer. Right.

I mean, look I mean, you look at AIG. That's why, you know, AIG was the largest insurance company in the world and was gonna go bankrupt, and our government bailed them out. Money talks.

Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. It's unfortunate. And it's a good takeaway from this conversation from a consumer, somebody listening that's thinking about hiring a financial adviser. That's, you know, more insight into the what a fiduciary is, what it stands for, and why you really wanna be looking for one if if you're gonna find a partner in the industry. So I'm I'm curious, if you would be willing to share a little bit more about the vision and the process, how you started to serve folks? And I guess your when you think about holistic wealth management, what does that what does that mean to you?

Well, so through the years, I was using my client meetings as my laboratory. My laboratory to, to provide me the information I needed, that feedback loop between me and the client to to enhance their wealth journey. And so through time, what I recognized was, oh, I need to bring in, accounting work alongside of what I'm doing with the wealth management and planning work. And so I brought in a CPA, and I brought in another CPA because you can't have just one. Because we were mandating that our clients not only worked with that we managed all of their assets, but that our CPA also was their CPA.

Mhmm.

Because to me in the wealth industry, the CPA, the attorney, and the wealth advisor planner, they'd be joined at the hip in November and December. That's when the really critical and impactful wealth decisions and strategies are being formulated and implemented.

Yeah.

And so, I brought in two CPAs, and then I brought in an attorney, an in house attorney, brought in other wealth advisors. I had a client service liaison. And then before I sold my former firm four years ago, I brought in an Ayurvedic practitioner for mind, body, spirit. What I noticed through the years, because I've been at it so long, was that I I thought that if we were meeting or exceeding our financial goals in life through through into the retirement years, because I worked with a lot of these peoples for thirty plus years, that they would be contented. They would be happy, but they weren't. Financial success doesn't didn't translate into contentment, and my wealthiest client was my most stressed out client.

And

so I took a sabbatical for three years. First year, I was consulting with my former firm, but they didn't need me. The second year, I told people I was writing a book, but it wasn't. I'd already written a lot of it. But the third year, my story got old to me, and so I I went to finish it. And so the Awaken Investor came out, about a year ago now on Thanksgiving.

So I just if I could just jump in real quick and kinda click into that. So the firm that you created sounded like it started with a lot of the traditional aspects of wealth management. So making sure that your planning and your investment strategy and your financial planner and investment adviser align with the tax side, which which makes a whole lot of sense. I see it all the time in my practice where we'll implement a strategy on behalf of a client, and we know that it's accurate, and we know it's in their best interest. But when the the accountant gets the documents, the ten ninety nines and taking a look at the transfers and things that we're doing, there's always a bit of confusion. And sometimes those things can get messed up. So you're bringing these kinda traditional resources in house. But then you realize that if I'm hearing you correctly, regardless of this comprehensive holistic wealth management firm that you've created to serve your clients and allowed them to accomplish these financial goals, there's a missing piece, which is happiness, fulfillment, contentment, you know, all things related to us as a human being.

Is that is that fair to say?

It is. You know, in in the years, in the early twelve hundreds, the etymology of the word wealth or wheel meant, riches, prosperity, health, and well-being. Mhmm. And somewhere in the fourteen hundreds, it got dumbed down to just currency.

Mhmm.

And so what we've done is return back to the true etymology of wealth, the holistic aspect of who we are as beings. And, because it, you know, it doesn't matter if we have all the money in a world if we have no health in our relationships or or nonexistent. Mhmm. And and so we're we're opening people's minds and hearts to the idea that we need to be more whole in who we are. And I actually have a a theory because with my new work, what I've done is married my four almost four decades of evidence based wealth management with the Blue Zone Research and those cultures that have longevity and the highest quality of lives. Mhmm. And my my theory is is that, actually, if people mastered those seven of those eight aspects, with finance piece being the one left out, if they mastered the other seven, the wealth piece would just fall into place. No one would worry about it, stress out over it, wonder if there's enough there or not.

Mhmm. And really see how that goes, but that's that's my thesis.

I I love it, and I think you're probably onto something. Can you run through, you know, doesn't have to be all seven, but what are some of those other areas that are focused on in the blue zone research that you think are are important for folks to consider?

So we're looking at, our environment, home aesthetics, and so forth. We're looking at, physical health, your diet, social interactions, relationships, self care, mindfulness. And then, you know, when when you're sitting with yourself and you're in in that daily practice of that, if you weren't spiritual before or religious before, you'll find that in your life to start showing up.

Mhmm.

Because, you know, we're we're multidimensional beings, and all these different aspects of our lives, our careers and relationships and health and so forth, They're interrelated. They all affect each other. You know, our health affects our finances. Our relationships affect our estate planning choices. Our mindfulness, our emotional intelligence affects our discerning decisions about every aspect of our life, and and and the spiritual component is infused at a % level into all eight aspects of our life. I mean, there is no difference between living this physical world and being spiritual.

Right. Right. And so there's obviously this interconnectedness between all these other areas of our life and financial success or feeling good about our financial situation. I cut you off, after you weren't writing a book around year three. So you go on this sabbatical to kinda think through some of these things and how you can kinda serve some of these other areas of of people's lives and then also combine that with evidence based wealth management and a formal plan. What so what does that look like in practice now? How are you, helping your clients on not just the financial, but the spiritual, the mindful, their environment their relationship?

Great question. So, yeah, along the path of finishing completing that book, I also knew that I was going to reenter the marketplace because, I never thought of myself as somebody that would ever be retired. I'm gonna be like that TV anchor guy that you watch at 06:00 every night. You turn on the TV one night, and he's not there because he's dead. I'm just I I I feel like in in a material way, I'm always gonna be doing, this work. And and so I I I recreated what I my past career was, but deepened it into the consciousness aspect and the holistic aspect of who we are as beings. And so on my wealth team, I have a an attorney, a a CPA, a real estate adviser. I'm a wealth manager planner.

That's the wealth

That's the usual suspects in a really comprehensive team of wealth management. Right?

It is. But, yeah, while everybody needs to have those professionals, you know, we are a team. So we're not using other other professionals outside that team to work in that wealth space. And that's really the critical component because, as you know, any one member in our organization, there are many people like us around the country. But where the magic is is we're a team.

Mhmm.

We're always communicating where we can be collegially challenging each other. But at the end of the day, we're following a mission statement of the families we're working for, and we're gonna come up with the one best strategy for that family and present it to the family in that way. So that's where the magic is is for a person to have a team that they are philosophically aligned, and they know each other, and they talk about the client's situation possibly every day of the year. Mhmm. So that's the that's the wealth component. But then I have a body nutrition coach. I have a mindfulness consciousness coach that works with our clients. I have a spiritual advisor, lifestyle coach, and I'm gonna bring you an environmental adviser as well.

And so also on that team, we've already, are identifying a a niche, professional in, hypnotherapy that'll work with our clients. Mhmm. And so for me, it's it's about knowing thyself and then mastering our minds. When you when you master your mind, you master your health, you master your career, you master your relationships, you master your choices that you're making in life. And so that's that's the critical aspect of what we're doing. We start with knowing thyself, and then we work on mastering our our mind, our thoughts.

Mhmm. You're validating a lot of the thoughts that I have. So I I have a a a professional friend. She's a financial coach. She's also a hypnotherapist, and we've been trying to figure out what, you know, what is a partnership between, you know, her her world and mine as a financial planner? What would that look like, and how could we incorporate both of what we do into a client relationship? And for those that hear the word hypnotherapy, it may have some kind of connotation or or thought that comes to mind. Can we talk a little bit about mindset and beliefs a little bit?

Because Sure.

That's plays such a huge impact in how people relate to their financial situation. It's everything. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me more about that. Why is it everything from your perspective, and and how did the mindset play into personal finance and well-being?

Well, I mean, whether you believe in not, it doesn't matter. You do we all know that we have this DNA lineage that we come into mom's womb with. And then we're in mom's womb for nine months, and we're taking on her chemistry, her emotions, what is going on in her world. And then for the first seven years, we're operating our mind as at a frequency of theta. Theta state of mind is a sponge for the environment and information that we've received for all of those seven years. We can't say no to any of that information. Whatever information comes in, we see it as truth and how the world is supposed to work. And then when we get to age seven, we form this beta mine.

And the beta mine is what you and I are operating at right now. It's low, mid, and high. And I can say something, and you can say, no. That's not true. Mhmm. But before eight seven, you can't do that. And so we're programmed. We're programmed with everybody else's desires and limitations that came before us and the environmental experiences that we have.

That's why it's so critical for parents to take that job on as being a parent because that's a safer time in developing the human conditioning that's going to live the rest of their life like that. And if a person lives the rest of their life like that and they don't change things, I call that a life that's been faded to them, one that they didn't choose. But if we can wake up at some point in our life, usually it's created by a pain event. It doesn't have to be. But, if we can wake up to that and say, you know, there's something a little more authentic in here in me. I'm doing things because my relative said I needed to be this way or do this thing or go to that college or or or get married or whatever, and that's not really that's not my true self. If you can start waking up to that, we can actually deprogram ourselves from that conditioning and reprogram into the light and the authenticity that we want to experience in light. Now you're living your life and destiny, one that you've chosen.

Right. And it's always surprising to me. It shouldn't be as I've explored some of these concepts and learned a lot more over the years. You know, I'm familiar with this idea that we're extremely impressionable from the time we're in the womb until we're seven or eight years old. We're we're programming our subconscious mind. But when I sit with clients and we start to explore what it is they're trying to accomplish financially, what's important to them, what's meaningful to them, What they always start with is kind of a usual suspects of lists of goals. Right? And as we go deeper and deeper, we find out that these are other people's goals. These are, you know, things that they assume that they're supposed to do because that's what maybe they were exposed to as a as a child.

Right? I was just working with a client not too long ago. She's my age. She has two little kids, and we started having this conversation about what she wanted to accomplish. And on the list was not being a burden to her children, which is something that is meaningful to a lot of people, and I'm I'm not trying to downplay the significance of that goal. But when I asked her a little bit further, she admitted that just that just came from what her Parents talked about not being, a burden on on them, so she's inherited that. And now that's one of her financial priorities when she hadn't really given it much thought. Right?

Yeah. She's just revealing her programming. Those are money scripts that she grew up with, and we all have them.

Mhmm.

And, that's one of the exercise we we do in working with clients. We develop a family genogram. And in doing so, we we collect those money scripts that are that we've learned. And when then we find out what money scripts they're handing down to their kids. Right. Right. Are they are they continuing the same money scripts, or are they awakened to some new idea that that will transmute those in some way?

Right. Right. And that's where again, if people are listening to this and they hear hypnosis and they hear mindset, it's just like, you just get on this flywheel, right, of you've inherited these beliefs and mindsets, and you kinda operate in the world in a way that's not authentic. You're not making the best decisions for yourself and just kinda perpetuate the wheel, so on and so forth, and pass those things down to your kids. So once you're aware of that, you go through a family genome project with somebody like yourself. Hypnosis, breath work, meditation, these are tools that you can kinda build into your your day to day to reprogram your mind now that you're more aware. Right? So it's like figuring out who you are, having that awareness, and then what are the tools we can bring to the table to actually change our mind and change our reprogramming. And hypnotherapy, meditation, these are these are some of the modalities that that can help us get there.

Is that, like, a fair?

Exactly. And, you know, it's usually best done if you can if you're going to embark on this change in your life, if you're wanting to have a different reality in your life, if if you're gonna do that, you have to become a different personality.

You

can't be the same person and expect a different reality before you. Right. So you have to become a different you have to reprogram yourself and become the authentic person that that your desire your heart is desiring to be. Yeah. You know, I actually, hypnotherapists have the wrong name. They're actually the hypnotherapists because we've already been hypnotized in this seven years of programming. Mhmm. And so what we're doing is we're the hypnotherapists in ourself.

Right.

And then programming ourself into our authentic self. Just actually, you're just you're not even programming. You're following your heart. You're not even thinking with your mind. Your heart your heart leads that. And then you experience, the world in in in that expression.

Yeah. That's fantastic. So, again, you've got this, team cohesive team of professionals within the kind of the traditional wealth management space, and you're adding these additional resources in these other areas to kinda combine the two, right, and and help people kinda go forward. Kind of a maybe a a good segue into the book. I think we've touched on a lot of this in in what you describe in the book already, but I wanted to just touch base a little bit about this idea that, whether it's a financial journey or a spiritual journey, it's a a lifetime of work. Right? This isn't things that you can kind of incorporate and, you know, sit on the pillow once and reach enlightenment. Right? You're gonna have to do some work, to move yourself forward.

Yes. I've I've found out the hard way. Enlightenment is not a destination. It's a journey. Just when you think you become enlightened, something else is gonna come and hit you as a as a trigger. Mhmm. You're you're gonna have that reactionary, that reptilian mind come reveal itself to the world. And, and so then you realize it's a journey.

And and so that's why, you know, once you recognize these tools, once you find which ones resonate with you, because these people will resonate with meditation or different types of meditation, and then they have to find those types that resonate with them. Or it could be breath work or it could be hypnotherapy. It could be other modalities. But once you find your rhythm there with that, then it has to become part of your lifestyle. You have to do this every day. I my practice is a good hour or more first thing in the morning. Sometimes I also incorporate that into an evening practice of meditation. But it has to be a daily practice, because, you know, I I talk to a lot of people after I come from these retreats and people are different stages of their life of of starting to be either introduced to meditation or incorporated in their life.

And a lot of people will say, well, this just isn't working. And and then I'll use it and ask them, well, how often are you is your meditation practice? They said, well, I do it every weekend. And and I and, you know, it's just like people going to church three days a week or three hours a week or whatever their routine is. And what I say is, you know, you may not know anything about golf, but you probably know the name Tiger Woods. If Tiger Woods grew up playing weekend golf, we would not know who Tiger Woods is. Mhmm. He dedicated his life to that game, and he practiced it every day. That's why he became so great at it.

And that's what we have to do with this type of practice. I mean, you're gonna not brush your teeth every day.

Yeah. I was curious about your your practice right now, meaning your firm and these resources that you've created as a team. Do you have things that you feel strongly enough that all of your clients should go through, like, the genome project to try to get a history and then kinda just try to guide them to some of these resources and thing see what's gonna work for them? Or is it kind of a standardized process?

Well, now you have to meet people where they are. Everybody is at a different stage of life when it comes to this aspect of spirituality and mindfulness. So you have to meet them where they are. We we show them the the road map for what's in front of them, what can be possible for them, But we're not gonna force them to be in all of those spaces. Mhmm. But they can always see where they they have the possibility to go to. They can see that I can I can start working on my mindfulness? And once they get into there, they can see that they can work on their spirituality or how it's allowed to come into their life. But we don't say you gotta start doing these things.

You gotta start doing that. We let that evolve just organically within their lives. But they're seeing the road map of what the possibilities are. Right. Right. And so what what the first thing that I do with everyone that I I meet is I actually suggest them to go to our website and take a human archetype assessment. This is, an assessment that helps a person to know thyself. To know thyself is to know all of reality because what reality is in my definition is eternity.

So once you can connect with this temporal physical body and see that you're a part of this eternal world, that's a game changer in itself. So to know thyself is to know all reality, but a second layer to that is to know thyself, the the self that was programmed. Mhmm. And so this human archetype assessment will reveal the persona of who you are in a broad way of how you are programmed. It's also going to reveal things like what your your strengths are that's serving you well and your and your the patterns of your life. And it's also gonna reveal your biases. Those things that we can't see, those repeating patterns of information that we're experiencing in our life that aren't serving us. And that's why they're called biases.

They're blind spots. We can't see that we're the one causing that. I mean, the reason is is because we are so much of that behavior. You know? Fire doesn't know itself to be hot. Water doesn't know itself to be wet. So when we're having these behavior patterns and we don't see it, that's why we're so much of that.

Yeah. And I thought it was interesting in the book. I think you did a good job of, describing some of these biases and making people aware of of maybe why they feel, the way that they do or maybe why they're loss averse. Right? But it's not enough to just be aware. Right? You have to actually take steps to change. Right? So it's

Exactly. Yeah. And and, you know, in our field, you know Richard Thaler. He won the Nobel Prize for behavioral economics. He labeled these behaviors that we're, showing up that's, around financial decisions is not serving us very well. And he thought by simply labeling those things that we would stop doing those. But Richard Thaler even said that in his forty years of work, he's never changed anybody's behavior, but he got a Nobel Prize for labeling all these things. But what he did say was he felt like he could then nudge people into becoming aware of those and to want that will then make them want to make a change.

But, you know, I can take all of these behavioral biases that we have and comp them up into one word. That's fear. You know, that's our reptilian mind. That's that fight, flight, or free state, that reactionary state that when we get into situations that we're uncomfortable with. Right.

And

And, typically, we don't make good decisions with a quick reaction.

Right. Right. And that's been evolved into us. Right? I mean, those reactions and fear

Hundreds of thousands of years.

Right. Right. Right. So being aware of that, that's probably a great segue into the book because you kinda break it down into two parts. And the first is, has an interesting title I wanted to make sure I I, asked you about, which is financial terrorism. And you get into our mind's programming versus the industry that we're in. Can you tell us where you came up with the name financial terrorism to start? And then we can maybe explore, some of that reptilian mind a little bit.

Yeah. Because, you know, Wall Street, Bank Street, and Sharon Street knows your mind better than you know your mind. It knows how to manipulate your mind based on these fears, your amygdala. You're we're always scouring our environment for danger and trouble. Mhmm. And Wall Street knows how to take advantage of that through their words, their advertisements, the sounds that are made, even the kind of words that are used that are irresponsible in using. But they're using them because they know they're gonna strike either fear or greed, and greed is really just fear of missing out on. Right? And and it's just that fear and greed are on the same spectrum, but it's all fear.

And so when when they can do that to the consumer mind, then they can manipulate and get you to move your money around, moving money to, to Wall Street as profits in their pocket. And, and that's why they do it. The media is in is in bed with them because they're paying them advertising dollars to be there. And so the it's a coconspiracy between the product pushers of Wall Street, Bank Street, and Insurance Street and and the advertisers, the media. And and, actually, in the real world of things, they're just middlemen to to capitalism, to the capital market system. Mhmm. And, actually, they're not even really needed in that way. Mhmm.

We don't need to be paying these people commission dollars for this. And a lot of people in America have this poor idea or or perception of capitalism, but it's not capitalism that they don't like. It's really they don't like Bank Street, Insurance Street, and Wall Street and how they're treating them. And so but we can eliminate I mean, capitalism has is fantastic for all of humanity. It's raised us to the level of our cultures and the way of being in our environments that that we could have never experienced without it. I mean, capitalism simply is just a way of compensating each other for the exchange of goods and services between and experiences between each other. Right.

Right.

It has to be I mean, it's always been there, and it will always be here. And the reason and it would we wouldn't be doing it if it didn't work, but it works.

Right. Right. And but it goes haywire. And, again, you kinda get into this in the first part of the book where we've got these reptilian brains that were evolved to keep us safe and react to fear and different situations that we might come across, but we've got these programming from our parents or these biases, beliefs and values, attitudes about money that we learned when we were little kids and we stuck with. And then we show up in our modern world where we're just bombarded with content from the media, paid advertisements, Wall Street. You know, there's twenty four hour coverage, seven days a week of financial markets. And doom and gloom sells better than hopeful, optimism. Right? So we're just showing up in this modern world where this it just it's becomes a little overwhelming to try to manage this as a human being.

Right?

Well, it's overwhelming because it's it's brand new to the human condition and experience. I mean, it's it was not until 1978 that we came up with the employer four zero one k plan, where we first, as as an employee, had a chance to see how investments worked or didn't work. I mean, before then, we were working for these big corporations that had defined benefit plans. The the companies were managing our retirement monies for us and then paying us out a benefit in our retirement years. So, you know, even before 1978, unless you were had the ability to beyond your retirement savings at the corporate level, have after tax savings to experience any kind of investment, experience and and education in that. So it's I mean, this has been a very short window of time that humans have even needed to do this. And and we weren't taught this in growing up in schools. Financial, programs aren't there.

And so with this newness, we've we're just overwhelmed by it. And, you know, what people today the trap today is with the Internet and information flow, people feel like just having access to information gives them the answers. But that doesn't give them the wisdom to know what to do with that information. And you need to have a professional filter there in order to show the way for that.

I actually we've talked about Richard Thaler earlier, and I highlighted the quote that you shared about not changing anybody's mind. We actually have a quote on our website, our corporate site, from Thaler that says the, people aren't dumb. The world is hard. Right? And I I think of that right now as we're kinda talking about what we're all dealing with and why I encourage people to pick up the book to learn more about some of what we're talking about, but you do then transition into the second part of the book, which is all about awareness. Right? Being aware of who we are. You just mentioned finding an adviser, finding in a guide, thinking about the hallmarks of holistic planning and some of the resources that you need, and combining that with an evidence based financial plan. Can you talk just high level real quick about once we realize the world we're living in and that we do need help and we need to explore some of those things, how do you combine evidence based planning with a more holistic approach to, some of these other areas in our lives?

So it's it's first to to know thyself. You know, you have to work on the mind. You have to start you have to build the foundation first. Mhmm. You you can't start on the Seventh Floor of a 10 story building, building this life that you wanna have in this wealth journey. So get that foundation built first, and then bring in the other components as necessary. But the the next component after after you know thyself, you know the authentic self, you develop what your authentic goals are now and not the ones that your work colleagues are are experiencing or trying to do or trying to get you be pulled into or your family, and and doing that through a financial plan.

Mhmm.

Financial plan organizes your life. It gives you clarity about what the possibilities are, and it's a road map, and it's flexible. And you don't do that one time. Just like you don't meditate one time a week, you don't do a one time financial plan and then think you've got it done. You have to do this. You have to update it every year. And in fact, you ought to have access to seeing how it's performing throughout the year. But you don't have to go check the pulse every day.

Mhmm.

So it's developing that financial plan. And then once you implement that, then you're bringing in the the what I call the consciousness team that also knows what your authentic self and goals are and supporting you in that, making sure that one to provide guidance, but then accountability along the way, checking back in. I mean, that's why you have a financial adviser for a lifetime, not one time. Because we never know when we're gonna get triggered again. Right. Just like in other aspects of real life, you just think you're enlightened and then you get triggered and go, oh, damn. You know? Right. When you do that with your financial resources, you can ruin things.

And so you need that guidepost. You need that accountability. You need that support, and we're just here to serve.

Right. Right. I I think that's a great way to wrap up. I have so many more questions and rabbit holes we could probably go down, but I I wanna be really conscious of your time. So a couple last questions as we, wind down. We've mentioned Deepak Chopra. We've mentioned Richard Thaler. The book Nudge is a good one to to check out if you're into financial biases.

Are there any other, resources, books, the work of any individual that you might wanna spotlight for folks, if they're curious about starting a spiritual journey, doing some of this self reflection, some of this personal work, that we can maybe highlight for people?

Actually, what's really friendly to the western mind and the way of meditation, and and he's transitioned from even the languaging of meditation in the terms of chakras to energy centers. So it's he's making it more western minded friendly is a doctor Joe Dispenza. He's doing a great body of work. He has week long retreats where there's 3,000 people coming to his retreats, and and it's a beautiful experience to have. And I know in Spain right now, he's he's doing a three day retreat, and there's 9,000 people gonna be at his retreat. So absorbing some of this information, and he has an amazing life story as well. Spiritual Economics by Butterworth, is a a great book, a foundational book that blends in spirituality with wealth management. The as you've noted, there's so many great resources out there for us.

And, I've posted a lot on my website at, luminouswealth.com. I'm sure you've posted things for people to be able to to gravitate to and see and and enjoy and open their eyes up to something that perhaps they haven't seen before.

Yeah. Yeah. We have. And but it's always great to spotlight a few more, and I've learned a few new things here in our conversation, today. So, again, we appreciate that helping us all get a little better along our own journey. Final question. This is a show about well-being, financial well-being, specifically. When you hear the term financial well-being, what is what does that mean to you, if anything? Do you have any thoughts?

Well, it's just one of eight aspects of our lives. So it's it's just a just one aspect. And we have to we have to respect that. We have to, nourish that. We have to treat it in a respectful way, but it's just one aspect. You know, in America, money is not just the elephant in the room. It's the room. And a way to begin to right size that is to understand it's just one piece of our big life that we have here.

Mhmm.

And and the way to do that is to look at the other aspects and look at and and know that health is your wealth, that relationships is your wealth.

Mhmm.

That mindfulness, your mind is your wealth. I mean, ninety percent of chronic diseases in our country are based on what you put in your mouth and what you put in your mind, and we have to master these things. Mhmm. Now you become wealthy.

Right. I love that. It's just one aspect, and all these areas are worth focusing on and investing in.

You have all the attention.

Yeah. It's a great way to wrap up. So the book is The Awakened Investor. Can you share the website one more time, and are there any other social media sites or anything where people should go check out you and your work?

Absolutely. The Awakened Investor is on Amazon, and it's in all formats, including, audio. You can find me through luminouswealth.com. Also, I would encourage you to at that site, to go to the top bar of our site and click on human archetype assessment and spend fifteen minutes of quiet time going through that. And you'll get a very valuable report along with videos describing what your human archetype looks like. And you can, sit there and enjoy it and agree or not agree with it. But there's also a video on there of our process, but you can reach my email, tim@luminouswealth.com. And number is (561) 919-4808.

Awesome. We will, plan to take the human architect test myself and then do a little follow-up, share with people, you know, how I came out, how I feel about it, maybe some of the disagreements that I have with what I found. So I I definitely encourage folks to to check out the website, take the archetype test. If you're related to the conversation, definitely pick up the book and think about reaching out to Tim. Tim, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Love to keep in touch and maybe have you back on one of these days. I'm sure there's a lot more we can we can get into.

But thank you, thank you again for your time.

Absolutely. I had a great experience with you, Jim, and look forward to knowing you more.

Likewise. So thanks for listening, everybody. If you could drop us, a subscribe, a like, a share, comment, review, all that's helpful. As always, we appreciate you listening, and we will talk to you next time. Take care. Thanks again for listening to this episode. A quick note, although I do hope that the information that we talked about was helpful, in no way is anything discussed on the podcast to be taking as specific financial advice. Please consult your own advisers and do your own research when you're making important financial decisions.