Shows
Welcoming GodSecond Half of Life: Growing Up Personally and SpirituallyWe're back after a two-month hiatus with the start of our four-week summer season. Recent unexpected changes and life experiences have felt challenging and prompted reflections on personal growth, trauma integration, and the journey towards personal and spiritual maturation.In the first episode of season two, I'll discuss: • Moving from the first half of life (focused on success and achievement) to the second half (internal journey and becoming a wise elder)• Exploring Richard Rohr's concept from his book Falling Upwards and the call to grow into elders both spiritually and in the world•...
2025-07-1510 min
The Mindful FIRE Podcast170 : The Five Stages of Financial Independence with Douglas TsoiIn this episode: financial independence, spirituality and money, the five stages of FIRE, community learning, personal growth with Douglas TsoiEpisode SummaryIn this episode of the Mindful Fire podcast Douglas Tsoi shares his journey towards Financial Independence and how it transformed his life. He discusses the intersection of spirituality and personal finance, the five stages of FIRE, and the importance of community in lifelong learning. Douglas also provides insights into the deeper emotional aspects of Financial Independence and how to navigate the challenges that arise post-FIRE.Guest Bio
2025-03-1852 min
Highly Sensitive Money for Highly Sensitive People who want to align their values with their moneyDouglas Tsoi on Finding Financial Freedom, Meaning, and CommunityDouglas Tsoi on Finding Financial Freedom, Meaning, and Community
In this episode, our guest Douglas Tsoi and I dive into the intersection of financial freedom, personal values, and social impact. Douglas, founder of the School of Financial Freedom, shares his journey from lawyer to educator, achieving financial independence by living simply and intentionally. Together, we unpack how his minimalist philosophy allowed him to pursue a path focused on meaning and community. As he shares stories of his family’s immigrant history and insights from his own life transformations, Douglas invites listeners to rethink the roles of money, wor...
2024-12-0456 min
The School of Financial Freedom Podcast2.1 Status Roles and Tiny Details Exaggeration SyndromeThis lesson is one of the most disagreed-with lessons in the course. The premise is, after a certain level of income, all spending goes to create a status identity. Another way to put it, after a certain level of income, all spending goes to getting approval from the people we want approval from and to feel a certain way about ourselves.
SOFF grad Jessica talks about setting a goal to hit financial independent in six years, at age 40. Now, six years later, at age 40, she hit it! She talks about how aligning her spending with her values (a...
2024-09-0459 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.6: Inner Locus of Control and Brain FoodIs your financial security in your control or is it dependent on the economy, the stock market, or who’s controlling Congress? Is your financial destiny something you direct or a product of your family history and circumstances? Can you make choices that build a future you want, or does circumstance matter more? We get to the critical question of Locus of Control.
We talk to Dawn Robertson, a recent FF1 grad, long time Buddhist mediator, and communications expert, about the issue of attention. Are we focused on our external environment, or our power and agency. We'll ta...
2024-08-2858 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastThe Three Vows: Devotion with Sarah Selecky and Ryan HendersonEarlier this year, I had an idea of a new podcast called the Three Vows. In it, I translate the traditional three monastic vows, poverty, obedience, and chastity into modern vows of voluntary simplicity, integrity, and devotion.
In this interview, I talk with my friends Sarah Selecky and Ryan Henderson, who run the Sarah Selecky Writing School. Sarah and Ryan use their wedding vows as an anchor for making decisions together and for how they will treat each other. They refer to their vows almost daily. They talk about how the WRITING of their wedding vows was a...
2024-08-2257 minHighly Sensitive Money for Highly Sensitive People who want to align their values with their moneyBreaking the Financial Barrier: How Gender Plays a Role with Finances for FeministsBreaking the Financial Barrier: How Gender Plays a Role with Finances for Feminists
In this episode of 'Highly Sensitive Money,' host Diana Yañez welcomes Ariel Nathanson from 'Finances for Feminists.' The conversation delves into Ariel's journey into finance, starting from her childhood love for numbers to her current role in financial education. Ariel shares her experiences at Wellesley College, her initial jobs, and how she found her calling in financial literacy. They discuss the impact of societal messages on women's financial behavior, the importance of mindful and intuitive spending, and the need for shifting money conversations f...
2024-08-1453 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.5: Your Money or Your Life, with Christen Kelly and Jorden CummingsWe get to one of the key concept in the financial independence movement: that we exchange hours of our life for money (i.e. jobs), so when we spend money, we're actually spending our life energy. So the idea is when we stop mindless consumerism, we can buy our future time.
Christen Kelly and Jorden Cummings, recent FF1 grads and current FF2 students, come in and talk about their realizations after learning life-energy/money exchange, particularly doing their calculations of their Real Hourly Wage. When you figure out your RWH, you can calculate how...
2024-07-0158 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 1.3: Three Truths about Money, with ElleWhat are the benefits of financial independence? Is it worth the effort involved? What's wrong with working until normal retirement age?
We address these questions with FF1 alumni Elle, a young primary care doctor. We talk about the sacrifices we make with paid employment: our time, our sense of agency, our personal ethics. Elle would not doctor the way she doctors, but for the requirements of paid labor. She would spend more time cultivating other parts of her life: time with her family, practicing her art, spending extended time in nature. And that's the true cost of...
2024-06-2453 min
The Stacking Benjamins ShowThe 5 Emotional Stages AFTER Financial Independence - with Douglas Tsoi (SB1535)Do you think, "I've made it once I reach financial independence?" Douglas Tsoi has been "retired" for over ten years and will tell you, "Not even close."For all of us, a new journey begins once we reach financial independence. What does this look like? How can we prepare? Today, Douglas sits down with Joe Saul-Sehy to dive into the five stages we all experience after reaching what many think of as the finish line.In short, we'll discuss:
The fallacy of "I'm done"
The reason why people are afraid to retire, even though...
2024-06-241h 10The School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 1.2: The Emotional Content of Money, with Lulu ChengWhat if money wasn’t your real problem? What if your real problem was your relationship with money?
Money is emotional. The unconscious beliefs and thoughts we have about money far outweigh the conscious ones. So much about how we deal with money is how we FEEL about money. Unconscious beliefs about money deeply influence how we live in the world.
FF alumni and executive coach Lulu Cheng comes in to talk about how money scripts are an intergenerational legacy we inherit. She talks about what her grandmother living through the Chinese Cultural Revolution and her...
2024-06-1755 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.11: Budgeting Needs, Wants, and Bullshit, with Andrea Kelly and Brett LyonAlmost everyone knows their annual salary, but 8 out of 10 people don’t know how much money they spend. Once you think about it, that’s incredible. This level of unconscious spending is the reason so many people live in financial fragility today.
Andrea Kelly and Brett come in and talk about how they budget as a married couple with a newborn. They took FF1 separately and, after they moved in together, used the lessons to combine their finances. They'll talk about the intimacy it takes to talk about budgeting, and how they invented "strip budgeting," a hilarious and...
2024-06-1059 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 1.7: Douglas's Story - Financial Freedom at age 42You may have read this on my newsletter, but this episode is my story of how I reached financial freedom at age 42 in 2014. The average American works 90,000 hours in their lifetime. I worked 30,000.
In my 20 years of working, I only averaged $36k a year. But if you only spend $25k a year, the math works out: How I retired at age 42 only making $36k a year. So I generally believe that financial freedom is possible for any American making a middle-class income.
I started teaching Financial Freedom in 2016 and have taught around one thousand students. Whe...
2024-06-0350 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.2: Inspiration through your Financial Manifesto, with Annie BickertonMost people’s money problems are actually a lack of fundamental direction in their lives. I believe anyone in the middle class of America reach financial independence, if they know what they really want out of life.
My dear friend Annie Bickerton joins me to talk about lesson 3.2, where students actually articulate what they want out of life. What's worth getting your finances in order for?
Staying in the status quo is just easier. So the question is: Why do you want to do this work of personal finance? I can’t tell you why. Your...
2024-05-2749 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.2: Stress and Status in Capitalism, with Lindsay KandraIn this episode, FF1 grad and licensed therapist Lindsay Kandra talks about the how capitalism exploits the body's reaction to stress. We talk about economic insecurity, the stress cycle, and how they lead to hyper and hypo vigilance. Today's use of addictive substances and activities a widespread way of managing feelings of agitation and overwhelm. We discuss how consumerism may be the only socially acceptable form of addiction in America.
This is a wide-ranging conversation about gender, class, social expectation and dis-ease. If you might be interested in therapy with Lindsay, her email is lindsay.kandra@senuacounseling.c...
2024-05-2054 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.4: The Pyramid of Failure - Attitudes, Behaviors, & Systems, with Rachel WhaleyThis lesson is an important one: the one where we move from talking about all this personal finance stuff to figuring out how do we actually do it? FF1 alumni Rachel Whaley comes in and talks about setting up systems to do the work for us. She reminds us, "We don't rise to the level of our intentions, but fall to the level of our systems." Rachel talks about the systems she built: simple budgeting, automated investing, etc, and how to do the things you should do but don't really want to.
This is a great episode...
2024-05-1350 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.9: Get Rid of your Debt First! with Cedric JusticeAs one FF student said, "any debt based financial transaction is a poor person giving a rich person money." It's also Present You asking Future You to pay for current consumption. If you are in debt, you literally owe life hours to someone else. It restricts choices, agency, and ties you to a system extracts more from you that it gives.
In this episode, we talk with Cedric Justice, who took Financial Freedom in 2010 and has since eliminated $70,000 worth of debt. We'll talk about where that journey has taken him: moving from Portland to open up a...
2024-05-0958 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.1: Self Determination and the Stockdale Paradox, with Rachel Shadoan“You must combine optimism with brutal honesty and a willingness to take action.” - Admiral James Stockdale
Many people don't pay attention to their personal finances because they don't want to participate in capitalism. But there is no not-participating. In this Rachel Shadoan talks about the idea that you don't have any excuse for being bad at money.
Ignoring your finances doesn't hurt anyone but you and the people who care about you. So much of financial freedom is being honest with the facts of your life, and then having the vision, desire, and plan to ge...
2024-04-1140 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.4: The Story of Stuff, with KurtSpending is not only about personal finance, but also environmental destruction. FF1 alumni Kurt talks about the connection between personal consumption and climate change. People who believe in climate change have higher carbon footprints than those who don't believe in believe change because, simply, they have higher incomes, and spend it. But the planet doesn't care what you believe, only what you do.
“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. Th...
2024-04-0440 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.3: Owning Your Vision of the Future, with Jon Marro“Knowing what you want is the ultimate life skill. It is worth more than talent or hard work. It is almost worth as much as luck. Have it, and disappointment is still probable, but on your own terms. Lack it, and you will be done to and acted upon.” Financial Times writer Janan Ganesh
In this episode, artist and FF alumni Jon Marro talks about the importance of imagination and vision of the person you want to become in personal finance. The desire to live to our full potential, to develop into our full selves creates the ener...
2024-03-2746 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.15: The goal is not knowledge. The goal is change, with Ivellisse Morales“You’re never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready.” - Flora Rheta Schreiber
Commitment is an act, not a word. Further, I would argue that commitment eventually becomes not even an act, but a state of being. It’s not a thing you do; it’s who you are. To be fully committed is to allow yourself to be shaped by what you are committed to and, eventually, to become one with it. - Patricia Albere
Here’s the thing I worry about: people get a strong frame...
2024-03-2627 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.7: Your Financial Mindset is Your Financial Destiny. Attitudes and Behaviors of the Millionaire Next Door, with BarbaraThe “Millionaire Next Door” is a national study of the 3.5 million households in America with a net worth of over $1 million. 80% are first-generation wealthy, i.e. they did not inherit it. A significant percentage of them are “blue-collar wealthy,” people who own businesses that “could be classified as dull-normal…welding contractors, auctioneers, rice farmers, owners of mobile home parks, pest controllers, stamp and coin dealers, and paving contractors.” The book describes at length the habits and attitudes of people who are wealthy. One important distinction the book makes: there’s a difference between making a lot of income (which is yearly gross...
2024-03-2146 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.3. Poverty, Race, Status, and Conspicuous Consumption, with Jessie Dunley Jr.The intersection of race, status, and consumption is sensitive and complex. Because I teach personal finance, I’ve wrestling with what I think of all this for years. In this episode, I bring in Jessie Dunley Jr., a Black alumni of SOFF, to talk about how growing up Black and poor in Texas affected his consumption and savings habits when he became an adult.
In this episode, Jessie talks with wisdom and sensitivity about the need to buy status items for both identity and safety, the balance between taking care of family and taking ca...
2024-03-1448 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.8: Getting Started on Reducing Spending, with Emma DottaEmma Dotta is the youngest person to have ever taken FF1, which means that she was able to pick up financial ideas and habits very early on in her life. In this episode she talks about how she reduced the major slices of a personal budget: housing, transportation, and groceries and in that creativity, lives in nature, surrounded by community, eating the best food in the world.
Emma talks about spending in ways that make her happy: choosing high quality items that continue to give her happiness. She talks about right-sizing her farming business, not trying to...
2024-03-1239 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.4: The Story of Stuff, with KurtSpending isn't only a financial problem, it's an environmental one. In this episode, FF1 grad Kurt talks about the connection between personal consumption and climate change. People who believe in climate change have higher carbon footprints than people who don't believe in climate change because, quite simply, they earn higher incomes. It's our spending that is driving us off the environmental cliff.
2024-03-0740 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.6: What is Enough? with Danielle LaSusa"What is enough?" is the animating question of the entire Financial Freedom 1 course. I explore the idea of lagom, the Swedish word meaning "just the right amount with Danielle LaSusa, PhD in philosophy, coach, and writer of a book on the meaning of motherhood.
We explore the perpetual state of dissatisfaction we have under capitalism. Or is the hedonic treadmill simply the First Noble Truth, that life is suffering as we're caught on this endless cycle samsara?
We touch on the tragedy of always getting more: the bigger house, t...
2024-03-011h 00
The School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 1.6: You Know Everything Already, with Hanna DornhoferPersonal finance is common knowledge: spend less than you earn. Everyone knows this. But why don't people do this?
FF alumni Hanna Dornhorfer took Financial Freedom when she was 25. Five years later, she and I explore the question why she was able to buy a house and save for the future when others her age don't. Aligning her spending to values and committing to caring for herself in the future is setting her on this path to financial freedom in about 20 years.
2024-02-2440 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 3.10: Budgeting Tools and Consciousness, with WhitneyWhat budgeting tool do you use? Learning about personal finance is idle chatter unless you actually do the work. FF alumni Whitney talks about tracking expenses, the four principles of You Need A Budget (YNAB), and how it relates to consciousness, choice, and freedom.
2024-02-2452 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 1.4: Savings Rate. When Do You Want Financial Freedom? with Paul Spencer and Kim LaFeverFinancial freedom is when passive income equals monthly spending. This episode is an intro to the math of personal finance.
FF alumni Paul Spencer and Kim LaFever reached financial independence five years after taking FF1. In this episode, we learn the numbers behind how they did it and what they are doing now. They talk about how learning about FIRE disrupted their assumptions about their work, their spending, and their time. In doing so, they created new possibilities of what they could do their lives, including moving to Spain and getting a mystery novel published.
2024-02-2252 minThe School of Financial Freedom PodcastLesson 2.9: The Power of Stories; What's Your Narrative? with Naomi VeakA change in your finances requires a change in how you see yourself. Contamination vs. redemption stories. FF alumni Naomi Veak talks about how both sobriety and personal finance changed her life. She talks about how confronting her trauma and seeing how unconsciously she was spending both her time and money allowed her to live more freely and joyously.
2024-02-2250 min
Earn & InvestShould FIRE Come With a Warning Label? w/ Vicki Robin and Douglas TsoiWe speak with Vicki Robin author of Your Money or Your Life, and Douglas Tsoi writer of The Money and Meaning Newsletter about the promises that come with financial indepenence/retire early. Should FIRE have a warning label? Why money does and doesn't eventually end up meeting our expectations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2024-01-2257 min
Becoming a Sage with Dr. Jann FreedBecoming a Sage: A Conversation with Douglas TsoiBy living simply, Douglas Tsoi retired at the age of 42 to do what he wanted with his life, which is to help people participate in grace. He runs a platform called The Appreciation Effect, holds events called the Gratitude Dojo, and runs experiments in reparative economic justice.
He also teaches personal finance with a spiritual lens in a class called Financial Freedom. Douglas is a trained Franciscan spiritual director and writes about the intersection of capitalism and spirituality on the Substack newsletter Money and Meaning.
2024-01-1024 min
Leader UThe Appreciation EffectIn this episode, Angie Lion of Black River Performance Management and Douglas Tsoi of The Appreciation Effect discuss the leadership competency “appreciating others”.
Douglas is one of the founders of The Appreication Effect that was founded during the pandemic out of interest in people’s health and wellbeing. Douglas and Angie discuss how appreciating others creates meaning, joy, and connection for both the senders and the receivers. He offers suggestions and has a system for being more intentional about building the skill of showing the appreciation we may feel, but often forget to share with those people.
...
2023-06-0744 min
Byte Sized BlessingsThe Interview: Douglas Tsoi-The Miracle of Dark GraceMeet Douglas-Franciscan Spiritual Director, Grace facilitator and creator of sacred spaces. In this episode we talk "dark grace," and how maybe, just maybe, it's what gently (or not so gently) puts us on the right path. Douglas' miracle? Getting fired from a dream job...and that has made all the difference!Support me on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/user/about?u=82663030
2023-03-1134 minByte Sized BlessingsThe Byte: Douglas Tsoi-The Miracle of Dark GraceMeet Douglas-Franciscan Spiritual Director, Grace facilitator and creator of sacred spaces. In this episode we talk "dark grace," and how maybe, just maybe, it's what gently (or not so gently) puts us on the right path. Douglas' miracle? Getting fired from a dream job...and that has made all the difference!Support me on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/user/about?u=82663030
2023-03-1113 min
Earn & InvestTrippin on Financial Independence w/ Douglas TsoiDouglas Tsoi is a spiritual director as well as part of the financial independence community. On this episode we speak with his experiences with psychedelics and how they have effected his thinking and its effect on how he deals with money and work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2022-08-0452 min
Giving Back PodcastBecoming a Lifelong Learner….Debt-Free! — Douglas Tsoi with Portland Underground Grad SchoolDouglas Tsoi is the Founder of School of Financial Freedom and the Founder of Portland Underground Grad School (PUGS). Douglas has a diverse background and achieved financial freedom at the age of 42 after living on $20,000 a year. As a lifelong learner and StartingBloc Fellow, Douglas believes it's a human right to learn and to do so debt-free! Find out more about his amazing school in Portland! Key Takeaways: [4:05] How did Rob and Douglas first meet? [6:05] As a StartingBloc Fellow, what was Douglas's experience like with StartingBloc? [8:55] What is PUGS all...
2019-05-0649 min
Giving Back Podcast297: Giving Back Insights #112 — The power of quotes with Rob LoweWelcome to the 112th episode of Giving Back Insights! Insights are our solo show to celebrate how our guests and their charities serve others, explore actions each of can take to make a difference in people's lives and connect. Today we're talking about The power of quotes! Enjoy today's episode and keep your comments and feedback coming. Key Takeaways: I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy --- Rabindranath Tagore Douglas Tsoi conversation A...
2019-02-0706 min
Wild Mind PodcastWMP #008: Building the Financial Leverage to Share Your Gift feat. Douglas TsoiIn this episode, I interview Douglas Tsoi, founder of the Portland Underground Graduate School (PUGS)—a center for lifelong learning for social justice and personal empowerment with local experts in Portland, Oregon.
Here, we discuss:
(1) The unique financial strategy he used to retire early despite not coming from money
(2) The organization he then built to facilitate radical, debt-free learning in Portland
(3) The three tactics you can implement today to build the financial leverage to craft your unique community-based offering
2018-11-2600 min
Oh My Dollar!Early Retirement: It’s Simple, But Not Easy ft Deacon Hayes and Douglas TsoiEarly Retirement? I always thought that sounds like something only for silent velcro millionaires or tech bros – but it can be achievable without a windfall. We talk about the keys of starting with your values, budgeting, and using frugality to build up an income stream where you don’t have to have a traditional job.
We have two folks who are early retired or FIRE’d (Financially Independent/Retired Early) on to share the basics of building an early retirement plan. It’s a long episode, but a good one, I think!
Resources
You can...
2018-01-2950 min
Chapter BES2 EP 10: Douglas Tsoi - Be ExperimentalDouglas Tsoi is Chapter Be's guest blogger for the month of January and the founder of Portland Underground Grad School. Douglas was laid off from his job - a job he very much enjoyed - a little over a year ago. After this happened he eventually made the decision to take the next year off - focusing on all of the ideas he had been holding on to for years - giving himself, and his ideas, the time and space to try them out. It was going to be a year of doing and experimenting - seeing what worked...
2016-01-1326 min