By Steve Conley – Academy of Life Planning
Every age begins with visionaries who point humanity toward freedom — and ends with institutions that turn that freedom into a business model.
It happened in religion. It happened in politics. And it has happened again in finance.
The pattern is ancient and precise: a truth is discovered, codified, and sold back to the people it was meant to liberate.
I. From Enlightenment to Extraction
When Siddhartha Gautama and Lao Tzu walked the earth, they offered liberation from illusion. Their message was simple — let go of craving, return to simplicity, live in harmony with the natural order.
Over centuries, their teachings were institutionalised. Monks became intermediaries. Temples became transaction centres. What began as a path to freedom became a mechanism for dependency.
The same inversion has occurred in financial services.
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations began as a philosophy of human capital — the recognition that our labour, talent, and moral sentiment are the true sources of wealth. Yet the financial system that followed was not built around people; it was built around products. The intermediaries who were meant to serve the public good became high priests of capital, extracting value through opacity and control.
We moved from creation to consumption, from purpose to profit, from wisdom to algorithms.
The result? A global system that fulfils desire but seldom nurtures fulfilment.
II. The New Priesthood
In finance, as in religion, the priesthood rose again — this time wearing suits instead of robes.
Their rituals are compliance documents. Their scriptures are prospectuses. Their temples are trading floors. And their prayers are spreadsheets of compound interest.
The promise is the same: salvation through transaction.
“Invest with us,” they say, “and you will be safe.”
“Trust the experts,” they say, “and you will be free.”
Yet this trust is conditional — contingent on the very intermediaries who benefit from our dependence. The system feeds on fear and complexity, because confused people are profitable people.
This is not conspiracy; it’s structure. The structure was never designed for trust.
III. The Loss of Soul
When finance lost its soul, it lost its purpose.
Money was never meant to be the goal — it was meant to be the servant of human aspiration. But in our age of abstraction, financial capital became detached from human capital. The map became mistaken for the territory.
We built instruments without understanding, and institutions without conscience. We replaced the living pulse of enterprise with a cold calculus of quarterly return.
This isn’t progress — it’s possession. The spirit of finance has been captured by its own creations.
IV. Returning to the Founders
Just as Buddhism and Taoism must rediscover the simplicity of their origins, finance must rediscover life planning — the alignment of goals, actions, means, and execution with the natural cycle of creation.
The GAME Plan is not a financial product. It is a philosophy of creation:
- Goals born from soul desires, not market noise.
- Actions that reflect conscious choice, not reaction.
- Means that support purpose, not addiction.
- Execution that manifests the life you were designed to live.
When we plan life before money, we restore order to the human experience.
We stop treating money as a god, and start using it as a tool.
We stop extracting from one another, and start creating together.
That is what it means to restore finance to its rightful place in creation.
V. The Next Reformation
The betrayal of the founders — whether in temples or trading rooms — was never final. Every generation rediscovers truth for itself.
We are the reformers now.
Our task is to bring back the soul of finance — to make it structurally trustworthy, humanly intelligent, and spiritually coherent.
To do that, we must rebuild from the inside out:
- Transparency instead of secrecy.
- Education instead of dependency.
- Empowerment instead of extraction.
- Human capital before financial capital.
When we do, finance becomes sacred again — not in superstition, but in service.
Because the true wealth of nations is not in markets or money.
It is in people who remember who they are, and why they create.
This is the work of the Academy of Life Planning — to restore the soul to finance, and the freedom to life.
Join us at the Academy of Life Planning.
Let’s raise capability and integrity — together.
Because only when products and services are structurally trustworthy can consumers truly be free.
 Get SAFE Exists to Support After Financial Exploitation
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) is building a national lifeline for victims — providing free emotional recovery, life-planning, and justice support through our:
- Fellowship: peer-to-peer recovery and community.
- Witnessing Service: trauma-informed advocacy for those seeking redress.
- Citizen Investigator Training: empowering survivors to uncover truth and pursue justice.
Our Goal: Raise ÂŁ20,000 to Rebuild Lives
Your contribution will help us:
Register Get SAFE as a charity (CIO)
Build our website, CRM, and outreach platform
Fund our first year of free recovery and justice programmes
Every ÂŁ50 Changes a Life
Each £50 donation funds a bursary for one survivor — giving them access to the tools, training, and community that restore confidence, purpose, and hope.
This Isn’t Just a Fundraiser — It’s a Movement
We’re reclaiming fairness and rebuilding trust, one life at a time.
Support the Crowdfunder today
Be part of the movement to rebuild lives and restore justice.
Academy of Life Planning 