Finances and Spirituality: a perspective from a Holistic Money Coach

*** Interview with Clover Lam, a Holistic Money Coach.

Clover guides her community to their authentic abundance, so they can live and enjoy the present while building the future. She works as a Holistic Money Coach for free spirits and empaths. She lives in Vancouver, Canada. Our Founder Maira Miranda interviewed Clover for our Wowness Club Magazine - 1st edition in April 2023 and you can read the full interview HERE. Find below parts of the interview.

“Authentic Abundance is to help people to get to know themselves without the noise of social programming and align their authentic self with money. A lot of people struggle with money, emotionally and logically.”

Maira Miranda: I assume you had your own journey before starting coaching around money and abundance. How was your personal journey and relationship with money before and how is it now? What has changed?

Clover Lam: My journey with money has been interesting. I was money clueless. I had no interest in it. I love spending as I am flight attendant. I am exposed to many temptations all the time. So, naturally I am not a good saver. Being married to someone in the financial industry, he would tell me financial jargons that I had no interest in, I would roll my eyes, get bored and intimidated. When we got divorced, he planted the seed on how important understanding money was.

I realised I didn’t know anything. I started researching and learning more and more about it. At the same time, I joined a community that talks about money and lifestyle. So one of the first things for me was to break through some old conditioning. As Asian descents, REAL ESTATE IS EVERYTHING. We are big into owning a property, so naturally, I owned a condo in Toronto, Canada.

The turning point came when I started diving into the math and crunched the numbers with owning real estate vs renting. What I realised was that different scenarios, such as being a landlord or just living there, resulted in similar costs and investment potential. That’s when I started thinking about money in a different way. I started understanding more about money in a holistic way, from a spiritual perspective and learning my values. I started to ask myself what I wanted as a person so I won’t have any regrets. What do I want my life to look like? Those questions ultimately led me to decide to sell my condo and invested the money on the side. This allowed me to live the lifestyle I want, being able to travel a lot more. Now I can live the best of both worlds.

Maira Miranda: What would you say is the relationship between Finances and Spirituality?

Clover Lam: It is very interconnected. If we know the Marslow Hierarchy of needs, there is food and shelter, our physiological needs, then there is belonging and self-actualization at the top. Finances are at the bottom tiers where we need to put food on the table and a roof over our head. Without money, we can’t do that as it is the currency of the human world. 

Then we are spirits within the human body. For us to truly thrive we need to tap into our true spirit self which is self-actualization. Where we feel fulfilled is not about material wealth. So how can we marry the two together and have the best of both worlds? A good example is Oprah. She embodies money and spirituality. She uses her wealth to spread more of her message of love, awareness and healing.

Maira Miranda: Based on your clients and experience, what would you say are the top 3 struggles/ mistakes or myths people make around the topic of money and abundance?

Clover Lam:

1. Mindset - Myth - You don’t have to be good at math, to be good with money. 
2. Logic vs Emotions - When people tackle a budget or anything to do with money, they ONLY use logic, but not emotions. The perfect plan is the one you can stick to. Something you can do for life that you get to enjoy. 
3. People think making more money means being wealthy. Some people think that making a million dollar is the solution. They forget that money is about money coming in and also money going out. Making money is the skill of having money coming in. But managing money is the skill of minimising and optimising the money going out. 

Maira Miranda: We know that everyone is talking about financial crisis, inflation, high interest rates here, recession there. What are your top tips and recommendations for people who want to build a better relationship with money and keep an abundance mindset despite of this constant negative news?

Clover Lam: The financial cycle is always up and down. This is not the first time the economy has slowed down. This is not something new and it will happen again in the future. If we know it is a pattern, we can prepare for it. We can’t control the market but we can control our own behaviour and mindset. We can enjoy the little things in life, if we actually dig deeper, a lot of things we truly want are free. Family time, going for a hike, going outside. 

Maira Miranda: 5. What’s your final message you would like to leave to people?

Clover Lam: Abundance is a state of being. You can do that anywhere, anytime. Even with very little or a lot. Even on the financial strategy side, if you can’t manage a small amount of money, you can’t manage a big amount of money. If you want to be abundant, starts with now. There’s the emotional vibration chart by Dr. Hawkins. He talks about how different emotions put you into different vibrations… Start tapping into gratitude, the fact that you can read this, means you have access to internet, you have a roof over your head, you have air you get to breathe, the sunshine you get to see.