Guest: Manisha Thakor, MBA, CFA, CFP®, a national thought leader and personal finance expert with more than 25 years of experience working in the worlds of personal finance and investing. She’s also the author of a great new book, MoneyZen: The Secret to Finding Your “Enough.”

In a Nutshell: Society trains us to believe that the answer to all of our problems is More: more stuff, more clicks, more Likes, and, of course, more money. But financial advisors know that the connection between true happiness and money is a lot more complicated than that. Shifting your focus from improving clients’ return on investment to improving their Return on Life can help folks find that healthy balance between what they have, what they want, and what’s really important.

On today’s show, Manisha Thakor and I have a wide-ranging conversation about the meaning of money in our life and how it can evolve over time, Manisha’s personal journey to “enough,” and how to find joy in living simply.

.

.Manisha Thakor and I discuss:

  • The four factors that Manisha says drove her to believe that “Self Worth = Net Worth” and how she learned to replace that equation with “Financial Health + Emotional Wealth = MoneyZen.”
  • How financial advisors are evolving into financial life advisors.
  • Using a “Past, Present, and Future” framework to understand clients’ relationships to money.
  • What the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement gets wrong about happiness and why we should aspire to FILL instead (Financial Independence Live Lightly).
  • What a simple cup of coffee has taught Manisha and me about money and happiness.
  • This provocative quote from Manisha’s book: “To live a rich, joyful, and connected life, achieve less.”

Resources Related to This Episode