Fun Fact: Scott and I met because I wrote a post about finance and yoga back in 2005. He was living in Michigan and practicing Ashtanga Yoga there and thinking about a move to NYC, where he planned to explore a career in finance, and he wanted to know what it was like balancing that with a daily yoga practice. The short answer: totally possible, not always easy. We didn’t meet in person or start dating until 2007. But that was our first exchange and I love that it was.
Yogis in Finance: I began working in finance the week after I graduated from college in 1997. When I first really dug into the depths of Ashtanga Yoga back in 2003, I had times when I really really wanted to be able to go to India for months at a time to study deeply at the source and ultimately teach. I didn’t feel like I could take that kind of time off from my career, as in my mind that would have meant quitting my job a financial advisor. I was even okay with the vow of poverty it would likely require. Because once I learned to really connect to my breath, I found that I don’t need anything else to feel deeply content. But I did feel despondent at the thought of abandoning my clients - it felt like it would be a selfish choice for me to make. And then the Dalai Lama happened to be giving a lecture at Central Park just months into this budding desire on my part and a lawyer asked him whether or not he should give up his career in law to pursue a spiritual path. The Dalai Lama told him that he shouldn’t… that the world needs lawyers who are on a spiritual path. And I took that to heart, because I think the advice applies to financial advisors as well.
I get surprised looks when I tell yoga people that I work in finance. I’ve been told by people I’ve taught that I seem like more of a yoga teacher than a financial advisor. I take this as a compliment, I guess. I’ve had yoga friends hire me as their advisor and at first the transition can feel a little funny. But the truth is I feel like there are so many overlaps between investing and a regular yoga practice. And I wish more people felt like there was less of a gulf between the two disciplines. Money is not intrinsically evil. It is a means of exchange. It is a means of growth. And it is a means of opportunity. If you invest with the same principles that you otherwise might choose to live, I do not believe that you are compromising your morality or integrity as a human being by exploring how you can make your money work harder for you and for others.
Yes, investing generally means fueling corporate America and corporations around the world. Maybe that can feel a little suspect - all that pervasive corporate greed and focus on profitability. It is so easy to focus on the negatives of corporate America, but what about the positives? What about the fact that the poorest of the poor have more opportunities and a higher standard of living here in this capitalist country than they would have had at any other time in history or in many other countries. Investment drives innovation and innovation drives progress. Do we as a human race need to learn how to take better care of each other and better address issues like income inequality? Absolutely. But can innovation be a key to that? Of course it can. And how can we help drive innovation? By saving and investing. We don’t have to be perfect to do good.