Kaimana Institute Blog
It has been some time since I posted a blog, mainly because the state of the world is intense, such as the 20-30 million people facing evictions and poverty as of July 31, 2020, and while they face evictions and homelessness, the secondary markets are completely divorced from reality. Naturally, I found myself a little clueless on where to begin, or what to post. These types of financial challenges are sapping many people’s basic human rights, such as clean water and bed to sleep in.
Why am I living paycheck-to-paycheck, no matter what income I have? It feels as if my life is always “not enough” and everything feels impossible.
Why am I rich, and there are so many challenges with money at its center? The anxieties of affluence is taboo.
…we tend to equate more money with solving not only financial problems but also emotional challenges, like happiness, and low self-esteem
…many wealthy feel isolated, supposedly free of financial problems. Tacitly for the wealthy, it is a big taboo to express or feel frustration about monetary life.
Take this time to either take stock of where you are financially or be generous. Use the resources in this post.
Many social problems would lesson if money changed more hands more often.
If things are grim right now, talk to professionals, and reach out for help.
Let us all use this time as a motivator to improve ourselves financially in the years to come.
Be aware of mental covetousness, stinginess, and short tempers in times like these. Especially when they are triggered by money topics. We need to take stock of what we have and be there for each other. Actively counting your blessings is cultivating gratitude and the best contemplative practice if you feel squeezed.
The holidays, it seems, are an acceptable reason to go into debt. How can this be true generosity when it damages our well-being? With all of this in mind, this blog post is about generosity, as a fundamental aspect of a healthy financial life (that comes in many forms), and equating that to one’s time.
How our choices ripple into our family, friends, immediate social groups, the larger culture, and of course the environment is a big part of our relationship to money. From a contemplative perspective, this quasi-intellectual representation of interdependence is experienced when we buy, sell, trade, or give our money. When monetary choices include what would benefit others, we become happier. Each choice becomes an opportunity to shape our world constructively.
It is not a tax but a play on words emphasizing how wealth begets wealth. Think of buying bulk, investing, having lower insurance premiums, a larger down payment on a house, money for health, and so on. When I first heard about this, my stomach became tight, my eyes felt hot, and my thoughts raced. It felt unfair to have a cyclic effect built into our monetary system.
Can the contemplative possibly shed light on the poor tax challenge?
Within spirituality, religion, and the contemplative, how does money fit into this? After all, these are distant subjects. Think of the guru, the priest, the banker, and Wall Street. It is somewhat like saying you can be a minimalist and materialist at the same time. A republican and a democrat. A monk and a layman.
These distinctions are true in many respects, however, through five-sensory experience, we can find areas that overlap between the spiritual and money. The first obvious connection is through the digital or physical flow of money. The other is through our cumulative choices, which change our state of mind.
