The system of investing I’ve recommended throughout my career is grounded in the principles of yoga and the world’s great spiritual traditions, as well as in the top Western academic research into how financial markets work.

This way of investing:

• Directs the investor’s attention inward rather than outward, because the key to successful investing, as with all other money matters, is to know ourselves. Knowing ourselves means we are steadfast, not letting emotional reactivity make our investment decisions for us.

• Rests firmly on the premise that we are all interconnected and interdependent. Instead of the all-too-common emphasis on making investments in one’s own town or country, this approach is global, reaping the benefi ts of the best minds no matter where they live. This system of investing includes many more companies and, by extension, human beings than almost any other.

• Requires one to listen to what the markets are telling us about where to invest rather than to speak our opinions, as so many investors and money managers are prone to do. In many spiritual traditions, we are encouraged to listen to the wisdom of our own bodies, our deepest inner truths, or the word of God, rather than our ego’s cravings and judgments.

• Employs a receptive, collaborative perspective rather than approaching investing as a competition to be won, an aggressive activity in which only the best can thrive. In the process, this methodology improves on the returns of the majority of competitive-minded investors.

• Comes with costs and fees that are well below industry averages, leaving more to fund the investor’s goals instead of the investment industry’s profi ts. Similarly, in yoga, we are meant to expend as little extra energy as possible. “No unnecessary effort” is one of my teacher’s favorite expressions. In investing, this translates as “No unnecessary fees, costs, expenses, and taxes.”

It has been said that the most successful investment strategy is the one you’ll stick with for twenty-five years. However, as mentioned, most people who invest allow their emotions to unconsciously guide their investment decisions—such as which stock or mutual fund to buy, when to sell, and how aggressive or conservative a portfolio to build—and thus change strategies much too often. Take my quiz to determine what your emotional tendencies might be when the going gets tough with your investments. Studies of typical investors have shown that most earn drastically lower returns than they ought to for the risk they’re undertaking. There is a better way.

In order for me to recommend an investment solution for you, I need to know a bit more about you: take my quiz