Chief Change Officer
#229 Michael Sakraida: Change Your Money Mindset, Change Your Life – Part One
Thu, 13 Mar 2025
Michael Sakraida believes wealth isn’t just about your bank account—it’s about how you spend your time and who you spend it with. In Money, Balance and Joy, he exposes why traditional financial wisdom misses the mark and why the real key to happiness lies in balancing money, time, and relationships. He also dishes out some well-aimed criticism at Wall Street, personal finance “experts,” and the media’s obsession with financial doom and gloom. This episode might just change the way you think about money forever. Part One.Key Highlights of Our Interview:Zen and the Art of Smart Change: Why You Shouldn’t Waste Emotional Energy“Think of change like triage. Some things are worth saving; others, not so much. It’s about focusing your energy on the changes that actually count.”The Happiness Equation: Why Money Alone Isn’t Enough"Money buys happiness when it’s part of a three-part ecosystem—monetary wealth, time wealth, and social joy. Balance the three, and you’ve got the real happiness equation."Feeling Alone in the Crowd: Why Money Isn’t the Only Problem“Inflation, Wall Street, and the financial media don’t get it—people feel isolated and misunderstood. It’s not just about cash; it’s about finding control and direction when everything feels chaotic.”Wall Street’s Blind Spot: The Emotional Toll of Inflation“While Wall Street and politicians stay comfortable, most people struggle, feeling alone and powerless. The key isn’t just money; it’s reclaiming control in a system that’s stacked against you.”_____________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Michael Sakraida______________________--Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.10 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.130,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Michael Sakraida and what is his philosophy on money?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, I'm chatting with Michael Secreta, the insightful money philosopher and author of the book titled Money, Balance, and Joy.
Michael dives into the philosophy of financial well-being, showing that money alone isn't the golden ticket to happiness. He talks about the need for a balanced ecosystem, which includes monetary wealth, time wealth and social wealth. explaining that full fulfillment comes when all three work together.
He also takes on Wall Street, the financial media, and financial influences, pointing out how they often miss the emotional side of financial planning. from risk tolerance questionnaires that don't account for real-life feelings to the misleading advice all over social media. Michael gives a candid and refreshing take. He also shares practical advice on how we can reclaim control of our finances.
build meaningful legacy, and manage life's financial curveballs with confidence. Michael, welcome to our show. Let's start with your journey, your money journey, your life journey, and your career journey.
Chapter 2: How does Michael Sakraida view traditional financial wisdom?
And looking at my journey to where I am today with the mission of trying to help over a million individuals and their advisors, there's really three key segments to it. And the overriding theme in each of those segments is an extension of the Robert Frost poem of taking the road less traveled. I guess I took the road less traveled.
Chapter 3: What influenced Michael Sakraida's approach to finance?
that wasn't completed and the parts that were completed had some potholes and other damage to it. And so the first part of my journey to how I got here today was the developmental years. My childhood, I had lots of mentors and guidance and muses from people both alive and dead. Had two great-grandfathers who were very successful businessmen. One who came over from Eastern Europe, civil engineer.
So he did build roads, actually, and made his fortune and went back. to the old country, which was unusual. And then another great grandfather who was in banking and finance and extremely wealthy and unfortunately was killed when his bank was robbed back the Bonnie and Clyde days with that. But my childhood, my neighborhood, neighbors, my parents, kind of what came out of that was
Not, I can't do this. I'm not able. How can I possibly do this? It was more, why can't I do it? And would sit around with some neighbors at our beach club in the South Shore of Long Island. And I would listen to their stories because I always had that curiosity. And in those stories and just observations, I saw that these were people, yes, they had the money.
but they had the balance and they had the joy and fun in their lives. They had a range of interests that, besides being CEO of a bank, they also had a jazz that they orchestrated music and performed. Even in college, making sure I took not just the business courses, the finance, accounting, but also taking philosophy, having a history major. And there's a lot...
that people don't understand about history in terms of the value of it, because it's not just remembering regurgitating dates and locations and activities, but what led to it, what really caused it. With history, you have the advantage of that time so that you can have now the revisionist view.
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Chapter 4: How did Michael's career path shape his financial philosophy?
with a more accurate view of that history so I applied all this to that which took me to my second stage and that was the kind of the learner's permit as someone told me at my beach club and that is going out there working for companies when I started I had two job offers one was with a brokerage firm and being a stock broker. The other was investment management firm.
brokerage firm paid more, but I didn't see the same growth and development and didn't like the whole, at the time, brokerage model. So I took the lower paying job and was very successful with that. Again, because I didn't know I was too young. We had this mutual fund that was started to take advantage of foreign tax credits for U.S.
based companies we started cold and you know had all these companies interested but no one wanted to be first and so I'm doing a cold call to a treasurer of a large corporation in the northeast he hung up the phone on me and I called him back I said you just made a big mistake so I Took him off guard.
I said, yeah, I understand nine out of 10 times person calling you doesn't have anything really unique and that's not going to really help you. Well, this time it's I'm that one out of 10. And so he was like, okay, go on. And he not only was one of the larger investors in the fund, but he was the first one. So everyone else was standing around the pool waiting for someone to jump in.
He's the one that jumped in. Then everyone else jumped into the pool. So I had this ability through looking at the human element of of sales, the human element of working with financial advisors, getting sub-advisory work with large mutual fund companies and other institutions, that human element I quickly realized was make it about them, not about their company, but what do they want in life?
And everyone wants more money. They want... balance or time and they want more joy or social wealth and so trying to show that to them this big discovery incorporating this into all these programs and huge success with this but Total fights every step of the way because I was the change agent.
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Chapter 5: What is the concept of the three-part ecosystem for happiness?
And by me being successful in implementing this change in the eyes of these people that were there for years and years, I made them look like failures, that they couldn't do it and this non-insurance guy had to do it. And after a while, I got tired.
of working at these different companies doing wonderful things for them for their financial professionals that we sold to for their clients but always being sniped at and so i just got tired of always fighting that fight and Actually having a target, the more successful I was, the more I helped my companies, the bigger the target was.
So then decided to go into the third stage and that is having consulting business and going out there and working with different financial companies. It's really funny. As an employee, they swipe at you. They don't want to listen to you, question everything you say. As a consultant, all of a sudden now they listen and they want to do what you have.
everything based on what the three key things people want and taken into account. It's money, balance, and joy and taken into account their emotions and just human nature. And so many times I saw people that, oh, it's all logical. No, it's not logical. And I could talk more about that later. But it's about human nature. It's about people's individual needs.
So that has led me up to where I am right now.
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Chapter 6: How can money contribute to happiness according to Michael?
Your book is called Money, Balance, and Joy. Let's start with a all-time favorite question. In what ways and to what extent that money can buy happiness?
Sure, money buys happiness when it's part of this three-part ecosystem. And that three-part ecosystem's working in harmony, working holistically. And the three parts of money, monetary wealth, second is time wealth, and the third is the social wealth or the happiness or joy. So we all know the stories of people All they do is work.
And the thing is, especially my generation, the boomer generation had a lot of people like that. But the thing I learned from the greatest generation, my parents generation was no, you had to have that balance. You had to have that joy. You. You had to have that range of a personality and not just be the single mind in this focus. So money per se doesn't buy happiness.
You can't go to the happiness store, but it helps you. You can hire someone to do the cleaning, mow in the lawn. different painting hire buy pre-made food or go to restaurants versus booking everything from scratch so that can buy you the time then the joy that comes from it you can get involved with volunteer work being part of the community but the great thing is
each helps the other so that the people who are very successful the time part helps them make more money the joy part helps them make more money so it's this wonderful merry-go-round if you will you know you have to have that range you have to have all that in your life because otherwise it's just not a joyful life why bother
Tell us about your value systems in managing personal wealth. I believe you call this the total wealth concept.
When I was at this big insurance company, my boss was just this tightly wound person who After you knew him for 10 minutes, this is not a guy that really was fully enjoying life. And that the old school of, oh, work is work. I put in the hours, I do the work. I really don't like it or I tense up and stress out about it. Then I go home and then I could... have fulfillment.
If you look at some of the great people out there, they are much more broad doing activities. They start with not, I want to make money, but I want to help people. I want to change the world. Steve Jobs, I want to change the world. That's what he wanted to do. It wasn't, oh, I want to be rich. Now, the money part, of course, comes with it, but
When you look at some of those leaders, you look at Elon Musk, who will, at the drop of a hat, with flooding in North Carolina, say, hey, I'll reassign my satellites to help with communications. He's not doing that for the money. He's not doing that for the publicity. He's doing that to be a good citizen, to help people. So it's just a much more enjoyable life.
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