In the last two posts I've made the case for how no one else is watching your money, and how no one else will care about your money the way you do, so you should ultimately be responsible for its care.
In this post, let's discuss what is happening as people begin to reconnect with their money.
Last year I attended the annual
Slow Money conference in San Francisco. I had just found out about Slow Money and
BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) during the summer, and was astonished to see the action that people were taking in their pursuit to create a
new generative economy.
There were over 800 people at that conference – financial professionals, entrepreneurs, film makers, activists, farmers. You could sense this energy throughout the event, in the workshops, in the small conversations huddled around tables in the after hour parties.
There were over 400 at the
BALLE conference in Grand Rapids in May of this year – same outcome. You could taste the energy in the conversations.
There is something exciting happening in this country.
It turns out that when people take back control of their money, they start to take back control of everything else in their lives.
Talk of revolution became synonymous with redefining our financial systems. History supports this claim. Mayer Rothschild is often quoted as saying, "Give me control of a nation's money supply, and I care not who makes its laws."
The amount of power that is transferred to a people who control where their money goes, what their money is, how their money is created, is enormous.
I believe what we are witnessing with the
local investing movement, with the
sustainability movement, with the
preparedness movement, with the
local food movement, with the
Occupy Wall Street movement, with the
political independence movement – is nothing short of an awakening.
If these posts have gotten your attention, then I encourage you to turn that attention into action. Here's what you can do in your part of the revolution:
1. Launch a family investigation into your investments. What do you own, why do you own it, and how do you own it.
2. Take the time to educate yourself. Yes, we do provide education http://timetoreconsider.com, but you can learn on your own as well. Start with
this book, and
this book.
3. Start aligning your finances with your values, dollar by dollar.
4. Turn off the network news.
CNBC is Wall Street's best buddy. Their job is to keep your money in the markets. Doing anything with your money that they are not involved in means no way for them to make money.
5. Start talking to other people who share your values.
Reconnect with your community, and lend a helping hand to the people in your life who want to take back control also.
6. Spread these facts in particular: Less than 1% of our $30 trillion in investment dollars get invested into small businesses, but half of our
GDP comes from small firms, and 2/3 of our jobs come from them.
I hope you the reader found these posts helpful. If ever there was a time ripe for action that can truly lead to a better future, it is now.