4.12 | Ask Isha: Your Financial Freedom Number, Getting Started with Crypto, Participating in the Money System
Welcome to Devotional Anarchy, a podcast about intimate embodied leadership that is radically human, honest AF and thereby inherently disruptive to systems of disempowerment and disconnection. I’m Isha Vela, trauma psychologists, certified somatic practitioner, wealth wizard, licensed financial professional leadership coach, and intuitive business mentor. You’re here because you know self intimacy and self knowledge is the source of everything you want to create in your life. And that building safety and trust in your bodies would allows you to fully own and stored your energy in the direction of your desires. This season, get ready for deep dives into wealth building spirituality, emotional leadership, and human centered business with an activist twist. The conversations and tools shared in this podcast are your permission slip to manifest a life and business that lights your soul on fire and supports collective liberation.
Isha Vela 0:02
Uh, hello and welcome to a special and maybe ongoing segment of the podcast called Ask Isha, and I decided to come up with this like Ask, ask you to ask me questions and respond to them here, because, you know, I wanted to make the content a little bit more interactive, and I don’t know how many of these I’ll do, but it seemed like a really good way to tackle frequently asked questions in a broader way. So before we get to the four questions that were asked, I wanted to tell you about a really exciting offer that’s dropping on July 1 so Leia ardent, who I have interviewed on the podcast, like there’s three podcast episodes with her, we decided to join forces and pool our superpowers and create a new money membership. The new money membership is for entrepreneurs and creatives who are wanting to break through generational limitations around receiving, having and holding money, and it focus on focuses on building wealth as an entrepreneur that is responsible to the planet and respectful of others, and because We know that running a business is more is like, you have to know all different types of things. You have to know about sales, you have to know about messaging, you have to know about marketing, and you have to know about money. And that’s why we included three distinct hubs inside of the membership. The first one is the money hub, where we focus on ethical sales. We focus on even like, how to pick an entity type for your business, how to separate pricing and costs and value when you evaluate the market, and then also, obviously ancestral money wounds that come up around sales. And then we have the marketing hub where you look at, you know, transparent, honest marketing. There’s also a section for AI content generation talks about repurposing content, and it even includes trainings on messaging, which is super important so that you attract the right clients. And then there’s a manifestation hub, which is focusing on mindset, embodiment,
Unknown Speaker 2:21
really supporting you to make your vision a reality, and also from a trauma informed perspective. So there’s tons of journaling, prompts, affirmation,
Unknown Speaker 2:31
reflections, embodiment, practices, all of those things. And then, if that wasn’t exciting enough, there’s four tiers. So based on where you are in your entrepreneurial journey and how much, what, what the level of support you want? There’s four different tiers, right? So you have the builder, for those of you who are starting out, baller, for those of you who want access to a group experience, bougie, who want the one on one and bespoke, for those of you who want to come to Bali and visit us face to face. So that’s really, really exciting. The the
Unknown Speaker 3:14
sorry, I just I’m blanking out for a moment. The early bird prices are going to be insane. They’re going to be amazing. It’s already like, super affordable, and it’s going to be even more with the early birds. So I’m going to include my my the website link in the show notes, so that you can subscribe to my email list, or you can subscribe to my YouTube channel to hear to get the first notice when the early bird becomes available. Okay, it’s going to be wild. It’s going to be awesome. All right, so back to Isha. The first anonymous question I got was this, the person said, I am putting $50 aside a month in a gold bank account for my backup funds. Excellent. I’m so glad they’re doing that, and I would like to take $200 of that and invest it in crypto. Where do I start? Okay, so you’ve heard me talk about crypto before. There’s a podcast episode about crypto with umbaya Ra and you know, or maybe you don’t know that, I believe cryptocurrency is right now, in this moment, becoming the new money system. It is in the process of becoming the new money system. It’s already been, there’s been some
Unknown Speaker 4:25
big banks have, you know, already bought into it. Literally, I don’t believe that it’s a scam. I, in fact, believe that the banks have been telling you it’s a scam so that you don’t participate in it and they can get there first.
Unknown Speaker 4:41
So that was my 18 tiny soapbox. I just dropped in there and
Unknown Speaker 4:45
yeah, to respond to this question, I just want to commend the listener for setting aside $50 a month in a gold bank account.
Unknown Speaker 4:53
I think it’s great that you’re investing in precious metals. I don’t know what you’re getting.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Right in return for those investments, but just Investing in Precious Metals is a step in the right direction. And you know, I just want to say, when it comes to crypto, I am not an expert. I am very much a newbie. I am learning. I’m constantly educating myself and warming my nervous system to making investments using cryptocurrency, because it’s like, the volatility of it, the frequent changes, the fact that, you know, it’s still,
Unknown Speaker 5:34
you know, people have definitely, like, there’s, there’s a mass,
Unknown Speaker 5:40
there’s a mass buy in at this point where the politicians can no longer ignore that. People are making these investments so they’re getting on board.
Unknown Speaker 5:49
It’s really happening from the ground up, which is amazing. But my advice to you, because I’m still so new myself, is to get a mentor. Get a mentor, and this doesn’t necessarily have to be a paid mentor. You can find excellent people on YouTube who are really guiding you step by step through how to make how to make your first purchase on Ethereum, or how to buy bitcoin.
Unknown Speaker 6:17
There are so many different channels dedicated to educating people on this new system and how it originated and what the implications are, right, like all the details that you want to know and don’t really want to know. And if you feel overwhelmed by the choices, ask some people you know, ask people that you know that might already be investing in crypto, who they follow, and then check them out. They may not be your cup of tea. They may lead you to other people, but it’s good to just kind of like,
Unknown Speaker 6:50
you know, put your feelers out there. Get a sense of like, what people are sharing, how they share it,
Unknown Speaker 7:00
and you will eventually find mentors that are a good fit for you. And one thing that I think is really important is to find contrasting information. Not don’t just subscribe to the channels where you hear what you want to hear, but really challenge yourself to follow different people who have slightly different perspectives on cryptocurrency and what coins to invest in. What I’ve noticed is that some people are real fanatics of the pulse chain ecosystem, and we’ll only talk about pulse chain and Richard Hart, for example. And some people are Bitcoin enthusiasts and really talk about how Bitcoin is different from, you know, Bitcoin as a commodity versus other coins that are securities. And there are people who are, you know, plugging Xlm and XRP really, really hard, right? So the first step, I would say, is there get acquainted with the terms, because crypto is a whole other language. It’s really like it really is another language. I had to get used to all of these terms first. So you want to get confident and and comfortable, right? Like, warm yourself to that and then explore some of these mentors. And if you feel pulled, get into a paid membership where you can meet other people who are interested in learning who are who are there to share information and support you right, where you can get actual support, and maybe on like group calls you are figuring out, like, you know what, what hard wallet to use, And you know whether you know where to trade this and how to trade that, and how much you know all of those little questions. You know when the learning curve is is yet still so steep. So I hope that was helpful to you. That was a great question. I’m so glad that people are asking questions about cryptocurrency and challenging me to learn more about it as well. So on to the second question, what’s the difference between financial freedom and wealth building? This is also an amazing question, because I use the phrase financial freedom in two different ways. So the first way that I use the word or the term financial freedom is to describe a state of inner liberation in relationship with money, or in relationship to money.
Unknown Speaker 9:27
This is a financial freedom. Is, for me, like Liberation with money means that you’re not in a state of scarcity or lack. You’re not panicking about the money running out. You’re in a relaxed you have a relaxed money nervous system in relation to what you make, assuming that you cover your basic needs. You’re not grasping for more money because you’re afraid of it running out. You’re not avoiding the responsibility of managing managing it. You’re not sticking your head in the sand about investments or about retirement like you are in relationship you.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
You are like, You love on it and it loves you back, kind of thing, right? The other way that I use financial freedom is to do, to to to describe an actual number, right? It’s a calculation, and this is your financial freedom number. It’s and this number will be different for everyone. So
Unknown Speaker 10:22
what financial freedom is is when you no longer need to work to have the lifestyle you have now, right? It means that the annual interest that you earn on any investment that will provide you with your required or desired income, right? That means money is fully working for you. You no longer work for money. That is lovely, right? Doesn’t that sound great? So let’s say people usually calculate it with your monthly expenses. But for me, that’s like, yeah, like, I don’t want to just break even. I don’t want to just pay my expenses. I want a desired income, right? So let’s say, just as a basic example, let’s say I wanted to make $10,000 a month, right? So you multiply that by 12 months, and that gives you the your your annual passive income figure. Needed to have financial freedom, right? That’s $120,000
Unknown Speaker 11:23
per year. So that’s for the year.
Unknown Speaker 11:26
So if you want that amount of money indefinitely into the future, you would multiply that number, that 120,000
Unknown Speaker 11:35
by 25
Unknown Speaker 11:37
and then this example, that would give you 3 million. And that would put you in a position to withdraw 4%
Unknown Speaker 11:46
each year to hit your desired income without having to work right? So you want to get that money, do you just withdrawing 4% each year, and the rest the remainder of whatever’s in are in those accounts is working for you? Obviously, you have to take taxes into an into account, right? You also have to take into account inflation, which is at 3% right? I want to do a whole podcast episode on inflation, because it’s like, it’s it’s a thing. I’ve been deep, honestly, I’ve been deep in a rabbit hole about some of these things, and it’s like, wow, I have so much to tell you, but I’m not ready to tell you yet, because I’m still digesting so anyway, back to the topic of wealth building. So wealth building is different from financial freedom. It really and again, it also means several different things. I use wealth building in two different ways, similar how I use financial freedom. So when I talk about wealth building from a somatic perspective, it is about creating the internal conditions or the nervous system capacity to receive, hold and manage larger quantities of money, right? That’s all about raising your nervous system, set point, healing money, trauma, integrating worthiness, wounds, all of that stuff, right?
Unknown Speaker 13:08
Wealth building also describes the process of moving towards financial independence or financial freedom, right? This is the practical, tangible side of the process, which is actually, you know, like, much underestimated and boring. It really is about consistency, right?
Unknown Speaker 13:28
And I honestly, like, I’m going to be really, like, honest with you here, I believe that the shortest line between where you are now and where you want to be financially is by doing the internal wealth, building work as you are, building the tangible sides or facets of it. You know, in my case, I feel like I did a whole bunch of work internally before I started investing. Obviously, you can do that, or you can do it side by side, but to not do the internal work at all is gonna fuck you over. When you don’t do the internal work, it slows you down. It’ll thwart you. You’re gonna be quote, unquote sabotaging yourself, right? Or rather, your nervous system is gonna keep you safe in all sorts of funky ways that are gonna slow you down massively, right? You’re going to hack yourself off at the knees. So
Unknown Speaker 14:24
the other way that I think about wealth building is, like, from a collective perspective, I don’t think of wealth building as an individual goal.
Unknown Speaker 14:36
I always feel like there’s more steps involved for me, like I have like, the the bigger vision, the longer vision I have. A little bit like, like the visionary type, right? So
Unknown Speaker 14:48
building individual wealth is just one phase of the process, and that subsequent phases include redistribution of wealth into community.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
Communities into collectives, and what that looks like is going to be different for each person based on the community that you’re part of or that you you know want, that you feel passionate about, but in my in my mind, in my imagination,
Unknown Speaker 15:19
you know what needs to be in place in order for redistribution to be able to happen from a place of really, genuine generosity, is that we have to feel sufficient within ourselves. We have to operate from a place of sufficiency, which naturally begets generosity when you don’t have that natural generosity, there’s going to be this, like, there’s going to be a pullback, there’s going to be like that, going back into scarcity or lack, which is, then we’re like that. We’re into hoarding again. Then we’re into like, you know, protecting when you feel sufficient, you are right. Like, just, if you’re watching this on video. I’m just like, opening my chest. You are open. There is trust in the process. There’s trust that, like, money’s going out, money’s coming in, money is going over there, but it’s also going over here, and it’s going to come back to me this way, right? There’s a movement of money. There’s a circulation of money, and money is happiest circulating. Money doesn’t like stagnancy. The energy of money is, is like water. It needs to flow, right? Otherwise, it’s stagnant. It turns green like it’s just gets mucky. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 16:33
that felt good to just say that. All right, on to the third question, what are your three tips for having a calm and rested nervous system when you’re dealing with your money. So my first tip is to become a keen observer of your internal experience, because money is very emotional. It’s very charged. So you have to manage your triggers, your emotions, your experiences, in relationship with money, you have to be connected what is happening inside of you, in your body, in your brain. You have to be able to observe and listen, right? If you if you’re not connected to what’s happening internally, then you just you can’t you’re already lost. You’re ungrounded, right? My second tip, and these kind of go step by step, is to know how to respond to what you’re observing and sensing. So
Unknown Speaker 17:35
you know what I want to say is like, what use is it to be a good observer, an excellent observer of your experiences if you don’t know how to respond to what’s happening internally. So for example, if you’re feeling avoidant about checking your bank account,
Unknown Speaker 17:51
first you have to identify that you’re in avoidance. Because oftentimes we don’t even notice this, we’ll say, I don’t have time to look at my bank accounts, or I don’t have time to create a budget and or you will distract yourself with other tasks, and really make sure that you know creating that budget is the very last thing on your list, right?
Unknown Speaker 18:14
But if you can identify that you’re in avoidance, you can then speak compassionately to the part that is avoiding the task, and you can let your nervous system know that what you’re avoiding is actually not as intense as how you’re experiencing it in your body. And that, you know, there’s, there’s, you can make it fun and and you can sort of play with, well, you know, okay, so this task feels really scary, but it’s not actually that scary, and when we complete it, we’re going to have a massive celebration, or we’re going to reward ourselves in some form or fashion, right? So
Unknown Speaker 18:54
these parts of us that are in avoidance are just afraid of overwhelm, typically, and they’re just parts that want to be acknowledged. They want to be felt. And when you do acknowledge them and feel them, you can actually move ahead and move forward with doing the thing that you’ve been avoiding.
Unknown Speaker 19:15
My third tip to having a common, relaxed nervous system and relationship with money is to move and breathe. People underestimate how important movement is when it comes to moving energy and breathing is a specific way to down regulate your nervous system. So it’s like, within a minute or two, like you can get yourself to a more regulated state. It’s uncomplicated science. It’s really like this knowledge is everywhere, but we live in a sedentary society. We’ve now treat, you know, like we’re just kind of like beta. We’re not
Unknown Speaker 19:58
We’re not conditioned to move.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
We’re not conditioned to move in ways that release emotion, right? And something as simple as walking can be amazing in trauma healing and in the transmutation of fear, of avoidance, of anxiety, money anxiety, so movement and breath are really the cornerstones of nervous system regulation.
Unknown Speaker 20:21
So I hope that was helpful. That was that was a fun one to answer. So my final question is one that I get personally a lot. It wasn’t asked over DMS or anything like that. It’s something that I get asked a lot personally
Unknown Speaker 20:38
in my community, and it is this,
Unknown Speaker 20:43
how do I build wealth or grow my money when I don’t believe in the money system and don’t want to participate in the money system?
Unknown Speaker 20:52
So this is a big question, and I want to be as brief and to the point as possible, when I hear people say this, there is an underlying assumption that they’re not already participating in the money system. But they indeed are. And you are already part of the money system, because you buy things, you consume things, you engage in commerce in some form of another, some form or another, especially if you are an entrepreneur, if you have your own business, right? But even if you don’t, you are engaged in commerce. You were born into the system, and it’s not pleasant. It may not be what you want, but you are here. And you know, I want to say that some of the people who say they don’t want to be part of the money system also have their money parked in major banks like Bank of America Wells Fargo and Citibank, who invest in oil, invest in war, do all sorts of shady shit. And additionally, you know, people who don’t want to be part of the money system have consumer debt that is paying these banks over 25% on whatever balance they owe. Right consumer debt. And so if this is you, if you have consumer debt and your banks have, say, Capital One Citibank, Wells, Fargo, Bank of America, you are very much part of the system and contributing to the system already. You are basically making these banks richer. And you know, I say that with as little judgment as possible, but there is a little frustration here, because, again, I feel like there’s an energy underlying the question, which is about wanting to be perfect, about wanting to be righteous, about wanting to be good, and about getting it right,
Unknown Speaker 23:03
and that getting it right means non participation, and that, for me, is one of the pillars of white supremacy, is like this desire to be perfect, to to get it Right. That is white supremacy right there, and I don’t even engage in those binaries and narratives anymore. I gave that shit up a long time ago. And you know, I embrace multiplicity, complexity. I don’t do good, bad, good, evil, up, down, like I’m instead all about wholeness, um, nuance and complexity, because
Unknown Speaker 23:48
things are complicated. This world is nuanced and complex. That’s just facts. Human beings are, you know, have multitudes, have multiplicities, right? Like we are made up of so many different energies, and we are both tender and open hearted, and we can be cruel to one another, right? This is all that’s humanity, right? So I don’t like the money system as it currently is, as it currently exists, but
Unknown Speaker 24:21
it’s the money system that exists, and I am in zero denial about that. The money system is a game, and yes, it is rigged. It has been rigged. Am I going to play anyway? Hell yes. Why? Because I came here to play. Because part of my my essence is playfulness, is engagement, is participation in life, like I’m a full participant in my life in both an emotional way and in a tangible way, right? Like I am. I used to be that person that would say, like, well, I’m going to participate in these ways, but I’m not going to participate in that way.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
Because that’s below me, I don’t engage in that. And so that is like, I’m maintaining, uh, like, a little bit of a holier than thou energy there, and not participating. But there’s a side of me now, like, the the predominant side of me is, it’s like, I want to experience everything. I want to play. I want to see, like, what happens, like, I’m fully in, like, I’m just kind of like, it feels like aliveness to me to be fully engaged and participating and curious, right, without having so many judgments about it and so like, making myself wrong and bad
Unknown Speaker 25:39
and again. Like,
Unknown Speaker 25:42
do I want the current system to change like? Of course I do absolutely yes. And what I know to be true is that my participation in the current money system makes it more likely that it will change into something better than what it is right now.
Unknown Speaker 26:00
And that is largely why my mission is to make witches rich, because I know you’re going to do a lot more amazing things with it than some of these greedy, power, hungry, warmongering heads will do with it, right? So that is really like the point that I want to make here is that you are already a participant, and I know that’s uncomfortable. I know that’s an inconvenient truth, and it is my truth. You don’t have to adopt it as your own. But I’m just kind of like, you know, just wanting to put it out there, like I am someone who cares deeply about the environment. And some of the fruit that I buy comes wrapped in a plastic right? That is just because I shop at specific places, because I sometimes don’t go out of my way to get it at Whole Foods right. And even Whole Foods has its nuance and complexity. They use canola oil, whatever, right, like we can’t get it right. The system is not set up for you to get it right. Getting it right doesn’t fucking exist. So let it go, be in the complexity and the and some of the ick around participation, there is grief, a real grief around that that we don’t fully allow ourselves to feel. I feel like that is an really important point that I want to make here is that the we still like to think in binaries, because it’s emotionally convenient, but that is not reality.
Unknown Speaker 27:32
All right. So this episode was a little bit longer than I thought it was going to be, but it felt really good to dive into these questions and give more meaningful and honest responses. So I would love for you to share your aha moments on social media and tag me in them. I don’t care if it’s hate posts. You can tag me in hate posts too. I love getting that as well, and also send me your questions. This was fun. I’ll probably do another one of these, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.