Welcome to the Monastery! Over the past couple of months I’ve begun actively following a good number of blogs, and I feel I am starting to understand what all the geek-pundits have been talking about so positively. There are a lot of talented people contributing to a great online dialogue.
I would like to take part in the conversation. A blog entry seems to be a great medium to present ideas: a crisp presentation of no more than five paragraphs, with pictures. It’s perfect format for fostering a discussion. So I begin ‘The Finance Monk.’
My reference to being a “monk” is a bit tongue-in-cheek; it was originally coined by a friend of mine as a joke after I decided to take two CFA exam levels back to back in December and June, which caused a slight withdrawal from social life (as anyone who has taken the exam can attest). I think, though, that the name really fits well with several other aspects of my philosophy and outlook on life—namely my feelings on the virtue of living frugally, the influence of ‘impermanence’ on my life, and my admiration for the quiet study that monks spend their lives following.
In Stone Age Economics, Marshall Sahlins proposes that the materialism and accumulative nature of our society is not inherent in all cultures, and that the concept of ‘wealth’ is actually a lot more fluid than we think in the Western World. In some nomadic cultures, less really is more since the more you own, the more difficult it is to move. As a 25 year old financial analyst living and working in Washington DC, I can hardly describe myself as a nomad. But an ascetic life (or at least a frugal one) is found to be a virtuous one in so many cultures that there’s bound to be some truth in it.
Of course, another aspect of monastic life is a genuine curiosity and respect to the world in which we live and a pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. So with that reflection I hope that this blog will be as I envision it: an open-minded analysis of the world through the lens of an economist and financial anthropologist, and a platform of thoughts that can encourage discussion.
So welcome, thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you!
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