The Mindful Investor E-Book

Maria Gonzalez

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 233

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

The most recent market meltdown saw trillions of dollars disappear from the North American economy, and the financial markets drop more than 44% from their highs. Daily volatility was immense, with swings of up to 1,000 points in a single day. A vicious cycle of fear and greed caused panic and suffering for individual investors, investment advisors, and pension fund managers alike. The Mindful Investor shows you how to use a single tool-Mindfulness meditation-to achieve clarity, focus, and peace of mind with your finances. Oprah, Eckhart Tolle, Phil Jackson, and Tiger Woods have done much to bring meditation out of the mystic shadows and into the mainstream. Google even offers meditation classes to employees. In this book, you will learn how to use Mindfulness and how to combine it with sound financial planning principles-no chanting or patchouli required. * Replace greed and desperation with calm and focus when considering your finances. * Make money work for you, rather than being controlled by your money. * Create your own definition of financial success. * Stay focused on what matters, and be level-headed about what you can't control. * Learn the basics of Mindfulness meditation, including the five hindrances to success. * Acquire simple Mindfulness techniques you can use anytime, anywhere to create calm and focus at will, see clearly under stressful conditions, and make better financial decisions.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Preface

The Authors

Maria Gonzalez, BCom, MBA

Graham Byron, CFP

Chapter 1 - How We Got Here and How We’ll Get Out

THE HOUSE OF CARDS FALLS

A BETTER WAY

Chapter 2 - An Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

TRAIN YOUR BRAIN

KEY TERMS

THE PRICE OF STRESS

BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS MEDITATION

IN SUMMARY

Chapter 3 - Mindfulness Techniques

RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

INTERNAL AWARENESS

EXTERNAL AWARENESS

CREATING/IMAGINING POSITIVE OUTCOMES

CONSTANT CHANGE

NOT KNOWING/DON’T KNOW

Chapter 4 - The Five Hindrances that Impede Success

THE HINDRANCES

DEALING WITH HINDRANCES

Chapter 5 - The Starting Point

COUNTERPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR PROFILES

YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

Chapter 6 - The Financial Plan

THE FINANCIAL PLAN

THE RESULTS

YOUR PLAN

Chapter 7 - Portfolio Construction

BUILDING BLOCKS

STRUCTURING YOUR PORTFOLIO

DUE DILIGENCE

FINAL THOUGHTS

Chapter 8 - Client/Advisor Relations

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

EVALUATION

THE RELATIONSHIP PROCESS

HALLMARKS OF A WELL-RUN PRACTICE

Chapter 9 - When Things Go Wrong

ILLNESS

DEATH

DIVORCE OR SEPARATION

JOB LOSS

DEBT

BUSINESS FAILURE

STOCK MARKET CORRECTION

FRAUD

PUTTING LOSS INTO PERSPECTIVE

Chapter 10 - Estate Planning

LIFE INSURANCE

DISABILITY INSURANCE

CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE

YOUR WILL

TRUSTS

CHARITABLE GIVING

Chapter 11 - Final Thoughts

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index

Copyright © 2010 by Maria Gonzalez and Graham Byron

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free 1-800-893-5777.

Care has been taken to trace ownership of copyright material contained in this book. The publisher will gladly receive any information that will enable them to rectify any reference or credit line in subsequent editions.

Graham Byron is an Investment Advisor with CIBC Wood Gundy in Toronto. CIBC Wood Gundy is a division of CIBC World Markets Inc., a subsidiary of CIBC and Member CIPF.

The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of CIBC World Markets Inc.

Calculations and projections included in the text are for demonstration purposes only. They are based on a number of assumptions and consequently actual results may differ, possibly to a material degree. Readers are advised to seek advice regarding their particular circumstances from their personal financial, tax, and legal advisors.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Gonzalez, Maria, 1958-

The mindful investor: how a calm mind can bring you inner peace and financial security / Maria Gonzalez, Graham Byron.

Includes index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-67868-8

1. Finance, Personal—Religious aspects. 2. Finance, Personal—Psychological aspects. 3. Meditation. I. Byron, Graham. II. Title.

HG4527.G.024’01 C2009—905474—4

Production CreditsCover design: Pat Loi Interior design and typesetting: Pat Loi Cover image: iStockphoto.comPrinter: Friesens

John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. 6045 Freemont Blvd. Mississauga, Ontario L5R 4J3

FP

To Gaetano, my soulmate, for hisunconditional love, support, and clarity.

To my mother, Alvarina, for her compassion,encouragement, and inspiration.

And to Peanut, for teaching me through his mindfulness.

—Maria Gonzalez

To Diana. I love you, and appreciate your(almost) unwavering patience every day.

And to my girls, Gillian, Mary, and Lizzie.You’re the best, I’m so proud of you all.

—Graham Byron

Acknowledgments

Maria would like to thank:

Shinzen Young, my teacher, for his compassion and wisdom. I am deeply grateful for his coaching, his encouragement of my practice and my teaching, and his unconditional support. This book could not have been written without his innovative Mindfulness techniques, which have made the 2,500-year-old science of the mind accessible to our contemporary culture.

A number of Shinzen’s teachings are contained and cited in chapter 2, and some of his techniques are described in chapter 3. You can view him on YouTube on the Expansion & Contraction channel, and visit his website at www.basicmindfulness.org.

My husband, Gaetano Geretto, for his advice, encouragement, and meticulous proofing, and for always putting things in perspective. I am deeply grateful for his grace and mindfulness throughout the writing process.

Soryu Scott, for being such a mindful sounding board and for his mindful decision-making algorithm, which appears in appendix A. It’s a very innovative and useful tool for making mindful decisions. You can visit his website at www.budsa.org.

Graham, for suggesting we co-write this book. He is an exemplary student of Mindfulness, and it’s my pleasure and privilege to work with him. He is also the quintessential mindful advisor.

Graham would like to thank:

Maria. She is an ideal teacher, coach, and guide. One of my goals is to emulate the way she conducts her life and runs her business.

And we both would like to thank:

Diana Byron, for her flawless editing, support, and terrific sense of humour. She kept us on track throughout the writing process. She had an unwavering can-do attitude, and this book could not have been published without her.

The entire team at Wiley. Particular thanks go to Karen Milner, Senior Editor, for her support, flexibility, and encouragement, and to Jennifer Smith, Vice President & Publisher, for believing in our project and encouraging us to write this book. She understood that these times require an alternative mindset and innovative strategies, and knew that it would benefit readers to hear our message.

Preface

Money. The word itself has a power of its own. It can induce feelings and start a train of thought instantly. Unfortunately, often these feelings and thoughts are negative and stressful. We believe that achieving a healthy relationship with money is necessary because it’s attached, in some way, to almost every aspect of our lives. In reality most people have enough money, even after the recent market collapse. What they don’t have is the level of calm, clarity, focus, and equanimity required to live peacefully with money. Mindfulness can help achieve it. We will focus a great deal on equanimity throughout the book, and while the term may seem unfamiliar, it simply means accepting your thoughts and feelings without judgment, which allows you to maintain balance.

The Mindful Investor is a friendly, non-threatening guide for individual investors, business people, and professionals who are looking for a better way to manage their money. We believe that financial success is important, but we believe that you must create your own definition of success, and this will vary for everyone. We’ll assist you in creating your definition by guiding you to achieve clarity about what’s truly important to you, and showing you how to stay focused on what matters and be equanimous with what you can’t control.

The tool we will introduce you to is Mindfulness meditation. The benefits of Mindfulness meditation in the worlds of business and finance include:

• Greater focus and concentration

• Improved time management

• An enhanced ability to anticipate and serve client needs

• Enhanced team effectiveness

• Greater innovation and inspiration

• Increased productivity

• More clarity about what matters, including financial goals

• A sense of equanimity, or acceptance of what you can’t control, and an end to worrying about money

We begin with a brief overview of the financial crises experienced over the course of 2007 to 2009, and will demonstrate to you the applicability and helpfulness of Mindfulness meditation in coping with the current disarrayed economy. Next we introduce you to Mindfulness meditation—its history, applications, and benefits. You should feel reassured that it’s relatively easy, secular, mainstream, and accessible to everyone who’s interested. Once you’ve comfortably settled in, we’ll explore some of the simpler methods of practising Mindfulness in everyday life and help you get started on your journey. We’ll also introduce you to five hindrances to success, so you can be aware of them and sidestep potential disasters relating to them.

Many personal finance books focus on giving up lattes and dining out for the purposes of saving up your pennies for retirement. This isn’t one of them. We focus on the big picture. And the first step in creating financial success is to define what financial success means for you.

We teach you how to employ Mindfulness in order to become clear about your true goals, and we point out frequent pitfalls and provide suggestions for avoiding them. We’ll walk you through the components of a typical financial plan and offer advice on what to consider when answering the questions that form the basis of a plan. Once you’re armed with a clearer idea of your true goals and objectives and a solid plan for how to achieve them, we show you how to select the components of a portfolio that will allow you to attain financial success, while minimizing the risk along the way.

We also examine the client/advisor relationship, which is key to ensuring your financial success. We consider the client/ advisor relationship to be a mini strategic alliance. Drawing on Maria’s years of experience creating large corporate alliances, we demonstrate how the same techniques can be applied here to improve relations between you and your advisor. Additionally, we offer Mindfulness tips that will help ensure that readers can optimize communication with their advisor—including how to tell if someone is really listening, if they’re not being forthcoming, or if they’re withholding information.

Inevitably, things will go awry at some point; divorce, job loss, or a market meltdown can wreak havoc on an investment portfolio. Mindfulness can help to guide you through the crisis, and we show you some techniques that will help you to maintain your equanimity in times of great stress.

Finally, we take a look at the end, and plan with the end in mind. What doesn’t make sense to us is that everyone has fire insurance for their house, yet many people don’t have adequate life insurance. Relatively few houses burn down, but everyone is guaranteed to die—yes, even you. This chapter will guide readers through the minefield of estate planning and insurance. Using Mindfulness, we teach you to consider what you truly want to have happen and what kind of legacy is important to you. Yes, it’s more goal setting, but this time for your death, as opposed to your life.

Our goal is to help you experience greater fulfillment and less suffering. The strategies in our book will help you to increase Mindfulness in every aspect of your life. Used in tandem with sound financial planning principles, Mindfulness will help you to create a secure future. You will see that by achieving clarity, staying focused, and applying equanimity, you can attain both financial success and peace of mind. It’s just a matter of tuning out the noise of the world, and tuning in to your awareness.

The Authors

Maria Gonzalez, BCom, MBA

Maria is a 30-year business veteran who believes that Mindfulness transforms lives. She has been meditating regularly since 1991 and teaching meditation since 2002. She applies Mindfulness to all aspects of her life, both personally and professionally. As founder and president of Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting Inc., she ensures that Mindfulness is indistinguishable from her business, whether negotiating complex strategic alliances or coaching business leaders to use Mindfulness in their lives and businesses.

Maria’s personal mission always has been to enable people to achieve their best by helping them help themselves. When someone is suffering from stress, they’re unable to focus and make good decisions or even to enjoy life. As a founding member and Vice Chair of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addictions and Mental Health, she knows the toll that stress can take on individuals, organizations, and society. She’s witnessed first-hand how Mindfulness meditation can enable those who practise the techniques regularly to benefit from the ability to create calm and focus at will, and to see clearly under stressful circumstances. This enables them to make sound decisions. She sees the impact of this on their lives and their businesses every day.

Her passion is the application of Mindfulness to daily life and she has coached hundreds of people to apply it while in a meeting, making a presentation, developing corporate strategy, negotiating a deal, on an airplane, on a treadmill, or on the golf course. Maria believes that Mindfulness is completely applicable to money. We can either handle money mindfully and derive pleasure from it, or it can control us and our lives and make us miserable.

Graham Byron, CFP

Graham has been an Investment Advisor and planner for more than 20 years. During that time he has spoken at hundreds of workshops and seminars, co-authored two other books on financial planning, worked with hundreds of clients, and talked to thousands of people about financial security. His parallel interest in the path of Mindfulness was triggered over 25 years ago when he read Zen in the Art of Archery. Since that time he has studied many books on the topic, most notably I Am That. When he found Maria, he was delighted to have someone explain to him in a secular, non-threatening, and surprisingly simple way how to achieve peace, clarity, and a reduction of stress. A welcome side effect was playing the best nine holes of golf in his life.

At this turning point in our financial lives, he feels that it makes sense to share the topic of Mindfulness and its application to money. He hopes that people will use it in their financial planning process, so they will be able to maintain a state of calm awareness, make good decisions, and enjoy their wealth.