Build a better financial future for yourself and the world. Former monk turned financial advisor, Doug Lynam, shares the rules of money management that will change your approach to earning, saving, and investing. From Monk to Money Manager is an entertaining and self-deprecating journey through Lynam’s relationship with the almighty dollar—his childhood in a rich family, the long-haired hippie days running away from materialism, time in the Marine Corps looking for selfless service, and his twenty years in the monastery under a vow of poverty that led to his current profession as a financial advisor. In this unique look at wealth from a spiritual perspective, Lynam shares his belief that God doesn’t expect us to live in poverty. The truth is, we need financial peace so we can help others. When money becomes a part of our spiritual practice, used in love and service, it can bring us closer to our highest spiritual ideals. With humor and humility, Lynam uses stories told through the lens of his own money mistakes, and those of counseling clients, to understand how our attitudes about money hold us back. He also provides clear, step-by-step guidance on how to grow a little bit wealthy. His insights include how to build a compassionate relationship to our finances; some of the good, bad, and ugly truths about money; and the tricks to unlocking financial freedom.

2015: Outlook for stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies and real estate? Sunil Kewalramani had correctly predicted that the 'Great Financial Crisis' shall recede after March 2009. He had correctly predicted that the 'Great Financial Crisis' shall recede after March 2009. He had also correctly predicted the 'Oil Crash of 2009', the 'Structural bull market in gold in the 2000s', the 'Crash of silver in May 2011', the 'End of commodity super cycle in May of 2011', the 'Crash of gold prices in June 2012' and had foretold the 'Greek financial crisis in December 2009', which ended up roiling world financial markets. Can you identify periods during which stock market will rally at its best? There is a school of thought in the world of investing that says that there are brief periods in a year when swift and sharp rallies in market indices takes place. So, you should stay invested throughout the year because you do not really know when these swift and short rallies will occur. Mr Sunil Kewalramani disagrees. He believes that if he can give you idea of when the short and swift rallies can occur, you can stay invested in these periods only, stay out of the market for the remaining part of the year and you will be able to clearly outperform the market. Sunil Kewalramani predicts a down year in 2015 continuing well into the end of the year. He believes the 'Dot com 2.0' bubble should start bursting by the end of the year 2015. According to Mr Kewalramani, biotech stocks have also become frothy and could lose their momentum much before the end of 2015. Mr Sunil Kewalramani does not believe China can take the world into a recession as most of the world (other than emerging economies) is net importers from and not net exporters to China. He believes the indecision of the US Federal Reserve could lead to uncertainty which could end up roiling up global stock markets well unto the end of 2015. Sunil Kewalramani is a professional money manager and has advised and consulted for MNCs, institutional investors, mutual funds, pension funds and high net worth individuals in various parts of the world.

Shareholder engagement with publicly listed companies is often seen as a key means to monitor corporate malpractices. In this book, the authors examine the corporate governance roles of key institutional investors in UK corporate equity, including pension funds, insurance companies, collective investment funds, hedge and private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds. They argue that institutions’ corporate governance roles are an instrument ultimately shaped by private interests and market forces, as well as law and regulatory obligations, and that policy-makers should not readily make assumptions regarding their effectiveness, or their alignment with public interest or social good.

Examining the recent radical re-invention of monastic tradition in the everyday life of New Monastic Communities, Exploring New Monastic Communities considers how, growing up in the wake of Vatican II, new Catholic communities are renewing monastic life by emphasizing the most innovative and disruptive theological aspects which they identify in the Council. Despite freely adopting and adapting their Rule of Life, the new communities do not belong to pre-existing orders or congregations: they are gender-mixed with monks and nuns living under the same roof; they accept lay members whether single, married or as families; they reject enclosure; they often limit collective prayer time in order to increase time for labour, evangelization and voluntary social work; and are actively involved in oecumenical and interreligious dialogue, harbouring thinly-veiled sympathy with oriental religions, from which they sometimes adopt beliefs and practices. Offering unique sociological insights into New Monastic Communities, and shedding light on questions surrounding New Religious Movements more generally, the book asks what 'monastic' means today and whether these communities can still be described as 'monastic'.

Vibrantly engaging contemporary Buddhist lives, this book focuses on the material and financial relations of contemporary monks, temples, and laypeople. It shows that rather than being peripheral, economic exchanges are key to religious debate in Buddhist societies. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in countries ranging from India to Japan, including all three major Buddhist traditions, the book addresses the flows of goods and services between clergy and laity, the management of resources, the treatment of money, and the role of the state in temple economies. Along with documenting ritual and economic practices, these accounts deal with the moral challenges that Buddhist adherents are facing today, thereby bringing lived experience to the study of an often-romanticized religion.

Around the first century BCE, Buddhist monks formed monasteries and established relationships with kings and lay people. The rules monks live by, the Vinaya, are a pivotal source of meaning for them and their dealings with society and form the basis of multiple monasticisms across geographical regions and throughout history. The ways in which the Vinaya is understood and practiced, therefore, must take into account the kind of monasticism that emerges from it. In Living with the Vinaya, Ryosuke Kuramoto examines the process of creating monasticism in contemporary Myanmar by focusing on how monks acquire, possess, and consume material goods. To live as a monk means to obtain resources from society and to own and use these according to monastic rules. Over the centuries, as monks interacted more with the world beyond the monastery, the question of what a monk “should be” became a concern for not only monks, but also government authorities and lay people. How monks interpreted and observed the Vinaya became a question of legitimacy and power. Kuramoto’s ethnographic analysis reveals the constant (re)creation of monasticism in Myanmar resulting from the interactions between monks and these groups in response to this question. He identifies some of the key mechanisms by which monasticism and broader Buddhist institutions are created and transformed and concludes that monastic governance is inseparable from the Buddhist state and the society that surrounds it.

Dedicating your life to social justice is a worthy endeavor. But how do you sustain the challenging work amid the inevitable challenges and setbacks? In this book, social reformer Joe Colletti provides direction for aspiring urban monks by drawing on decades of on-the-ground experience working toward solving social struggles, as well as his own journey creating an integrated “rule of life” to spiritually guide his lifelong work. Chapter by chapter, he sets you up for an intentional life of involvement in social reform, coaching you on how to choose your social struggle, select the spiritual principles and practices that will make up your own unique integrated rule of life, and merge your spiritual and secular efforts. Equal parts pragmatism and mysticism, The Way of the Urban Monk offers practical wisdom and soulful guidance for those committed to helping end seemingly intractable social injustices, enabling them to serve more effectively and from a place of spiritual wholeness.