The Problem of Money Podcast

Most of us are waiting to know where the money is coming from before we begin. Nims Purja remortgaged his house, went to climb the fourteen highest mountains on earth with no sponsors and no certainty, and the money only arrived once he had already started. Shabbar brings the recent death of a man he never met but had come to love, and the conversation turns quickly from mountains to money. Tim points out that long before the risk of the climb, there was a financial risk most of us would never take. From there they look at something harder: the judgments we make about people who follow their own path, and what those judgments protect us from seeing in ourselves. Along the way there is Jung on individuation, a mountaineer's words from 1924 about why we make money at all, and an honest look at courage, fear, and the comfort we mistake for a life. Key themes: Why not knowing where the money will come from stops almost all of us How the word responsible can quietly stand in for afraid What a child actually learns from a parent who never lives Why the people who provoke us are showing us something we want The difference between being sensible about money and hiding behind it Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

It's been fifteen years and Shabbar's mattress needs replacing. He's found one he likes. Three evenings later he still hasn't bought it, and he's calling that being careful with money. It's reminiscent of the same tangle he got into over a hotel voucher last year. What looks like a small purchase opens onto something bigger: a budget he set himself and now can't break, a quiet feeling that sticking to it says something about the kind of person he is, and a pattern where chasing comfort produces the opposite. Tim then walks him through it without letting him off the hook. This is money psychology at the smallest possible scale, which turns out to be where the real patterns live. In this conversation: Why a budget you invented yourself becomes impossible to break What it means when sticking to the number feels like part of who you are How chasing comfort with money often delivers the opposite Why saving thirty pounds is much more than just the thirty pounds Coming back to the same money pattern a year later, and why that isn't failure Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

The numbers work. You could afford to do the thing. And you still don't. Something keeps pulling you back to the safe version of your life, and it isn't the maths. In Part Two of their conversation on power, Shabbar and Tim bring it home to personal money decisions. They look at the story we absorbed about retirement, the identity we build around being good with money, and the quiet self policing that makes any change feel dangerous. Using Stephen Lukes' four forms of power, they work through real examples of people whose finances are fine but whose lives are on hold. It is a plain conversation about money psychology, financial anxiety, and what it actually costs to keep waiting. Key themes: Why having enough money does not switch off the fear of running out What happens to your sense of self when the identity you built around earning stops fitting The belief that living fully now is foolish, and where it came from Why the people around you set the limits on what you think is possible The discomfort of stepping out of line, and why it is not a sign you are doing it wrong Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

You have probably had the thought but never said it out loud. Something about the way we all chase the number does not quite add up. Then you decide you must be the one who is missing something. In this conversation Shabbar and Tim look at why it feels so risky to say what you actually think about money, growth and the economy. They use the story of the emperor's new clothes and a real letter written to the Queen after the 2008 crash to show how easily we hand our power to people who are good with numbers, and how quickly we decide our own lived experience does not count. Tim then shares a four part framework on how power works, ending with the version most of us live inside, the one where nobody has to silence us because we do it to ourselves. This is a two part conversation about money psychology, shame and the slow work of getting your voice back. Key themes: Why questioning the growth story makes intelligent people feel stupid What happens when economics becomes maths and forgets psychology, philosophy and history Why we put people in suits on a pedestal but never the mechanic fixing our car The difference between not rocking the boat and not believing there is a boat How much energy goes into keeping yourself a compliant individual Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Someone recently said to Shabbar: I'm good at growing businesses and making money. That's my gift. So why would I ever stop? He didn't have an answer. This episode is the answer he wishes he'd given. Shabbar and Tim take that real conversation and follow it somewhere bigger: the growth story we've all absorbed, where the salary, the pension and the business are always meant to get larger, and nobody ever asks when enough arrives. Tim brings a test that separates people who love their work from people trapped chasing a number, and a blunt observation from nature: nothing alive grows forever, and when something does, we call it a tumour. Along the way they cover Steven Bartlett, a client who left a corporate salary and finally felt rich, and why our money mindset quietly shapes everything from our pensions to the NHS. It ends with a simple exercise for spotting what you're really trying to maximise in your own life. Key themes: The question that stumps most successful people: why would I ever stop? How to tell whether you love your work or you're just good at it Why nothing in nature grows forever, and what that says about our money story She quit the salary, kept the purpose, and finally felt rich A 10% experiment: shifting attention from the numbers to the life Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

You buy the car, the upgrade, the next thing, half hoping it will finally make you feel powerful or free or like you're doing well. Underneath, a part of you already knows it won't. In this part of their mini series, Shabbar and Tim step back from personal money stories to look at the bigger picture: the constant pull towards growth and more, and how it shapes the way we spend, save, and measure our lives. They trace how wanting more gets sold to us from the outside and fed by something unspoken inside. They also revisit our unconscious projections, the money work idea that the status, power, and freedom we chase through what we buy were always in us, never in the object. It is a conversation about money psychology, identity, and what we are really hoping the next purchase will give us. Key themes: Why the next purchase never quite delivers the feeling you bought it for How we slipped from being citizens into being consumers, and why it matters Why the urge to grow and accumulate is so often driven by fear Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Most of us were never asked what we actually wanted from the economy. We were just handed a role: consume, earn more, and trust that growth will sort everything out. This episode is about what happens when you stop taking that on good faith. Shabbar and Tim continue their series on growth, asking what the economy is actually costing us, not just the planet but our sense of being alive. They look at why governments chase GDP the same way individuals chase a number, and what gets lost when growth becomes the only measure of success. Along the way, they surface an uncomfortable paradox: the savings meant to give us security are tied up in companies that need us to keep spending: Why governments chase a number rather than asking what people actually want. The pension paradox: how responsible saving quietly fuels the consumption machine. What corporations gain from you never feeling like you have enough. Why questioning economic growth can feel foolish, and why that feeling is worth examining. What it would mean to think of yourself as a citizen rather than a consumer. Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Most of us live inside a story about money and growth without ever questioning whether it is the RIGHT story. This episode is about what happens when someone who has spent their career inside that story starts to wonder if it is true. Shabbar shares what happened after reading two books, Mark Boyle's The Moneyless Man and Jason Hickel's Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, that sent him down a rabbit hole he is still in. This conversation is the first in a short series, and it is deliberately exploratory. Shabbar is processing in real time what it means to build a career helping people grow their wealth inside a system he is starting to question. Tim brings context from years of thinking about environmental change and the psychology of how collective stories get made and maintained. Between them they explore why the mainstream economic narrative feels so hard to challenge, who benefits from keeping it unchallenged, and what it means that so many people privately sense something is wrong but say nothing. The thread that runs through everything is the one this podcast always comes back to: the difference between what the numbers promise and what a life actually needs: Why the story of endless growth feels unquestionable, even to people who can see it is not working. The professional and social cost of saying out loud that the system might be the problem. How our individual money fears and insecurities quietly shape the economic systems we all end up living inside. What the degrowth movement actually argues, and why it tends to get laughed off rather than engaged with. The question neither of them can fully answer yet: why haven't we arranged the way we live to work for everyone. Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

There's a version of you that comes alive when you're being creative, playful, or fully yourself. And then there's the version that shows up to work. This episode is about the gap between them. Shabbar and Tim explore the artist and the businessman as two archetypes we all carry. Through personal stories and Jungian shadow work, they unpack what happens when we dismiss or avoid the side we don't identify with. Whether you're a creative who struggles with money or a commercial thinker who feels something's missing, this conversation holds something for you. The real question isn't which archetype is right. It's whether you're brave enough to take a step toward the one you've been avoiding. Why what irritates you most about other people might say more about you than them What the artist loses by treating money and commerce as corrupt What the businessman misses by leaving creativity and play out of their work Why the most alive version of you rarely makes it into your professional life How growth often just means taking a 20% step toward the side you've been resisting Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Most of us carry a number in our heads. The number we need before we can stop. The age by which we need to hit it. Underneath all of that planning is a fear we don't talk about much: the fear of getting old in a society that doesn't know what to do with older people. In this episode, Shabbar and Tim pull apart the modern idea of retirement, where it came from and what it is actually promising. They explore how the fixation on a pension figure is itself a symptom of a culture that treats aging as decline, and how that fixation can quietly drain the vitality and curiosity we are trying to protect. The conversation moves toward something more useful: the things that actually keep people vital as they age, which include relationships, learning, and staying open to life, and those can be invested in at any age, with any amount of money. Key themes: Why retirement is a modern industrial invention, and what we lose by treating it as a life goal. How a society that fears old age drives our obsession with the pension number. What actually keeps people curious and energetic as they age, and why it is not the size of their savings. The comparison trap: measuring your number against where you think you should be at your age. Why investing in your health, relationships, and emotional wellbeing matters as much as saving for the future. Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

There's a voice most of us carry that sounds like common sense. It says: be realistic, pay your bills, this is just how it works. This episode is about that voice, why it's not as trustworthy as it sounds, and what it's actually costing you to keep listening to it. Shabbar and Tim take on the question that's been sitting underneath this whole series on work: can you actually earn a living following your life path? Their answer is honest rather than reassuring. But you're probably already suffering either way, so at least you get to choose. They talk about why the most heartfelt work is the hardest to charge for, why money flowing toward your work is a broken measure of whether you're on the right path, and why a confused global economy that funds weapons before art or healing says very little about the value of what you're doing. They also quietly reframe what the life path even is. It might not be a grand calling. It might be board games with your kids, or getting fit, or finally writing something. The point is that most of us don't follow it, not because we can't, but because we've been told that would be unrealistic. Key themes: Why the inner voice that sounds responsible often has nothing useful to tell you about reality. Why money feels wrong to charge for the closer your work gets to your real values. The two kinds of suffering: the depression of a safe but meaningless job, or the fear of following what brings you alive. Why the global economy funding bombs before healers or artists is not a verdict on your work. Why your life path might be smaller and closer than you ever gave yourself permission to admit. Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

You might already be living the life you're working so hard to afford. So why does it feel wrong to stop and enjoy it? Shabbar tells the story of the Mexican fisherman and the Harvard MBA, and it lands differently than you'd expect. What starts as a parable turns into an honest conversation about the battle most of us carry: the part that craves contentment and the part that says contentment is laziness. Together, Shabbar and Tim unpack why social pressure keeps us performing busyness, why we hide the questions we most need to ask, and what it would look like to actually trust that enough is enough. Why admitting you want a simpler life can feel scarier than burnout The inner battle between your fisherman and your hustler, and why picking a winner doesn't work How social settings train us to perform ambition we don't always feel The difference between building a future and missing your present What the dying actually regret, and why it's never the size of their pension Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

You said "busy" the last time someone asked how you were. You probably didn't even think about it. But what if that reflex is telling you something important about how you measure your own worth? Shabbar and Tim unpack hustle culture, not just the entrepreneurial grind-harder version, but the quieter internal pressure most of us carry to always be doing more. They look at the viral Tony Robbins and Alex Hormozi conversation, where a young man with a hundred million dollar business admitted he couldn't find happiness. They explore what figures like Gandhi and Mandela suggest about action rooted in stillness rather than restlessness. And Shabbar shares a conversation from his community that offers a genuinely different way to think about work, time, and what blessing actually looks like. Why saying "I'm busy" has become a reflex we're afraid to break What happens when massive financial success still leaves you unfulfilled The difference between outer hustle and the inner pressure we put on ourselves Can you have real impact in the world without burning out to prove it? Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Most of us spend more time working than doing almost anything else, yet we rarely stop to ask whether the work we do is actually ours to do. This episode is about that gap. And why closing it is harder, and more important, than it looks. Shabbar and Tim continue their conversation on work, money, and what we're actually here to do. Drawing on Jung's idea of the persona versus the deeper self, Joseph Campbell's call to follow your bliss, and Matthew Fox's vision of work as a container for human growth, they explore why so many people, across the income spectrum, end up performing a version of their working life rather than living it. The conversation moves between theory and the personal, with Shabbar reflecting on his own experience of reshaping his financial planning practice and the discomfort of doing something that doesn't yet have a clear shape. They also push back on the assumption that meaningful work is a luxury only available to the financially comfortable. The challenges look different at different income levels, but the struggle to become who you actually are is not reserved for the privileged. Why the role you play at work might be a perfect fit for your persona and a very poor fit for who you are. What Joseph Campbell actually meant by follow your bliss, and why comfort and pleasure don't qualify. The moment you commit to your real work is the moment things get harder, and why that might be exactly right. Whether pursuing a deeper calling is something only people with money can afford to think about. Why keeping your head down at work feels safe, and what it quietly costs you over time. Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Most of us carry a quiet assumption that work is supposed to be a struggle. We didn't choose that idea. It was handed to us, built into the language we speak and the culture we grew up in. Shabbar and Tim kick off a mini-series on work by tracing just how deep this assumption goes. From the French word "travail" rooted in medieval torture, to the idea of being "compensated" for labour, the very words we use tell us that work is something to endure. Religious frameworks, Catholic and Protestant alike, baked in the same story. They also look honestly at people who earn good money and still dread every working day, and ask why so few of them feel they can admit it. This is not a conversation for people who have it easy. It is for anyone who has ever wondered why work feels the way it does, and where that feeling actually came from. Key themes: Why the language of work, compensation, labour, earning a living, quietly signals that it is supposed to be painful How Christian religious frameworks built a culture where enjoying your work still feels a bit suspect Why well-paid people can suffer just as deeply as anyone, and often feel worse for saying so What it costs to keep assuming work must be a struggle, even when you could think differently Where your own assumptions about work came from, and whether they are actually yours Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or your own stories about money. Reach out and connect with us on LinkedIn: Shabbar: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam Tim: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick Explore Tim's work and register for his upcoming workshop: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's financial planning services: https://lumosfinancial.com/

Why are your finances still plagued by peer pressure from the deceased? Have you ever wondered why you can't stop working, even though your bank account says you're safe? Or why spending money on a little luxury feels like a betrayal of your roots? We often blame our childhoods for our money hang-ups, but the truth goes much deeper. Your financial behavior might be an unconscious response to events that happened three or four generations ago! In this deep and evocative episode, Shabbar and Tim dive into the world of ancestral money history . We move beyond living memory to explore how the traumas of our great-grandparents—famine, persecution, displacement, and systemic injustice—are "written into our genes" and still dictate our spending, saving, and working habits today. In this episode, you will discover: The science of how financial fear and trauma can be transmitted through your physiology. How to honour your family's history without being enslaved by their survival mechanisms. Why even the most successful individuals often feel like outsiders who could lose everything at any moment. Why "laziness" is a necessary skill for the chronically over-productive. A simple 3-step practice to thank your ancestors for your life while finally choosing to live your own story. Join us as we uncover how historical "detective work" can turn generational baggage into a source of freedom and profound gratitude. Explore the impact of Tim Malnick's work and register for his upcoming workshop at: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's services at: https://lumosfinancial.com/ Feel free to comment, ask questions, and connect with them both on Linkedin at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick

The Social Ladder: Why Earning More Than Your Friends Feels So Weird 📈🤐 Do you feel a secret "shot in the arm" when you realize you're higher up the social ladder than someone else? Or does looking at those with less leave you feeling paralyzed by a sense of "privilege" and "unfairness"? In this provocative follow-up to our previous episode on relating to the wealthy, we flip the script! We dive deep into the uncomfortable psychological territory of how we relate to people who have—or appear to have—LESS MONEY than we do. Shabbar and Tim move past the surface-level "politeness" of financial success to expose the internal "Status Game" we all play. We perform psychological detective work on the stories we tell ourselves when we see a neighbour's car, hear about a friend's modest holiday, or encounter someone experiencing homelessness. We reveal why the "number" in your bank account is a hollow proxy for your human value, and how projecting success or failure onto that number actually sabotages your most important relationships. In this episode, you will discover: Why we use other people's financial situations to reassure ourselves—and why that "reassurance" is a fragile illusion. Why a secondhand vehicle might hide a life of passion, while a luxury car could be a set of "golden handcuffs" for someone who is miserable. A powerful real-life story that shatters our assumptions about who "deserves" to be where on the social scale. Why feeling "guilty" about your success helps no one, and how to move toward genuine, free-flowing generosity. Join us as we explore how to stop letting our net worth objectify the people around us, and how to find a lighter, more authentic way to show up in your community. Explore the impact of Tim Malnick's work and register for his upcoming workshop at: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's services at: https://lumosfinancial.com/ Feel free to comment, ask questions, and connect with them both on Linkedin at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick

The Billionaire Guru Myth: Why You Act "Weird" Around Wealth 🤫💰 Why do we suddenly become tongue-tied, sweating, or acting like "insecure children" the moment we realize someone has a significantly larger bank balance than we do? Whether it's a client with a million-pound portfolio or a CEO who just sold a business for nine figures, a simple number often acts as a psychological boundary that diminishes our own authority and confidence. In this episode, Shabbar and Tim flip the coin from last week's conversation. We dive into the "weirdness" of relating to those with more money and expose the unconscious projections that make us inflate others while deflating ourselves. We explore the "Halo Effect"—the dangerous modern tendency to treat billionaires as all-knowing gurus—and reveal why financial success in one area of life often masks profound poverty in others. Through raw personal stories, including Tim's experience coaching high-powered London lawyers and a moving account of a billionaire, we show you how to see through the numbers to the human being underneath. In this episode, you will discover: Why your brain treats £999,000 differently than £1,000,000, and how that mental trap sabotages your competence. How our awkwardness creates a disconnected dance that prevents genuine human meeting. Why we shouldn't confuse follower counts or bank balances with actual insight. A "brave step" strategy to break the tension in the room and build real rapport with high-net-worth individuals. Stop letting someone else's zeros make you feel like a zero. Learn how to reclaim your authority and meet anyone—from a neighbour to a billionaire—as a peer. Explore the impact of Tim Malnick's work and register for his upcoming workshop at: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's services at: https://lumosfinancial.com/ Feel free to comment, ask questions, and connect with them both on Linkedin at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick

Have you ever received a massive pay rise or a life-changing bonus, only to find yourself wishing you'd never told your family? It sounds like a "first-world problem," but for many, sudden financial success triggers a wave of unspoken pressure, hidden resentment, and a total shift in relationship dynamics. In this episode, we dive into the raw reality of being the "successful one" in the family. We share the story of a client who, after a significant leap in income, found themselves suddenly expected to fund family holidays and feel responsible for everyone else's financial happiness. Why do people who never used to be "weird" together suddenly feel like strangers when a bank balance changes? We move beyond surface-level advice to perform psychological detective work on the projections we cast onto the numbers. We explore why we feel a "compulsion" to be generous and the crippling fear of being labeled "stingy" or "mean." In this episode, you will discover: The Generosity Trap: Why giving out of pressure isn't actually generosity. The "American Dream" Backlash: How cultural expectations and first-generation success can lead to a profound sense of isolation and being "misunderstood" by those you love most. Why the capacity to say "No" is the only way to ensure your "Yes" is authentic and freely given. How your new "number" triggers projections in others, making you appear like an "idealized superhero" rather than a human being. Whether you're the one moving up the ladder or you're feeling "funny" around a friend who has suddenly hit it big, this conversation provides the clarity needed to keep the money from getting in the way of the connection. Explore the impact of Tim Malnick's work and register for his upcoming workshop at: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's services at: https://lumosfinancial.com/ Feel free to comment, ask questions, and connect with them both on Linkedin at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick

The Great Financial Lie: Why "Peace of Mind" Isn't in Your Bank Account 💸 We kick off the year with a radical realization that sent a marketing consultant back to the drawing board and left a veteran financial advisor questioning his entire professional identity. In this episode, Shabbar reveals a phrase suggested for his new LinkedIn bio that triggered an immediate, visceral "No!"—leading to a deep exploration of the most common myths in wealth management. We often hear that money is the tool for "choices, freedom, and peace of mind," but what if that promise is fundamentally flawed? We dive into the "New Paradigm" of money work, where we decouple the numbers in your account from the qualities of your character. Why is it that a student with a backpack can feel more free than a billionaire in a boardroom? Why does peace of mind remain an internal state that no amount of compound interest can buy? In this episode, you will discover: Why standard financial slogans feel "off" once you understand how money psychology actually works. The "Of Course" Trap: A simple mental exercise to identify the inherited stories that are creating your current financial reality. How shifting the "centre" of your decision-making radically changes your experience of "okayness." Why the future of financial advice requires a blend of spreadsheets and soul-work. Counter-Intuitive Freedom: Real-life examples of how radical freedom often happens when the numbers are at their lowest. Whether you are a professional looking to communicate more authentically or an individual tired of chasing a "number" that never feels like enough, this conversation will challenge you to rip up the old playbook and find a lighter, more honest way to live in 2026. Explore the impact of Tim Malnick's work and register for his upcoming workshop at: https://timothymalnick.com/ Find out more about Shabbar's services at: https://lumosfinancial.com/ Feel free to comment, ask questions, and connect with them both on Linkedin at: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shabbarkassam https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timmalnick