want my viewer to nor more boxes just tell us about ok so i should talk about my personal interests and about my professional background i happen to have gone to warren school of business some very privileged to have a fine educational background but for me life is more about education about what i do really what defines me is my faith i have to be a christian i'm a follower of jesus christ and for me my view of finances is really barren in spirituality and so with my spiritual background i happen to have gone to biblical theological seminary i have a master of divinity degree from there and i use my spiritual view when i counsel folks when it deals with money if they are people  you i see that you a financial adviser how long have you been doing this well i've been a financial services almost thirty years i've had my own practice fifteen years i am a certified financial planner i'm a fee based planner i do manage portfolios we  prepare taxes for folks we do tax tax management tax analysis we also help people retire we work with insurance products as necessary when you've got it right so what keeps you going every day what makes you aside every day golly there's a lot of things th keep me going what is i have a wife and four children three of them are still dependent on me so that keeps me going i love that but what really got me going i think is just my passion for what i do even if i didn't have to do the work i do i would still do that because it's really my i think my vocation i call my life calling or my life purpose which is one of the four core soul needs i talk about that's essential to have a have a sense of who you are which is identity that's one course all need and the other is a life purpose american do not have more than a thousand dollars in his our bank account why is there could be a lot a lot of different reasons it could be a lack of the ability to earn income or it could be a lack of ability to handle income and so you know certainly if people don't have money coming again it's hard it's hard to say that but it's kind of hard believe that you can go through life and not accumulate you know some money so the problem really is is that we're not doing a good job and also kind of broad way you know we as a country are doing a good job handling our resources which includes saving them spending them investing and planning with them so it's  financial decisions sometimes are not very good but there's no reason why people can't least save something toward the future how much does a lack of knowledge i mean financial knowledge contributes to this well that's a big part of it but a lot of it is also you know some of it's common sense you know just you know you can't spend more than you have you know you don't need a whole lot of education for that so i think the beginning part is common sense but when you really want to improve your finances in a real small significant way to reality when you're earning money you know so if someone gives you money invested i guess that's part of it but when you start putting your blood sweat and tears and getting a paycheck that that's one becomes relevant so i would say when you start earning money me start with this there is a couple things we can do with money we can spend it we can save it we can invest there we can plan with it and we have certain actions i call them financial actions when we're trying to do something with our money and we spend money to get pleasure we save money to get a sense of security we invested to get a sense of pride or prestigious from our wealth and we plan when we play with it to get a sense of control but we don't do that just for the heck of it we do it because we want to get pleasure from spending we want to get security from saving we want to get the sense of prestigious from investing it we want to get the control from the from the planning of it and when we're living in those arenas of pleasure security prestige and and planning it gets us some enjoyment but it doesn't give us a real sense of internal fulfillment so if we're just living in a periphery of i'm spending my money for pleasure well there's a lot of stagnation in that because you're just going through life recreating if you're pretty money aside  for the sense of security you're kind of self preserving you're just kind of like existing where you are if you're investing for the prestige or feeling a little better about yourself but money doesn't satisfy the fact you have a lot of money does that really satisfy you and if you're planning to get control i mean we know the limitations of the ability control so sometimes that's a pursuit that we know never ultimately see realized and verify that's what we have that stagnation because it doesn't really money in of itself doesn't bring fulfillment money when used judiciously outside of our own self perspective can be fulfilling so in other words if i use my money in a sense wrong expressing my love that could be fulfilling not the fact that i am spending for pleasure but is fulfilling my need for love that's fulfilling if the way i handle money gives me a sense of peace not just that i have money i can fall back on it but i have a peaceful life because of how i do money that can give me peace if i am investing my money but through that i have resources that has a sense of my identity a meaningful identity and how i had money maybe i'm a well that's a meaningful identity and similarly if i have a life purpose for my money that's beyond me then it can be fulfilling so it's a it's a outside of myself perspective we have to get beyond the me barrier so money can be fulfilling if it's not within ourselves but ultimately it's those core soul needs of a meaningful identity life purpose peace and love that is fulfilling our lives that which is exciting you know so it's really what you want money to accomplish for you so you make money ok are you spending it are you saving it are you investing it are you planning with it in a meaningful way that can help you get your course on needs or are you just you know haphazardly you know living some lifestyle and having to work really really hard to live that lifestyle but maybe not really enjoying it all that much we've got to work eighty hours a week to pay the bills to maintain the lifestyle so it's a strategic decision a mcmansion something to do i think you'll find interesting is the number one financial decision most people need to make in this country is that what level of access are we satisfied is not a question of is a level of access compared to a world standard of standard of living it's a given that most people in the country will have an access standard of living the question is what access is enough and how do we handle our finances in a way that makes life more meaningful to us not more money make it more meaning for what we have make the money that we already have more valuable was the ties to those  keep talking about a lot of people realize that when they get into a point or a time when they discover they've not done much savings or my question is do we need to postpone pleasure in order for us to have a million for retirement plan and i think often we don't i think we often do i think sometimes our definition of standard of living is how much we spend for what we know what we spend our money on so are you saying that some people need to in our life we have to change to have to change something about our lives right einstein was quarter of saying the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results right sort of so if we're doing the same thing we're going to get the same results right so of your life what is i mean if you break everything down forget what you know what what you have for dinner forget what sports teams forget of even about what you do for work who are you who are you right  now one of the things is that la times people confuse what they do with who they are right so i'm a financial planner well i'm not a financial planner that's my vocation and then when i retire there will be a memory  right so that's not my dennis who i you know that's what i do it's not who i am and so for me my identity is my is my faith my identity is my relationship with the lord jesus that's that's who i am different people  define it differently for me it's very fulfilling that's what drives my life now my life purpose also is very very important in my life purpose has a lot to do with my relationships with my family that's a very important part my life purpose but terms of my vocation i'm a financial planner and for me of my financial planning isn't just about making money doing what i do it's to help people meet their core soul needs through their money that is very meaningful that's very fulfilling the other core so need is peace right idea go through life feeling good about who i am feeling that there's peace in my relationships that my my environment is a place that i have have a peace of mind i go home that's a place of peace and i love i love the jewish word shalom which really captures the essence of living in a way that there is no strife there's no conflict it's just a it's kind of like you know it's just it's just a release that's a beautiful work and of course the other important element is love right there's a significant meaning in love that we both have a outlet for love and we receive love that's ultimately what makes life worth living because we're exchanging that corporation ship all others in a way that one of is being  at just ourselves we're stuck in why call those alter your pursuits or turn of pursuits of life not the course old how would you do for a should between because a lot of people get confused when it comes to you know know it's a difficult question to answer because it's really an issue of the heart right you know you could have people work for nonprofits and be selfish to the core because they're not doing it to help other people they're doing it to feel good about themselves you know  and the people they're helping is just really a wall for what their own you know own selfish desires are so it's hard for me to view in those terms but it's a very very personal decision right so from the standpoint that you are let's look at this way to what extent are you helping someone else meet their core so needs let's look at that way to what extent are you helping someone else have a meaningful identity someone else have a meaningful life purpose someone else have love and peace in their lives that would be a better measure than how you view yourself it's what you do in other people's lives i think so i grew to for instance and i listen us a financial adviser you come to me you you know you this i would say that people confuse religion and spirituality let me just start there ok religion is a set of rules systems regulations and a set of codes that people live under  spirituality and so to a certain extent everyone is a spiritual being even someone who is an atheist i would say is a spiritual being because there's more to life than just the physical you know matter you know there's more to life than just you know things we touch see in taste right there's there's a love connection that's that's difficult to explain just materialistically so i believe that everyone has a sense of  they have a sense of spirituality right and and ultimately when we do finances yeah there's a certain amount that we're living in the material world but there's a certain amount that we do that has nothing to do with material world like you know even if we say enjoyment you know that isn't necessarily a material thing right it's a connection thing whether it's with people or or objects or activities so we're all sort of doing a spiritual thing with money whether we realize  we're to define spirituality in one word how would you define or golly i would say spirituality is a reality beyond the physical world now from human perspective a lot of people you know because you said something very interesting about love and that kind of struck me because i believe that wife it makes you act like god love makes you look like that a thing inherently evil in that but if how we go about it is unjust if how we handle our money is unjust you know if i look at from a standpoint five so much and some have so little and i can help them you know in a way that doesn't enable them to continue living a lifestyle that's destructive for them you know in my in my being a loving person i mean that's a that's a decision that's introspection that everyone's going to have to make on their own but i believe surely for if we're looking about money innovates ourselves and again i've said it several times just in our program the alternative pursuits right looking for pleasure looking for security looking for prestige looking for control problems for money at it well if we believe that the core issue has some to do with people's soul needs that's like that's like trying to fix you know someone has a code of a hammer i mean those are wrong tools for the wrong you know for the wrong requirement so we have to really look at things beyond just you know the physical world we have to look beyond just finances we have to look at that need that people have the in now you know sometime when i do some motivational speaking engagement i see that a lot of people especially when you're talking to do sois like over forty fifty maybe two or sixty and they haven't done much about savings or you know retirement advice would you give to people are that each age group you know so i'm going to give them the advice that i tell people to sit down with me sometimes people come to my office we have a meeting and they say to me you know when i really wish i would have met you ten years ago and i said to them isn't it isn't it good that five years from now you're not saying when i really wish i met you fifteen years ago you know so we are where we are now right and we have seen as we can do now so we look at this is our starting point and i and i encourage people to make a call defining moment in the life and when it comes to finances decide that story now i'm going to expect my money to accomplish my life goals hopes and dreams i'm going to expect my financial advisor to be qualified to look at my best interests and put the plans of place that are going to meet my financial needs so this is the time now i don't you know what happened three five ten fifteen years ago a lot of that's a this is the time no matter who you are no matter what the circumstances the matter where you are no matter how old that are how rich no matter how poor this is the find a moment to change your financial future just to something very interesting you doing a lot of people don't have financial advice that's right people at all in their lives as a lot of reasons for many things but i think one reason people don't have financial advisors is less it is a few reasons one they feel that they can't benefit from the financial wise or they don't have enough money some other folks don't trust financial advisors  some other folks think they know it all right i know everything i know you know i don't need any help right so those are you know three i think bad reasons not to talk to financial officer if somebody's house it's five six thousand dollars s again what you want this money to accomplish for you right you want to sit him down right this right i mean everyone has a financial goal they say if you have five or six thousand and all you have you know if you're a young person you could build that up but if you're at a stage of really life where you you're not going to build that up so in that place you're just trying to keep it secure to you know as as a safety net to the extent it can right if you're a person who is you know you want to do you have five thousand maybe you invest it you know very aggressively i don't know it just depends on where you are but it starts with being strategic about what you want your money accomplish for you whoa whoa land you are awesome i'm happy you're here and you know to my viewer we've listened to len and i'm sure that your money don't be just now this or i do the saliva always done think about what it is you really want that money to accomplish for you i call it a life goals hopes and dreams and when you look at what that really entails it really entails those  who are you what your life purpose how do you have peace and how do you enjoy life through love tie into those things that really matter most to you they give you the fulfillment at your keep us course all need love you