Awakening Financial Wisdom with Tim “Jai” Baker

[00:00:00] Tim Baker: If you truly know thyself, you know all of reality. Because this body is just a temporal event in the span of time, and who we truly are is the eternal self. So that’s one component of knowing thyself. So when you get that, you’re ahead of 99% of the people.

[00:00:20] Intro: Do you think money takes up more life space than it should? On this show, we discuss with and share stories from artists, authors, entrepreneurs, and advisors about how they mindfully minimize the time and energies. Spent thinking about money. Join your host, Jonathan DeYoe, and learn how to put money in its place and get more out of life.

[00:00:54] Jonathan DeYoe: Hey, welcome back on this episode of The Mindful Money Podcast. I’m chatting with Jai Baker.

[00:00:59] Jonathan DeYoe: I’ve never [00:01:00] met Jai, but , I get the deep sense from reading his book and reading about him that I’m gonna call him a friend after this conversation.

[00:01:06] Jonathan DeYoe: He’s a veteran of the financial advisor world. He’s been an advisor for four decades. He beats me by a decade. He is the CEO of Luminous Wealth, the only financial advisory firm I’ve seen that fully integrates life coaching into their offering. They’ve got a health and wellness, co wealth wellness coach, a spiritual guide, and a mindfulness advisor on staff.

[00:01:25] Jonathan DeYoe: described it as creating a healthy, stress-free environment where financial and personal wellbeing are seamlessly integrated, and I love that. I wanted to have Jai in the podcast to talk about his book, the Awakened Investor, master Your Financial Anxiety while Unveiling a Conscious Pathway to Prosperity and True Fulfillment.

[00:01:45] Jonathan DeYoe: Jaii, welcome to the Mindful Money Podcast.

[00:01:48] Tim Baker: , thanks for having me on today, Jonathan. Look forward to our conversation.

[00:01:52] Jonathan DeYoe: I’ve been looking forward to it since I read your book, but since I read an article about your book, I was like, I gotta talk to this guy. So, first, where do you call home and where are you connecting from [00:02:00] right now?

[00:02:00] Tim Baker: , home for me is wherever I go, but today I’m in Juno Beach, Florida. This is, , my residence now. , I grew up in southeastern Virginia. Spent most of my career in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And four years ago I moved to, , to this area, Juno Beach.

[00:02:16] Jonathan DeYoe: Gotcha. , and so where’d you grow up?

[00:02:20] Tim Baker: I grew up in Williamsburg area of Virginia Williamsburg, new Newport News Hampton. It’s on a peninsula. , spent most of my time in Williamsburg on a golf course.

[00:02:28] Jonathan DeYoe: Oh really?

[00:02:30] Tim Baker: Yeah. So that it, it actually, , led me to getting a scholarship back in the seventies, a golf scholarship to University of South Carolina. And so I played there for four years and played pro for a year.

[00:02:41] Tim Baker: And, . After that as my, my wife at the time had asked me to do, she said, get a real job. And I got a real job. And it became, it became my career

[00:02:51] Jonathan DeYoe: . So I went straight from studying Buddhism to being a broker at Dean Wetter for almost precisely the same reason ,

[00:02:58] Tim Baker: I hold no grudges and I have [00:03:00] no regrets.

[00:03:00] Jonathan DeYoe: of course. But that’s, it’s, it’s interesting like little, little linkage there. So I’m curious, and I asked this of everybody, , what did you learn about money ’cause you’re an entrepreneur and you’re financial, what did you learn about money in entrepreneurship growing up?

[00:03:12] Tim Baker: , well it seems like I’ve been doing some kind of work, , ever since I was about five or six years old. I can remember I had a great grandfather had this, large acres of pine trees and his house was on that that lot. And so you can imagine every year there’s a lot of pine needles coming down and, you know, once a year we’re out there raking those needles up and stuffing ’em in the bag.

[00:03:36] Tim Baker: And I can remember grandpop saying to me, make sure , you give ’em all their money’s worth. , , that was kind of one of the mottos that I, I grew up with. It’s actually kind of part of the pricing that I had in my registered investment advisory firm , and managing wealth through the years.

[00:03:53] Tim Baker: But I had a, an, uncle that lived next door that was a security guard at a bank, and he’d bring home coins every night. And [00:04:00] we’d put ’em in the coin books, , based on their dates and where they were. Minute. , I had a, uh, passbook, , savings, , account. My mother was. A banker after my younger brother turned 13.

[00:04:12] Tim Baker: She was a stay at home mom until then, but after then she was, , a commercial loan officer at Virginia National Bank and survived seven mergers and ended up , with Bank of America at the end of her career. So, , my father, part-time every year in December had a, , a retail Christmas tree operation.

[00:04:32] Tim Baker: We would go up in the summers in Pennsylvania and he’d pick out. , from the mountaintops, , the trees that he wanted. And we would, he would buy six different varieties of Christmas trees to bring down. And so every night from, you know, around Thanksgiving to December , I’m working on that lot. , , every night we’re coming home and, and counting, the money and recording all the, the revenues for the day.

[00:04:55] Tim Baker: And so it was just an easy flow for me. It was, it was something that was [00:05:00] natural. and so I had a lot of positive energy around money growing up.

[00:05:05] Jonathan DeYoe: It doesn’t sound like there was a lot of money though. I mean, you know, Christmas tree, farm, ranch, whatever you wanna call it, , you know, , bank income. , that’s not a big income. You, you didn’t come from a silver spoon.

[00:05:18] Tim Baker: You’re absolutely right. I, uh, my father worked at Amaco or Refinery, so. He retired as a superintendent there. And so, as you pointed out, my mom, I, I remember later in my career, I, at some point I remember seeing my dad’s annual income by chance. I mean, just some paper was laying around and I glanced down and I saw a number.

[00:05:40] Tim Baker: And then years later in my work, I’m going, oh my God, I’m making more like in two weeks than my dad was making all year. , in that family, I. I never wanted for anything. I always, always given whatever I needed to do. I didn’t feel poor at all. I mean, we were pretty much a typical middle class family.

[00:05:59] Tim Baker: My mom [00:06:00] and dad knew how to manage their, money affairs

[00:06:04] Jonathan DeYoe: It strikes me though, and this is something that, um, not every guest, so I started working when I was 12, and that’s usually unique. That’s something that people are like, wow, I didn’t start working until I got outta college, or I didn’t get, you know, I got outta my first job when I was, uh, you know, late in high school or something like that.

[00:06:18] Jonathan DeYoe: And you’re saying five or six, you know, just raking the leaves or raking the pine, pine needles, but it still work and you still got some coin for it. And so, so making that connection early. How much do you think that feeds into what you become later?

[00:06:35] Tim Baker: Now, of course, through the years things happened to us. , . I mean, All of us are programmed, , whether you believe in reincarnation or not. We know we have this lineage. We come from this historical lineage.

[00:06:45] Tim Baker: I mean, you can see what you look like and you can see elders, and you can see where some of these traits come from. And then we’re in mom’s womb for nine months as an embryo, and we’re taking on all of her chemistry and her emotions. But then we come out into the world. And until we’re age seven, our [00:07:00] mine is in a theta state, state of frequency. And that with that frequency, you’re just a sponge for your environment and the information coming from it. You can’t say no to any of it. And not until age seven do you start to form this beta mine, this low, mid, high beta. And that’s how we’re communicating right now. I can say something and you go, well, that’s not quite right. But until then, we are programmed and we were downloaded. All this information, , through age seven. And so what we are is, is the garbage bin of everybody else’s desires and limitations that came before us and the environment that we lived around. And I had a healthy environment to grow up in. But again, like I said, that’s not to say that there weren’t things that were said as I was a kid that impacted some things in my life that, that, , I had to become aware of and, , , embrace. And just, , decide to put those things in a neutral box because they weren’t serving me as an adult, but this is what we all go through. And some of us have it easier than [00:08:00] others, but, , it was just a natural process for me. , , also along the way, you know, I mentioned, I, I grew up playing golf and. the motto of my golf instructor was to be the best you can be at whatever you do, whether you’re pushing a broom down an elementary hallway, or you’re flying a jet, or whatever it is now. Now notice he didn’t say be the best at it because now you’re looking outside of you. And if you’re a weightlifter, you know, eventually you’re gonna become disappointed because your body’s going to fade a little bit. But he said, be the best that you can be at it. And I’ve always carried that motto in my life. , my father’s motto was basically everything in moderation. , and so I was, I was always supported , , and so that was a framework that I came from., I never looked up to anybody or never looked down at anybody and, and still don’t, I mean. For me, I had a lot of early success with golf. [00:09:00] So when I’m on the golf course and I’m playing with all these other people who were wealthy people, I mean, they were in my field now. , golf was wealth back then. So, you know, if I was a better player, turned out better than, than the rounds that day than, than I was a wealthier player than them.

[00:09:17] Tim Baker: Even if they were worth $10 million.

[00:09:21] Jonathan DeYoe: I, I see so many parallels there’s so many ways I could go. , but I, I want to sort of focus us on your experience in the industry and then get to your book. So , how did you get started? as an advisor four decades ago.

[00:09:34] Tim Baker: So my first, , position was with Prudential Insurance Company in Columbia, South Carolina. I was what was called a debit agent. , that’s where you actually had a, an accounting book. I. , people would mail in their insurance premiums to you and you would account for those. If they didn’t pay ’em in, you’re gonna go either give ’em a phone call or show up to their house.

[00:09:55] Tim Baker: And, With that industry, that gave people an opportunity to cross sell other [00:10:00] products to these people. ,, I joined them in February of 81. I was their rookie agent in the state of South Carolina in that year, and I absolutely hated my job. But it was, it was a very impactful experience because in 81, we had 10% unemployment. We had 21% money. Market yields 19.5%, 30 year mortgage rates. And the stock markets weren’t going so, so well that year. And so at that time, these insurance companies were creating new products to attract to the consuming public, and that’s where universal life contracts were started. Get a high yield on your cash instead of the whole life policies that we sold you years ago.

[00:10:43] Tim Baker: Other people wanted to be able to invest their cash in stock market. They’ve created the variable life contracts so people can invest in stock markets around the world. And those products really haven’t changed through the years, and that knowledge base has carried me through my whole career. ,, so I left there [00:11:00] and I joined, , a financial planning firm in Greensboro, North Carolina.

[00:11:03] Tim Baker: I was with them for seven years. That was actually the infancy of financial planning, and we had a CPA on staff. We had an attorney that was in our hallways and we were developing full blown financial plans. Tax rates were quite high back then, so how you structured your investment holdings dictated , your taxes due, and in fact, you could be a high income earner.

[00:11:28] Tim Baker: . Normally it might be in a 60% tax bracket, but we could zero out your taxes based on the way that we put together your investment holdings. So it was still at that time, very, very much , a commission based industry. And so that created a lot of conflicts of interest. , I left there to join, , leg Mason Wood Walker out of Baltimore, , regional Wall Street firm.

[00:11:52] Tim Baker: And, . A terrific company to be with. So that’s where for seven years I learned the Wall Street Watch, [00:12:00] and then I took a brief turn with Prudential Securities for 16 months. And after 16 months, , I was quite willing to pay them back, , my bonus that they had paid me. I left the $50 million retirement plan at a local hospital I knew I wasn’t gonna bring with me, and I went in debt for about $80,000 to start my own firm.

[00:12:19] Tim Baker: I just couldn’t stand being with that big behemoth. And the only way I knew how, to control my client’s experience was to create that for them. And so I did it as a, an independent financial , planner. And I had one assistant at that time. , but through the years, , , I built out , the vision that I had and, and the way that people should have their financial affairs handled. And what I was doing was in my client meetings, I was using that as my laboratory, the feedback loop. Of what we were providing and what people were needing to enhance this wealth journey.

[00:12:52] Tim Baker: And so after a period of years, I hired a CPA to be integrated in what we were doing because as I’ve [00:13:00] learned through the last 15 years or more, the CPA and the wealth manager, and usually the attorney as well at year end, they need to be joined at the hip.

[00:13:08] Jonathan DeYoe: Yep.

[00:13:09] Tim Baker: And then I hired another CPA ’cause you can’t have just one CPA if that guy leaves. You got a whole client base with no CPA now. And then I hired an attorney. , and then I had other wealth advisors and all these people were on staff.

[00:13:22] Tim Baker: They were paid bonuses, , , were given, , equity ownership of the firm. And so no one piece, no one component of our firm. Is magical. I mean, we have smart, talented CPAs and attorneys and wealth managers all around this country. What was magical about it was we were a team

[00:13:41] Tim Baker: that was operating from the family mission statement of our clients, we were philosophically aligned. We could challenge each other collegially with the strategies that we’re going to suggest to our clients, but we were doing that on a daily basis year round. We didn’t have to worry about. Scheduling [00:14:00] something with somebody, , and seeing who’s available. We didn’t have to drive anywhere. We were all right there together all the time.

[00:14:07] Tim Baker: And that was what the magic of that, model provides people at the end, before I sold it. I even brought in an Ayurvedic practitioner before, before MINDBODY Spirit work.

[00:14:17] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, I, I noted the sort of the, the breadth of the coaching and , it’s something I haven’t seen much.

[00:14:24] Jonathan DeYoe: So let’s flip over to the book a little bit. , so the Awakened Investor, I. The title, the Awakened Investor. It sort of begs a question, you know, if the goal is to be an awakened investor, that means there’s a period before awakening.

[00:14:36] Jonathan DeYoe: Can you tell us about that period? , what is it that we’re blind to or unawakened about?

[00:14:42] Tim Baker: Well, it, it’s, there’s two components to that. First, , we’re blind to. What Wall Street Bank, street Insurance Street really is, financial Street, as I call those three entities, knows how to manipulate your mind better than you. You can, it knows your mind better than [00:15:00] you do . It can pierce at a amygdala that’s scouring the earth for, for danger, and they do it in, in multiple ways, through languaging, through stories, through sound. , you name it. , and they do that to manipulate the consumer because money in motion is profits to these organizations and they don’t mind if the consumer makes money, but they’re going to get theirs first. The broker is second in line and the consumer is third in line in that process and the industry, and not just the, that industry, but most industries. Lack integrity and morality in working with their clients. So I don’t say that they have a client relationship. I call them a customer relationship. If you’re not a fiduciary, that’s placing your client’s interest ahead of you. They’re just a customer

[00:15:54] , that’s a temporary event. A client is what you would hope to be [00:16:00] a lifelong relationship. , we unveil who Wall Street is. We talk about what capitalism is and why it works. I mean, it’s lifted up all of humanity through millenniums and raise the standard of living and the quality of life and longevity of life. , but people don’t look at capitalism in a positive way because they associate capitalism with these middlemen. Wall Street Bank, street Insurance Street are just middlemen to capitalism and we can pretty much eliminate the middlemen and just get right to the raw of capitalism and benefit that with our savings in life.

[00:16:39] Jonathan DeYoe: Beautiful. I think so that, so you’re waking up to the Wall Street, bank Street and Insurance Street. Right? So you’re waking up to this. What makes it so stressful to us? , . Obviously we don’t know about those streets. , but why is it so hard?

[00:16:51] Jonathan DeYoe: ’cause it just seems like we’re pushing against everyone pushing back at us.

[00:16:55] Tim Baker: Well, it’s a mighty landscape. I mean, you know, a person doesn’t really know what they’re gonna get when they walk [00:17:00] into a Dean Witter or a JP Morgan or Merrill Lynch office, or Northwestern Mutual , because I mean, we haven’t had. The systems, the educational systems of our country to teach people what to know to expect. , and really this whole idea about managing wealth for individuals and families is a pretty new phenomenon to the human experience. I mean, we’ve been here for hundreds of thousands of years, if not more, and it’s really only been since 1978 when the 401k plan was brought into existence. Prior to that, you know, most people were covered by their corporate defined benefit plans.

[00:17:41] Tim Baker: And so within those plans, people weren’t managing, the employees weren’t managing their own money, the company was. And then with the advent of 401k, now the employee can take control of where that money should be invested. But they’ve never had any education in that.

[00:17:56] Tim Baker: And they still haven’t, found a, high [00:18:00] level way of providing investment choices for people in those plans. So it’s only been in the last, you know, 40, 50 years that, that anybody has had a chance to understand how to manage, , wealth affairs. And so that’s why we’re not so good at it.

[00:18:15] Tim Baker: That’s why it’s, , so intimidating. But I will say that’s the other unveiling that takes place is not just unveiling who, Wall Street is. It’s unveiling who we are. we have to wake up to this skin-encapsulated bag of bones with these five senses and realize that there’s something much bigger than. This, this physical body, there’s something much greater, , with our non-physical aspect of who we are and start to tap into that.

[00:18:43] Jonathan DeYoe: know that you write about sort of fear and greed and regret and sort of the biases we have in our heads. And

[00:18:50] Jonathan DeYoe: so there’s, there’s the waking up to the what’s happening outside of us, and then there’s the waking up to what’s happening inside of us, and then there’s sort of culture and evolution and systemic [00:19:00] factors.

[00:19:01] Jonathan DeYoe: How do we do it? Like how do we wake up?

[00:19:04] Tim Baker: Well, the first, , order that I take people through is to know thyself

[00:19:09] Jonathan DeYoe: Hmm.

[00:19:10] Tim Baker: because you know, if you truly know thyself, you know all of reality. Because this body is just a temporal event in the span of time, and who we truly are is the eternal self. So that’s one component of knowing thyself. So when you get that, you’re ahead of 99% of the people. But then there’s another aspect of knowing myself now you have to find out. Who this person is has been programmed in this first seven years. And to your point, finding out what these biases are. You know, Richard Thaler won a Nobel Prize in economics for, , behavioral economics, and he thought if he could label these behaviors that we have and making decisions around a money that weren’t [00:20:00] serving us, we were making the wrong choices.

[00:20:01] Tim Baker: If we could just label those behaviors, we wouldn’t behave that way anymore. , well, he also said too that in his 40 years of his work, he never changed anybody’s behavior. We have to get to the root cause of all of these behavioral, , topics and I can lump ’em all into one word. Fear, all of ’em.

[00:20:23] Tim Baker: Describe fear even when you’re greedy., that’s on the same spectrum . Of, , fear. And so, you know, that’s fear of missing out. I mean, why does somebody have to gamble a lot of money to get, you know, a lot more money if they don’t fear not having enough going forward? I mean, most people would say, I’m got enough.

[00:20:44] Tim Baker: I don’t have to take chances. , so all of these behavioral, , biases is, is there. And so I do this human archetype assessment with our clients. And it’s based on the Carl Young work and research. [00:21:00] And so we each have a broad persona that we represent as, as people, and then we even drill down into unique thumbprint within that persona. But among the things of those findings that we do with our clients is, , we see what traits are serving them, where their strengths are. But then we also see these biases they have, these are blind spots that aren’t serving them. And so what makes it a bias? I mean, you would think that if somebody’s not behaving properly and they’re getting these bad outcomes, that they would correct it, but they don’t see it.

[00:21:37] Tim Baker: I mean, water doesn’t know itself to be wet. Fire doesn’t know itself to be hot. So when you are that much with that personality, that behavioral trait, you don’t recognize that you’re doing that. And so that’s where the coaching comes in.

[00:21:53] Tim Baker: After we take him through the human archetype assessment, which is actually, by the way, it was developed by DNA [00:22:00] behavior out of Atlanta, Georgia. Hugh Massey, he’s Australia by birth, a genius in developing this, this body of work. But then I take them through a family genogram because I understand all of life is fractals.

[00:22:12] Tim Baker: I. Infinite repeating patterns of information. You see it in the cosmos, you see it in nature. And then you see it in the behavioral patterns, , of our choices. And when you put , the family lineage of two people that you’re working with when one page and you’re going to the grandparents and the parents and the siblings and, and even your children, and you’re collecting some major aspects of who they are. In terms of their careers, their health, their relationships, their money scripts. You start to see these patterns all on one page , and all of a sudden somebody sees why they are who they are. They truly know thyself at that point because they can see it in their family. , I’ve had so many people wake up to that, you know, when I do these human [00:23:00] archetype assessments and when people come in and they’ll , usually one or the other partner will say, that study just really had me nailed except for this one thing over here, and that’s not me at all.

[00:23:12] Tim Baker: And usually the other partner would look across , the table from ’em with this big smile and they’ll go, that’s exactly who you are. So it’s, it’s fascinating work, , that we do with that. And so we get really deep and wide in understanding who this, this couple is that we’re working with now. Once they start to reveal their authentic goals, our team can step into their shoes with our expertise , and experience knowing exactly who they are and what they’re wanting to accomplish and guide them along through the years. Quite typically in our industry, we were told, , to know thy client through a usually 10 questionnaire of risk

[00:23:55] Tim Baker: tolerance questionnaire. And like what I would say is, , the client doesn’t [00:24:00] know themself. How are we gonna ask them 10 questions? And all of a sudden we know them.

[00:24:04] Tim Baker: So that’s why I get so deep in why would this work? .

[00:24:07] Jonathan DeYoe: Totally agree. I I, I go on and on and on and on about the worthlessness of those questionnaires. , It sounds like you agree with that. That’s great.

[00:24:15] Jonathan DeYoe: So I’m, I’m just curious, you’re, you’re talking about sort of almost spiritual things or, , deep psychological things.

[00:24:22] Jonathan DeYoe: I’m wondering if you get a lot of pushback from people or do people just like, yay, this is great.

[00:24:28] Tim Baker: everything is spiritual

[00:24:30] Jonathan DeYoe: I.

[00:24:31] Tim Baker: , and I’ve never gotten a pushback, `, believe it or not. , but to your comment, that contrast came up through the years. I’ve always gone to a lot of different retreats through the years, anywhere from three days to two weeks long, ever since 1997. And usually after a couple of days, people will eventually ask me, what do you do? And I say, well, I’m in the wealth management field. And their response is. Well, how can you be so spiritual and, and be in a wealth [00:25:00] field? And I would say, well, that tells me more about you than it does about me. Because money is a neutral tool, just like nuclear power is a neutral tool. You can light up cities with it or blow up people with it.

[00:25:10] Tim Baker: It’s a character revealed through the use of the tool that makes it good or bad. And that’s what money is. And, and yet in, in United States, we have such a horrible relationship with money.

[00:25:22] Jonathan DeYoe: Yes, we do.

[00:25:23] Tim Baker: , it’s not just the elephant in the room, it’s the room.

[00:25:26] Tim Baker: And so one way of right sizing that is in the process of what we do , with our work today, where I’ve married the wealth management process, what I call the four decades of evidence-based wealth management.

[00:25:40] Tim Baker: To me it’s, it’s very much of a formula. , but I’ve married that with the blue zone research. Of those cultures that have the longest longevity and the highest quality of lives. And so once we realize that we’re not just money, , , we have seven other major aspects of who we [00:26:00] are from, you know, physical health to diet, to self-care, to careers, to relationships, to emotional intelligence, to spirituality. Once we see that all on one page, it’s all of a sudden gotten right sized to a certain degree because now that’s just one eighth of who we are.

[00:26:16] Jonathan DeYoe: , and you’re anticipating literally. My next question was about the eight arenas. You just went right to the next question. I love it. , , Do the staff fit into this process of discovery and supporting people , in the other seven arenas, like where does the health and wellness coach, the spiritual guide, the mindfulness, where do they fit in and how do, how do you employ them to the ends for the clients?

[00:26:37] Tim Baker: So the first introduction that a client would have would, would be with me. , as you can see, I get deep and wide already, , with the psychology and emotional intelligence aspects of, of working with people. , they also then work with my attorney and CPA in that planning phase. Once people , get on board, , and [00:27:00] from the wealth process in my team, then they’re turned over to our consciousness coach, And so then they start to, they’re kind of the, the doorway to all of the other aspects that we’re gonna be working with these folks in. They’ll be handing a ball off to the, , body nutrition coach, uh, to the spiritual advisor, lifestyle coach. , and the environmental coach. And the reason why I, I even went that far with it before, you know, selling my firm four years ago, I brought in the, Ayurvedic practitioner from MINDBODY spirit. You know, I was working with people for more than 30 years. And I thought, you know, if as long as we met or exceeded their financial goals in their life, they’re gonna be contented people, right? They’re gonna have happy lives, and I would get, you know, after a couple years into their retirement years, and they’re still stressed out.

[00:27:52] Tim Baker: You know, if the market goes sideways, they’s, they’re worried that it’s not gonna be making enough. Certainly if the market goes down, they’re stressing up. But if the market [00:28:00] goes up, they’re getting stressed because it’s going up too much, too fast.

[00:28:03] Tim Baker: And so I wanted to provide a solution for that. And that’s where I brought in,, this consciousness team that I have now. And I went to an event a couple years ago and, and the main speaker that they started out the mornings talk with this one line, it was a premise of this whole talk that day. He says, money is the biggest stressor in America. And I said, no, it’s not. He said, do you wanna say more? I said, your mind is master your mind.

[00:28:36] Tim Baker: You master your money issues. You master your career issues, you master your relationship issues, master your health issues, and certainly now you have emotional intelligence to make discerning choices in all aspects of your life.

[00:28:50] Jonathan DeYoe: That’s an enormous statement. , so my deep meditation practice myself says you are talking about just a regular [00:29:00] meditation practice and how that might have very positive outcomes on your emotional intelligence, your, you know, your window of tolerance for things that are difficult.

[00:29:10] Jonathan DeYoe: , all these things. Is that what you’re talking about or is there more to it than that?

[00:29:14] Tim Baker: It starts there.

[00:29:15] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah,

[00:29:16] Tim Baker: And once somebody sits silently empties their mind and they’re spending time, , with their higher self. So, you know what the word meditation means, right?

[00:29:27] Jonathan DeYoe: please tell me.

[00:29:29] Tim Baker: Okay. It means to become familiar with, familiar with what? The higher self, the light that you’ve been incarnated into this body. From that, sending that light to all 60 trillion cells in your body, bringing homeostasis and balance into all of your body. And it affects more than just your body. It affects your mind, and it affects actually your intentional, , basis of how you’re experiencing your days. I mean, we live our lives based on our assumptions. So what we have to do through [00:30:00] meditation is. Take that programming and deprogram ourselves In fact, we were hypnotized.

[00:30:06] Tim Baker: We have to de-hypnotize ourselves from our seven years of programming because if we don’t do that, we’re going to live a life that was fated to us, . Life that, you know, we were programmed with everybody else’s desires and limitations. But once we wake up to that. And we say, you know what? There’s this authentic self in me somewhere that feels a lot different than what I was told that I needed to be where I needed to go to school, what kind of career I should have, and what kind of sports or academics or arts I should have been interested in. There’s something different that I wanted to follow and I didn’t because I was programmed and then channeled into these things. Once you wake up that there’s a more authentic self inside of you than than that, and then you also. Are awakened to the fact that you can reprogram yourself and have that kind of life.

[00:30:58] Tim Baker: Now you’re living a life of [00:31:00] destiny, not of fate. And that’s where we would like to get to with people. So, you know, it’s, it’s a journey. It’s not a destination. Just when you think, and I’ve been in these windows of time in my life where I thought, oh, I’m enlightened. , right around the corner comes, that comes that next trigger point, and you go, oh, it’s not a destination, it is a journey.

[00:31:20] Tim Baker: It. And that’s why I say, you know, people can go up to Mount Shasta and they can sit up on top of the mountain and meditate for the rest of their life and they can go see, , I’m a good guy, I’m a good woman now. , and I’ve gotten, I’ve become enlightened. But you have to test that. And in the real world, you have to test that with your family, with your colleagues and, and life’s experiences and what it throws, throws at you. But you have to wake up to that.

[00:31:44] Jonathan DeYoe: I know that Buddhist said something like, uh. I dunno if this is the bud or somebody, somebody bastardizing something that might have been by a monk or something. But he said something like, um, before I was enlightened, I saw the mountains and the rivers, and after I was enlightened, I saw the mountains and the rivers.

[00:31:59] Jonathan DeYoe: So it’s like [00:32:00] the right, it’s just, it’s your, it’s your relationship with those things that change. Those things don’t change.

[00:32:05] Jonathan DeYoe: I ask every advisor this question and I want to ask it of you. , I think the answer that you’re gonna give is gonna be way different. What is. The financial advisors circle of competence.

[00:32:16] Jonathan DeYoe: What should clients be hiring us to do?

[00:32:19] Tim Baker: We have to know them, right? So you have to know them deeply and,

[00:32:23] Tim Baker: and they should be hiring us for our expertise that’s in align with their authentic self. That’s in their interest, not in our interest. You know, I so many times, and maybe you understand this little technique, but I’ve seen a lot of times in the industry, somebody has this big traditional IRA. , and they work for a corporation that has a retirement plan. Well, a great technique for somebody is also to be able to put money into A IRA that’s non-deductible contribution. And then it would be great to take it out of that and Roth converted. So now that money can grow tax free [00:33:00] during your life and beyond. Well, a person can’t do that if they have a big IRA, because there’s a pro rata rule in that taxation when you convert it to a Roth. IRA. It. Well, a person could do that though if, if the advisor took this big IRAA client has and says to the client, go stuff this in your retirement plan, your corporate retirement plan. Now it’s out of the eyes of the IRS. Now you can follow through with that, making that non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA and backdoor Roth in it where you got a tax free Roth. But advisors isn’t gonna say that because they’re gonna lose advisory fees for making that recommendation.

[00:33:38] Tim Baker: So at all times, the advisors have to place the client’s interest ahead of theirs?

[00:33:44] Jonathan DeYoe: And that’s what clients should be looking for, is someone that does that. Yeah.

[00:33:48] Tim Baker: Yeah. Somebody’s got their back.

[00:33:50] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Who knows the landscape and has their back. Right? , there’s a ton of noise out there., I want you to break it down for us. Let’s say someone new comes in off the [00:34:00] street, , , you know, whether they hire you, whether they hire you or not, they walk outta the office.

[00:34:03] Jonathan DeYoe: And what is one thing that they should focus on today that could lead to better personal financial success for them?

[00:34:11] Tim Baker: well, it’s the financial plan to begin with. , it brings a lot of organization and clarity for what you can accomplish in your life. , it puts meat on the bones for why you’re going through these savings that , you’re doing and, , for yourself. , giving you some benchmarks and targets to hit.

[00:34:30] Tim Baker: You can build an ideal world you can build savings, but you can also build a, an acceptable world, one that you will really enjoy. , and test those out. We can control how much we save when we retire. How much money we wanna spend in retirement years, how much money we want to give to heirs and so forth.

[00:34:48] Tim Baker: We can even control whether we are in a conservative or aggressive portfolio, but you can’t control the return that you’re gonna get. But we can stress test that. So we can put all these variables in [00:35:00] place and stress testes and make sure that we’re gonna come up with a confidence score that we feel good about.

[00:35:05] Tim Baker: , and there is ranges, and this is valid. I did it for four. For decades,

[00:35:11] Tim Baker: so I know this works. And so I would say the first thing to do first order of business is develop that financial plan. One of the first things, and that anybody can do without a planner , and I would highly advise because this is like the most egregious oversight that anybody has in all of their wealth affairs, and that is check your beneficiaries. Of your life insurance, of your, , IRAs, of your retirement plans. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve onboarded new clients, and most of the time these things are not who they want to be

[00:35:46] Tim Baker: as their beneficiaries.

[00:35:47] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, I know. They set him up 15 years ago and never, never reviewed it, and people die and people, you know, sort of

[00:35:52] Tim Baker: I, I.

[00:35:53] Jonathan DeYoe: people.

[00:35:54] Tim Baker: Yeah, we’ve seen it happen it’s a big mistake and people can control this. So I say control [00:36:00] what you can control and stress, test the rest and have

[00:36:02] Tim Baker: somebody to guide you along the way, not to make that one big mistake.

[00:36:06] Jonathan DeYoe: Yep. Yep. So that’s, so the planning and, and sort of understanding and controlling what you control, that’s the thing to do.

[00:36:12] Jonathan DeYoe: what’s one thing that they’re probably doing that they should stop doing for the same positive effect?

[00:36:17] Tim Baker: I mean, , market cycles are, that’s part of why you get the, the better returns that you get versus bonds or putting your money in cash or or other investments. And so it’s stopped the stress, , live in the present moment. That’s where eternity , is in the present moment. You can’t physically get to the future and you can’t physically even go back to the past. So be present right here, right now. And that means that you also have a quiet mind , when you’re in that present moment.

[00:36:47] Jonathan DeYoe: Yep.

[00:36:48] Tim Baker: And so it’s, it’s, it is to be mindful.

[00:36:51] Jonathan DeYoe: Yep. Yep. , just to wrap up a couple more personal things. This may be weird, but I know that you listened to a, , a couple episodes, so maybe you’re prepared. [00:37:00] What was the last thing you changed your mind about?

[00:37:02] Tim Baker: , I wasn’t gonna go into any, , retreats the first half of this year because of the, the new work that I’ve ramped up doing, but I. I, I just got back from five days in Cancun with Dr. Joe Dispenza, , at an advanced meditation retreat. , so I decided at the last minute to go down there to do that.

[00:37:18] Tim Baker: There was 2100 people there represented, , 74 different countries from around the world. 1100 people from the United States. Most mornings we’d get up either at 4:00 AM or six, and the days would go on until seven 30 in the evening, and there was a little bit of lecture, but most of it was breath work and meditation.

[00:37:37] Jonathan DeYoe: Wow. That’s great. , is there anything that people don’t know about you or maybe you’ve told ’em they don’t remember that it’s really important to you that they know?

[00:37:46] Tim Baker: So I don’t try to convince anybody of anything. I.

[00:37:49] Tim Baker: tell my story. I’d say how we do things and why we do the things that we do and what we don’t do also. And if that resonates with them, [00:38:00] awesome. If it doesn’t resonate with them. Awesome. Because there’s, there is no reason to, to try to convince somebody of something they’re already programmed to, to believe otherwise.

[00:38:12] Tim Baker: So I’m not gonna be able to affect that change right then, and I’m not gonna risk that for me or them.

[00:38:19] Tim Baker: There’s other ways to, to, to manage these things other than the way that I do it. I just know that after four decades. This is what places the chance of success , in their favor. And that’s why we use these principles.

[00:38:32] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. Finally, tell us, , how people can connect with you. Where do they find you?

[00:38:36] Tim Baker: , well, I have a website, , www.luminouswealth.com. , they can reach me at my email, which is not j but tim@luminouswealth.com. And my phone number is (561) 919-4808. They can also go to Amazon, , for my book. It’s called The Awakened [00:39:00] Investor. , those are some avenues to go.

[00:39:02] Tim Baker: And at the website, at the top bar of our website, , there’s a tab for taking the, Human archetype assessment, they can go there. It’s a 44 forced answered question quiz. They need to find a quiet spot for about 10 or 15 minutes to take it, but it’ll give you a report right away that has a lot of valuable information. And also, , comes with a couple of videos, , describing the attributes and qualities you have, , after taking that quiz.

[00:39:28] Tim Baker: So it’s something that’s very valuable and,,, people have really enjoyed taking.

[00:39:33] Jonathan DeYoe: Awesome. Thanks for that. , I’ll make sure that those links go in the, in the website as well. , so thanks for coming on. I loved the conversation. I think I was, I predicted this at the beginning. I’d love to call you a friend. I’d love to stay in touch. We’ll make sure all that stuff’s in the show notes.

[00:39:46] Jonathan DeYoe: , and I just wanna say thank you for being a guest on the Mindful Money Podcast.

[00:39:50] Tim Baker: Thank you my friend.

[00:39:52] Jonathan DeYoe: Now, must day I.

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