I. Cross-Cutting Opportunities for Cleansing & Building Our Total Wealth 1.   Be Divine 2.   Be Inspired 3.   Check Our Indicators 4.   Optimize Our Time 5.   Switch to Real Deal Media 6.   Vote for Excellent Leadership 7.   Participate in a Solari Circle II. Our Living Equity 8.   Create Excellent Health & Well-Being 9.   Create a Beautiful Home 10.   Strengthen Our Relationships 11.   Honor Our Children 12.   Create Community 13.   Value Nature 14.   Raise Our Learning Metabolism III. Our Financial Equity 15.   Appreciate Money as a Power Tool to Build Our World 16.   Learn "How the Money Works" Around You 17.   Eliminate Debt, Create Financial Freedom 18.   Vote with Your Money to Build Real Wealth 19.   Vote with Your Job 20.   Profit from Protecting Natural Resources & Infrastructure 21.   Invest in the People & Assets You Know and Trust 22.   Integrate Your Time and Money 23.   Gift and Tithe with Intention A New Unity Is Percolating IV. Appendices: A.   But . . . I'm Only One Person! B.   But . . . Greed Is Bad! C.   But . . . Altruism Is Bad!

“My gasoline buggy was the first and for a long time the only automobile in Detroit. I was considered to be something of a nuisance, for it made a racket and scared the horses . . . I ran that machine about one thousand miles through 1895 and 1896 and then sold it to Charlie Ainsley of Detroit for two hundred dollars. That was my first sale. I had built the car not to sell but only to experiment with. I wanted to start another car."
—Henry Ford

The more we learn about the dirty tricks that have been used to drain us, and how we can avoid them and use money in a positive manner, the more we gather our power for change. We have lots of built-up assumptions and feelings about money that are based on the current use of the money in our society. These are not necessarily the assumptions and feelings that give us the power that we desire for building the world we envision.

Money is a tool; like any tool it can be understood and used to build or destroy.

What are our hidden assumptions and feelings about money? Let's take them out and look at them. Are they compatible with building the world we envision? Let's move them into alignment with the mastery of financial tools to help us understand our world and transform it.

Books Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family: How Family Members and Their Advisers Preserve Human, Intellectual, and Financial Assets for Generations by James E. Hughes, Jr. The Art of War by Sun Tzu Audio Navigate the Falling Dollar Building Real Wealth The Investor's Collection The Real Deal Collection Films The Yes Men

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“In a digital age, data about money is worth more than money.”
—Nicholas Negroponte

Most people do not learn economics and finance in school. However, it is never too late to start to learn. In addition, a lot of effort has been made to suppress information about government finances and the covert economy. However, if you dig and make an effort, much useful information can be found.

We can understand the economics of our household, family, and neighborhood, as well as the organizations, businesses, and governments in the areas in which we vote for political and judicial representation. We can understand money tools—accounting and currency—and financial instruments—stocks and bonds. We can understand the economics of various industries such as energy, food, and water, as well as banking systems and markets—commodity and financial—and the laws that govern them. We can understand covert economics. We can build and maintain useful “money maps” and use these to opportunistically shift resources to ourselves and those we trust, both locally and globally.

Develop a framework for all the financial and economic knowledge that could be useful to you. Develop a learning plan to acquire that knowledge. Acquire and use a good dictionary of financial and economic terms. Keep a journal to track your learning journey and to write down the meaning of any word you read that you do not understand. Learn how to use Solari Analytics when mapping out the risks and incentives related to events in your world, and to ask and answer the question, “Cui bono?” (Who benefits?).

Books Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money—That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter Law for Dummies by John Ventura Accounting for Dummies by John A. Tracey Investing for Dummies; Personal Financial for Dummies both by Eric Tyson Organized Crime and American Power: A History by Michael Woodiwiss Articles/Web pages Economics for Dummies by Catherine Austin Fitts For articles and bibliographies on how to understand the covert aspects of our economy see The Negative Return on Investment Economy—Articles & Documents  See the Get Data links on Catherine's blog Audio Solari Audio Seminars Films Shut Up and Sing America: Freedcom to Facism The Take

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“Student loans can be viewed as a contemporary form of debt bondage. Student loans are no longer dischargeable in bankruptcy. A total of $30,000 borrowed in the 1980s was recently declared worth $100,000 today, and rising steadily. Student loans are given out to a lot of people with no guarantee that the individual will secure a form of employment where s/he can earn a living wage and repay.“
—from WordIQ.com definition of debt bondage

Freedom depends on having the resources to support and defend your freedom —and to contribute to the support and defense of those you love and care to support. If we can each build individual wealth in support of our freedom—and do so in a manner that does not drain the resources and freedom of others—we take a powerful step toward transformation.

We can understand and enjoy personal financial planning and management, including insurance, taxes, estate planning, and investments.

Organize your paper and digital records; have critical copies in a safe deposit box. Create financial statements for you and your household. If you have the resources, find trustworthy advisors: a lawyer, an accountant, and a financial planner. Eliminate your credit card, consumer, and mortgage debt. Build equity.

Films Money as Debt In Debt We Trust Life and Debt

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“As to the history of the Revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the People . . .”
 —John Adams 

“Voting with our money” starts with reviewing all of our transactions to see how making specific changes can reflect a more integrated understanding of our best and highest self-interest. 

Many of us appreciate that government and business corruption is a problem. Yet we continue to “vote with our money” for the very banks and companies that facilitate and engage in these corrupt practices.

That is why we have started the Solari Circles Campaign to call on 600,000 people worldwide to move their bank deposits and banking business to banks that do not behave in this manner. In 1998, Catherine moved her bank accounts from JP Morgan Chase and Citibank to a small community bank in Tennessee. She tells the story in her article "Where Would Jesus Bank?"

In addition, as a customer of any company we do business with, each one of us has the ability to communicate and influence company policies. As a shareholder, we have the power to vote through the annual stock proxy, to organize to add issues to the stock proxy, and to attend the annual meeting of shareholders and voice our concerns. The socially responsible investment (SRI) community promotes the idea of “voting” with your investments. However, their analysis and screens are based on what a company says it does as opposed to the company's actual participation in covert and illegal activities, including money laundering or the reinvestment of laundered funds. Hence, there is an opportunity to revise the SRI approach to screen for government corruption, war profiteering, and involvement in organized crime.

The negative return on investment economy can exist because we support it with our deposits, purchases, and investments. We have the power to transform our economy to a positive return on investment economy by withdrawing our money from those who engage in destructive behavior and by channeling our money to those who do not. Our vote in the marketplace counts. There is no government; a group of banks and private corporations are in control, whether through manipulation of the central banks, the government, or the financial and commodity markets.

Learn why and how privitization decreases the power of our vote at the polls and increases the power of our vote in the marketplace. Who owns the companies that you purchase from or invest in? Is this whom you choose to support? What opportunities do you have for migrating your purchases and investments according to information revealed by a deeper analysis? What becomes possible through communicating your actions to those involved? Which lenders who engage in aggressive lending and predatory lending can be shut off from purchases and investments within the community? Learn how to assess a bank’s board and management and how to read a bank’s financial statements and bank disclosures. Make a checklist of bank products, services, and fees that are important to you. Learn how the Federal Reserve system was created and how fiat currency works. Determine your consumer banking options and how you can choose a bank that best suits your best political and consumer choices.

Books Money Makes the World Go Round by Barbara Garson The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky Articles/Web Pages Banking: Going Intimate “Where Would Jesus Bank?” by Catherine Austin Fitts "Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits" by Catherine Austin Fitts Audio Solari Audio Seminars The Investors Collection

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“Vocation: The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” 
—Frederick Buechner

We do our best when we do that which we love.

How do the economics of your income work? Are you being paid with the profits of corrupt or unethical activities? Are you or your company financed with low-cost capital from the reinvestment of organized-crime capital? Are you and your colleagues engaged directly or indirectly in covert operations, organized crime, or genocide? If yes, create an intention and plan to evolve toward generating an income from activities or organizations that profit from supporting life, not death.

The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time by Matthew Fox

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If you’re not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
—Eldridge Cleaver

Clean air, clean water, healthy food, cheap energy, and abundant land—these are critical to a healthy life. Yet these resources are under great physical and political stress. What about your municipal and personal infrastructure and tool base. Is it in great shape? Think through what you are going to do to ensure that your family has access to strategic resources and tools for the long haul. Recognie what you can do as part of a collective community to preserve these assets for generations to come. Why let people outside your community buy up your local municipal resources when investing in them yourselves is an opportunity for you?

Is now the time to insulate your house or buy a bicycle? Have you considered the benefits of teaming up with your neighbors to start a community garden? Has the time come to explore solar and wind energy or to dig a well? Better still, is there an investment opportunity to create such capacity for you and your neighbors?

We have significantly underinvested in preserving and supporting our natural resources and infrastructure.

Identify what changes would most benefit you and your family. Identify potential areas, activities, and organizations that you would want to take the time to learn about which offer good opportunities for investing. Start a Solari Investor Circle that invests in and profits from increasing local self-sufficiency.

Magazines and Catalogs Home Power Magazine Mother Earth News Real Goods Catalog The Lehman's Catalog (including various books) Websites and Web articles Co-Op America web site Investment Approach "Greyberg or Greendale: A Tale of Two Cities," from Solviva Films The Next Industrial Revolution The Power of Community

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A recent book was entitled Good Money touts "SRI"—socially responsible investing—or how to do good (socially) while doing well (financially). But whatever the legal currencydollars, marks, yen, francs or pounds in which practitioners of SRI make their investments, they cannot make bad money good. SRI cannot repeal Gresham's law. Properly understood, good money is good, not because of the motives of its owners, but because of its own intrinsic character. Truly good money will produce far more social benefits than any amount of bad money spent with good intentions.
—Reg Howe, The Golden Sextant

We think there are significant opportunities for protecting our assets from devaluation of the U.S. dollar (and from greater risk in the global financial system) by investing outside of the large corporations. There are terrific opportunities to invest locally with people you trust. All of these take time and effort to understand and to implement in a responsible way. Let's start now.

Sound money, financial transparency, and equity financing are the basis of a healthy economy. We can generate living and financial wealth by investing in opportunities not controlled by large corporations and investors.

Learn about precious metals and digital gold, and explore investment opportunities in precious metals and related stocks. Learn about alternative currency, community currency, and barter systems. Explore opportunities to diversify offshore. Explore opportunities to invest locally or in your close family and friend networks, with people you know and trust.

Links at Catherine's blog

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In one of the earlier steps, we prepared a budget for our time. Now let's do a budget for our financial resources. As you do this, compare the various trade- offs in your life between time and money. For example, what is the cost of private schools for your children versus the benefits of working less and doing home schooling? After looking at the health impacts and costs of working and living in an urban environment, what are the integrated benefits of moving to a low-cost rural area? Are you working long hours and then paying more per hour for people to do household chores for you that you could do for yourself? Does it pay to learn plumbing, electrical repair, auto mechanics? What about your children? Have you taught them how to respect their time and your time? What do your budgets teach you about habits that save time? What do they teach you about the cost of unethical or incompetent people in your life? How much is interest on debt costing you in terms of the time it takes to pay it off?

Your time is precious. So are your financial resources. How can the two give each other energy? Expressing your time and money mathematically will illuminate opportunities for these to work together.

Do an annual financial budget. Estimate the value of your time in terms of after-tax income. Explore opportunities for getting more for less. Make a list of the ten people, habits, events, or other things that wasted the most money over the last year. What can you learn from this list?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide by Sean Covey The Way to Happiness The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism by Claire Gaudiani

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“The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application.”
—Miguel de Cervantes

If each one of us sets aside a percentage of our income and time and invests these resources in the people and organizations that are giving energy to us and our networks, the cumulative effect in moving us to a positive return on investment economy would be significant.

Circulating gifts and tithes is an excellent investment in building a better world. No amount is unimportant; each gift represents a “vote” in the spiritual field, and even small sums influence the “vote” of those who manage larger pools of resources. When many tithe steadily over time, this creates flows that can be leveraged with living and financial equity in many ways.

Make a commitment to tithe a portion of your revenues and/or time to people and organizations that are doing great things. Remove your support from charities, religious organizations, and foundations that are using their tax-exempt status to accumulate significant investment assets to bankroll central banking, warfare, and the negative return on investment economy. Encourage others to do the same. Invest this time and money strategically to bless the leadership and world you envision into being.

Pay It Forward (movie) "Church Frees 53 Families from Debt"

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In her article "Solari and the Rise of the Rule of Law," Catherine tells the story of one of her partners, Ozzie Blake, an entrepreneur who grew up on a small island. He once explained why small islands produce a much higher percentage of people who are good at starting and building successful businesses. He said that it was because someone who grows up on a small island sees how everything is connected. So it is much easier for that person to learn how to take responsibility for the whole—to see how all time and energy is precious and to never waste anything. People who grow up on small islands, he said, understand that "a penny saved is a penny earned."

Ozzie had been taught from the time he was a small child to connect the behavior of individual people with how everything works around him. He said that he had learned to adjust his behavior so that it contributed to the system working in the way he hoped it would. His family, his school, and his church all encouraged him to take responsibility for the whole in practical, concrete ways. People who grow up on small islands, he said, understand that “what goes around comes around.”

Ozzie said that America is just a very big island, but most Americans do not know this—nor do they understand that the planet is also just an even bigger island. They cannot connect how the system works—particularly the aspects of the system they do not like—with their own choices and actions. They do not have even simple maps of how things connect. They do not understand their own power to vote with their prayers, their thoughts, their choice of friends and spouse, their actions, and how they spend their money every day. People who grow up on small islands, he said, “see the world whole.”

Many of us look at our situation only from our own point of view. From every degree of the circle, there is a different definition of what ails us, of why our system isn’t working, and what the solutions are. Often, what we perceive as our own individual problems are really just the symptoms that each person experiences of the deeper problems that we all share. Many times, we think that the solution is to blame or attack someone, or to propose that more government or private capital be spent in a (futile) attempt to keep the wolf from the door. Without a simple map of where we are, of The Tapeworm that we are feeding, and of how to withdraw and shift our energy, we have forgotten that we are all in this together, and that at the simplest level, you simply can’t eat what you don’t grow.

Our society has encouraged and participated in tremendous speculative financial activity at the expense of the concrete productive sector of our economy. The impact on our economic productivity has been predictable. The deterioration of our living equity—our neighborhoods, infrastructure, and environmental resources—can be seen in every place—north, south, east, west—and it touches everyone, rich and poor alike. The dumbing down of the workforce grows as daily television consumption, which teaches counterproductive behavior, reaches frightening levels. What is happening in our neighborhood parallels what is happening around the world.

The folks who feel that their biggest problem is their financial equity—falling yields on their investment portfolios—have yet to see that they cannot enjoy capital gains unless their living equity is preserved. That is, our neighborhoods and children need to be kept safe, and we need to understand that the very things that will contribute to their safety—an increase in real human productivity, honest feedback systems, and a restoration of personal accountability—will also lead to huge increases in collective investment capital in the economy. The folks who feel that their greatest problem is living equity—that they and their children are not safe and our environment is being destroyed, or that we are committing genocide in other parts of the world (or down the block)—have yet to see what the real issue is. We cannot achieve personal safety when yields for both retail and institutional investors are dependent on profits from organized crime, trickery of the investing public, and government guarantees that promote unproductive investment and personal behavior. Only when we achieve real economic growth based upon concrete increases in productivity, accounted for and disclosed on an honest basis, can we be both safe and wealthy.

Coming clean is about reconciling these different points of view and creating a new energizing unity of people, places, and money. Coming clean begins one person at a time. As the lotus blossom blossoms out of the mud, coming clean begins with you and me—from the inside out.

Yes, you have a vote. That is how democracy and freedom work. It's something to appreciate. As it turns out, there is a lot of leverage in how you combine your votes with others'.

When you "vote" with your prayers and meditations, your "vote" is leveraged by many other peoople who share your intent. Our collective intent is leveraged by divine intent when we are in alignment with divine love. Such love and intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe.

The Bible says, "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I." This speaks to the power of being in accord even with one other person, when your agreement is leveraged by the divine will.

When you "vote" with your money to decentralize political and economic power, your "votes" in the marketplace are leveraged financially by those who also vote in similar ways. Many people shifting tiny amounts of money can move markets because of the way money works.

The number of customers that banks or companies have, and the amount of profit per customer, can multiply many times in relation to their ability to borrow money or sell stock on Wall Street. In fact, their stock price is often what determines the top management's pay. Hence, a shift of deposits, and of purchases on investments from large institutions to more decentralized institutions, can have a dramatic impact.

When our prayers and meditations are leveraged by our alignment with divine will . . . and this is further leveraged by moving our money into this alignment . . . and that is further leveraged by the multiplier effects on Wall Street . . . that is a lot of leverage!

Add to that the leverage that comes from shifting resources to honest media, and your ability to move the best people into local leadership or governance positions in organizations in which you have an influence—that is a lot of potential power for one person.

Now, all of this gets even more powerful when you realize you can do this in a way that gives you energy.

So if you think you are only one person, appreciate that you are one person who could be getting more energy!

When we choose to ignore our responsibility for the money in our lives and the money that is around us, we create an opportunity for The Tapeworm to assume the power that we have abdicated. This abdication is dangerous both for us and for others.

Accomplishing financial security for ourselves, our family, and those for whom we are responsible, and doing this in a manner that creates wealth for others is quite wonderful. Respecting and using resources effectively—whether it is our time or money, or other kinds of resources—is highly ethical behavior. We live on an abundant planet. When we use our own and other people's time well, we attract allies and build constituencies for our efforts. For example, when we help generate investment returns from sound economic activity that funds a secure retirement savings, we honor our elders and create good will between generations.

In short, there is a difference between optimization that nourishes people and communities and grows the pie, and optimization that destroys people and community and shrinks the pie. There is only one way to end poverty, and that is by creating wealth. Poverty is the absence of wealth.

In the Solari model, creating financial wealth results not from increasing consumption and the degradation of natural resources and community, but from reducing consumption and investing in our natural resources and local communities. Attracting management and investors—including you—to this purpose is an excellent idea. The more we are rewarded for successful efforts, the more of us will be attracted to switch resources out of The Tapeworm and into a healthy economic model.

Positive results attract more positive investment, which makes more positive results a possibility—and that is a good thing!

Again the issue is: What is the impact of your actions? If you "help" others in a manner that shrinks the pie, or justifies The Tapeworm, or results in your failing to care for your own responsibilities, then "helping" others can do harm. However, if you bank, invest, gift or tithe, or do service in a manner that builds wealth in your community and in your network, these actions can have a powerful positive effect on you and those around you.

Part of assessing what is good or bad about a particular action or investment relates to understanding how the resources work around you and how The Tapeworm enters into that—and whether your actions are truly adding or deleting value.

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