Spencer Sherman (MBA, CFP®) is a leading financial advisor, author, public speaker, and the founder and former CEO of Abacus, a values-driven financial consulting firm managing more than $3 billion in assets. A New York native living in California, Spencer now devotes much of his time to sharing his mindfulness-based approach to money through books, courses, and personal appearances.

Many of us are raised to believe that money is about facts and figures, not feelings. As a financial consultant who’s helped many people grow their money, I find the opposite to be true. Formal training and expertise are far less important than the emotional intelligence we all share. By learning to examine the source of our feelings, we can lessen the influence that fear, worry, and shame have on us and make smarter financial decisions from a place of balance, kindness, compassion, and joy.

How many MBAs wear a suit and tie while eating a breakfast of turnips and quinoa? Lead meditations about money? Go to Burning Man and silent meditation retreats, and also deliver the best advice on ways to earn more money, save for retirement or college, and how to use a charitable remainder trust to reduce estate taxes? I don’t pretend to be a typical MBA… but I'm a stand-out financial advisor because I know that emotional intelligence determines financial success. Mindfulness, surprisingly, is a more direct path to success than reading financial books or getting an Ivy League MBA.

I started Abacus with the foundational belief that each of us can discover and share our greatest gifts. That applies to my clients, to my staff, and my students.  Today, Abacus has over 70 amazing team members and manages over $3 billion in investments. The lessons of emotional intelligence have enabled me to help my clients achieve peace of mind and financial success on their own terms. It’s something I might never have learned if it hadn’t been for what seemed like the worst day of my life.

I came to see my financial life as an iceberg. The part above the waterline, my conscious and self-directed thoughts about practical money matters, were only a very small part of who I was. The submerged part of me—my unexamined emotions, my inherited beliefs, my autopilot behaviors—were actually calling the shots.

Through Fearless Finance, I’ve helped many people examine their own “iceberg” impulses and take conscious control of their financial decisions.

I have worked with people from a wide range of financial circumstances and from different cultural backgrounds. Whoever you are, however much you have, wherever you are in your financial journey, you can be as successful with finances as many so-called "experts"—you can master your money.

If this is something you’d like to learn more about, write to me and tell me about your financial goals. This is where your journey to greater self-worth and net worth begins.