Living in the Present Moment with George Kinder

I am so happy to have you here today, I am interviewing my good friend, George Kinder. George is known as the father of life planning. He was a financial advisor who wrote this amazing book that impacted me many years ago around The Seven Stages of Money Maturity and inspired my work. And today, we're having a very different kind of conversation because he's talking about his latest book which he is giving away for free. And, it is poetry that's oriented to the present moment. He ended up chronicling with photographs and with these poems over the course of a year what he experiences in the place that he lives on a pond not that far from Walden pond. But how the nature in this seasons affect his life and it's just a really fun conversation. I love George's work, and I know you'll really enjoy it.   He shares with us his insights:   Right and, and I mean it's when you think about each moment is a moment potentially a freedom for you, and if you take more moments in your life and live more freedom in here. Every encounter you make is going to have that in it, and people are going to see that and feel it and spread it in their own way we don't know. It's a mystery how we impact things. And you know if you get lost in the civilization piece of it and think – 'Oh it's got a loss, got to change or the votes have to go this way'. Well yeah, I mean that's what you're kind of fighting for, in a way. But if there's a certain randomness to it. There's too much energy around the attachment to the result, just do the good work. And, things will come about. Transformation will occur.   And everywhere I go, I make sure this is part of it, because all we need is one piece of legislation that would require this – 'a fiduciary standard of obligation is required for all institutions – corporate, nonprofit, and governmental to place the interests of all stakeholders of humanity; of democracy; and the living planet that sustains us. First, above their own self-interest so it's where the reason we're seeing this chaos right now is because we've allowed kind of greed and arrogance. We've rewarded more greed and arrogance that we've rewarded wisdom and compassion.   Absolutely, I mean it's something we don't really even fully understand Confucius. I love reading the ancient masters and teachers. And, one of the things that he said he was, he lived in a time when there was tremendous corruption. And I don't know if you know this, but he died thinking that he failed. There was so much corruption in China was at that point in five or six or seven, different warring states, wars, terrorism, terrible stuff. And he figured out how to solve it. And, a lot of it had to do with being good people; being good; being kind; being responsible. And, he was asked once by, you know, kind of the President, or the Emperor, the CEO of this particular state. The guy said, 'Hey, you know, how can I start my people, they're thieving, and they're taking advantage of each other; and they're rude; and they're all this kind of stuff. How can I stop them from doing that? And Confucius said – first, really very simple, all you have to do is stop doing it yourself'.   Harvard-educated George Kinder revolutionized financial advice for more than 35 years by training over 4,000 professionals in 30 countries in the field of financial Life Planning. He founded the Kinder Institute of Life Planning in 2003 after 30 years as a practicing financial planner and tax advisor.   George Kinder's latest book, Reflections on Spectacle Pond: The Weekly Edition is available as a free email subscription. Inspired by the 30 years he has spent living at the edge of a small New England pond, the book is a meditative guide to living in nature's cycle, week by week, and moment by moment. Among his seven books, he has written one on mindfulness,  Transforming Suffering into Wisdom, and another book of photography and poetry, A Song for Hana.   Kinder was the first winner of the Financial Planning Association's Heart of Financial Planning Award which recognizes "individuals who demonstrate commitment and passion in doing extraordinary work to contribute or give back to the financial planning community and/or the public."  He has been named "One of the 35 most influential people in financial services," "One of the top Icons & Innovators in the financial planning industry," "the first of 15 transformational advisors whose vision most changed the industry," and has been inducted into the Financial Planning Magazine Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Transparency Trophy by the Transparency Task Force. He has appeared on many radio and television programs and his expertise has been featured in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, New Model Adviser, Forbes, Time Magazine, FP Today, The Journal of Financial Planning, Investment News, and The New York Times.   Kinder is known for his dynamic presentation skills and has given speeches at professional conferences on five continents. He has spoken at Harvard University, Boston College, Coventry University, Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Allianz, AXA, The Financial Planning Association, The Personal Finance Society, and The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.   Kinder currently resides in Massachusetts and spends several months per year in London and Hana, Hawaii.   Learn more about George:   Website/Free gift:   https://www.georgekinder.com   Instagram:    https://www.instagram.com/george_kinder   Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeDKinder   LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-d-kinder-0749196   Twitter:   https://twitter.com/GeorgeDKinder