Personal Finance
How ‘life planning’ founder George Kinder thinks you should manage money
George Kinder
Kinder Institute
George Kinder wants everyone to be free.
At first blush, that concept of personal fulfillment or enlightenment may seem better suited to the realms of religion or spirituality than personal finance.
But Kinder, who’s recognized as the father of the “life planning” branch of financial advice, has preached the interconnection of finance and freedom for decades.
In fact, his new book — “The Three Domains of Freedom” — is a treatise on the topic.
“There are kinds of goals that are profoundly inspiring to clients,” Kinder, who founded the Kinder Institute of Life Planning in 2003 after three decades as a financial planner and tax advisor, said in an interview.
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He’s perhaps best known for his “three questions,” which aim to help people uncover the essence of their life goals.
“If you identify those and really paint the picture of what [someone’s] life would be like if they actually had that life, clients are on fire and they solve the financial problems pretty quickly and pretty easily,” Kinder said.
CNBC spoke with Kinder about life planning and why he thinks many people miss the point when it comes to managing their money. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
‘You should be focused on your dream of freedom’
Greg Iacurci: What is the basic premise of the life planning movement?
George Kinder: The basic premise is that financial planning is about delivering a client into freedom. Every person has a dream of freedom, and they ought to be living it. And that goes for people who don’t have any money, people who are in debt, as well as people who have lots of money.
The focus shifts from money — where we have a lot of anxiety and there are a lot of tasks to do — to freedom. What does it actually look like, feel like, and what are the steps to get there?
GI: What do you mean by freedom?
GK: I think each of us has our own feeling for it, and the way we get at it is through the three questions.
If people just focus on the money, they lose track of who it is they really want to be and what it is they want to do. And often they assume, “Maybe I can’t do that until retirement, or maybe I’ll never get there. So I don’t really want to face it. I’ll just try to be more efficient around [my] money.”
The premise of life planning is, no, you should be focused on your dream of freedom, and do some of these exercises to discover what it is. And then you’ll find that the money side of it goes much smoother, because it doesn’t feel like an onerous task.
‘People get lost in the daily stuff’
GI: You think people are blindly saving money or trying to amass wealth without really considering what it’s for?
GK: Everybody I’ve met does that. This is endemic across civilization. People get lost in the daily stuff of it, and they don’t have a structure. Without really having that dream of freedom, the [financial] tasks are tough to follow.
GI: The three questions help underline what is most important to people and what they want to do with their life — it gets them thinking about how they might apply their money to furthering those goals?
GK: Exactly. It puts your eyes on the prize. People don’t know what they’re aiming at, really. I think they end up aiming at things that they read in financial journals or The Wall Street Journal or personal finance blogs. They’re thinking that they’ve got to just fix their IRA and do more budgeting. They get lost in that rather than always keeping their eyes on, “OK, this has a reason, and the reason is that I want to live this kind of life, and if I do these things [then] I can get there, and get there in relatively short order.”
George Kinder
Kinder Institute
GI: But that’s not necessarily to say that the way that people are saving is wrong, right? You hear these rules of thumb, like you should be saving at least 15% of your income towards retirement. You’re just saying to question why you’re doing that?
GK: It’s not wrong. And moreover, if you read good advice columns, or if you’ve read books or you have an advisor, you’ve got a pretty good bead on how to save and how to invest and all of that. So it’s not wrong. But the focus is off, so that you’re lost.
You said, “saving 15% for retirement.” Well, why are we using the frame “retirement”? What I would argue is a much, much more potent and appropriate term for every human being is “freedom.” And freedom might happen in a year, it might happen in six years. It doesn’t necessarily have to time with what we normally think of as retirement.
GI: Basically, don’t necessarily put off your goals and ambitions until you retire.
GK: Exactly. When we look at these things, we look at, how can we make this happen very, very shortly. Usually by “very shortly” I mean sometimes it’s within a matter of months, and is almost always within a matter of three years, and is usually within a matter of about a year and a half.
It may mean that you’re not getting what it is that you want exactly, but you’re really on the road to it, and you feel a lot of freedom from it.
For instance, if your dream is to live in the country and you’re living in the city: Maybe you do a two-week vacation every once in a while off in the country [but now] maybe you’re doing four or six weeks. Maybe you’re doing more remote work. Maybe you’re already looking at where it is you want to stay, and figuring out how, in a year or two, you can spend three months there. So you’re moving actively toward the freedom as part of the program of financial planning, of your financial life.
‘We only experience freedom in the present moment’
GI: Do you think that this is something that everyone could put into practice, or do you think this is more a luxury that people with means are better suited for? Maybe they’re able to more easily achieve that freedom financially.
GK: When we frame it in terms of financial freedom, then yes, of course, the people who have more means are more capable of it.
But I grew up in a very poor part of the country. I was born in West Virginia and lived across the border in rural Ohio. I think what you realize when you grow up with people who are not well-to-do is you realize every single one of them has a dream of freedom. Every one of them wants to live a life that is extraordinary for them.
So, I would say absolutely this is available for everyone. And the primary reason is that when you arrive at the dream of freedom, if you do it well, you get extremely energized. You get vigorous around its accomplishment. So that’s why it’s not so much about money as it is about the building of passion of who it is you really want to be.
GI: How does your new book further your work on life planning?
GK: The centerpiece of the book is giving inspiration and tips on doing your own life plan, so that you’re living [it]. The second subtitle of “The Three Domains of Freedom” is “Your Life Is Yours.” That portion of the book is dedicated to inspiring the consumer to do it themselves, and if they can’t do it themselves, then to find a fiduciary who combines these things to help with it.
There are two other elements. They may seem far afield, but they’re not really.
Why are we using the frame ‘retirement’? What I would argue is a much, much more potent and appropriate term for every human being is ‘freedom.’
George Kinder
founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning
We only experience freedom in the present moment. It’s the only moment we ever experience. I dedicate a third of the book to how to get mastery of the present moment itself, and mindfulness plays a big role in that. In terms of personal finance, it helps because the more that you’re not twisted and torn in the present moment, the more that you’re not struggling or neurotic in some way, the more you’re at peace and the more accessible your decisions.
And then the final third [of the book] takes the notion of “fiduciary” and applies it. What if, in addition to being able to have financial advisors that are fiduciaries, what if every institution, every corporation, every nonprofit, every government, was a fiduciary to the truth, to democracy, to the planet, to humanity? What I’m doing is saying, let’s require them to be fiduciaries, ahead of their own self-interest. And if we did that, I think it would solve the craziness that we’re in.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Wednesday.
In what could be Jerome Powell’s last as chair before President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed nominee Kevin Warsh takes the helm, central bankers maintained the federal funds rate in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
Inflation has surged since the war with Iran began, leaving policymakers with limited room to act, according to Sean Snaith, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting. “We’re in a kind of suspended animation — between Iran and the Fed transition,” Snaith said.
Before the oil shock, inflation was holding above the Fed’s 2% target but not worsening. Now the jump in energy costs could have longer-term inflationary effects, economists say.
For Americans struggling in the face of higher gas prices and overall affordability challenges, the central bank’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged does little to ease budgetary pressures. “The cavalry isn’t coming anytime soon,” Snaith said.
How the Fed decision impacts you
The Fed’s benchmark sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also has a trickle-down effect on many consumer borrowing and savings rates.
Short-term rates are more closely pegged to the prime rate, which is typically 3 percentage points above the federal funds rate. Longer-term rates, such as home loans, are more influenced by inflation and other economic factors.
Credit cards
Most credit cards have a short-term rate, so they track the Fed’s benchmark.
After the Fed cut rates three times in the second half of 2025, the average annual percentage rate has stayed just under 20%, according to Bankrate.
“Without Fed rate cuts, there’s not much reason to expect meaningful declines anytime soon, so carrying a balance will remain very expensive,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
Mortgage rates
Fixed mortgage rates, on the other hand, don’t directly track the Fed but typically follow the lead of long-term Treasury rates.
Concerns about how the Iran war will impact the U.S. economy have already pushed the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage up to 6.38% as of Tuesday, from 5.99% at the end of February, according to Mortgage News Daily.
That leaves homeowners with existing low mortgage rates “feeling stuck,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion. “Mortgages, more than any other credit type, work on a churn,” she said, referring to how a dip in rates can boost borrowing activity.
Student loans
Federal student loan rates are also fixed and based in part on the 10-year Treasury note, so most borrowers are somewhat shielded from Fed moves and recent economic uncertainty.
Current interest rates on undergraduate federal student loans made through June 30 are 6.39%, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Interest rates for the upcoming school year will be based in part on the May auction of the 10-year note.
Car loans
Auto loan rates are tied to several factors, including the Fed’s benchmark. Because financing costs remain elevated, new car buyers are taking on longer loans to keep their monthly payments manageable, according to the latest data from Edmunds.
Even so, with the rate on a five-year new car loan near 7%, the average monthly payment on a new car rose to $773 in the first quarter of 2026, an all-time high.
“Car buyers are in a tough spot right now because they’re getting squeezed from both ends: high sticker prices and high interest rates, with neither showing any signs of letting up,” said Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at Edmunds.
“Until the rate picture shifts, buyers will keep stretching loan terms to make payments work, which only adds to the total cost of ownership down the road,” Yoon said.
Savings rates
While the Fed has no direct influence on deposit rates, the yields tend to be correlated with changes in the target federal funds rate. So, although rates on certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts have fallen from recent highs, they are holding above the annual rate of inflation.
For now, top-yielding online savings accounts and one-year CD rates pay around 4%, according to Bankrate.
“Yields on high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit are down from their peaks of a few years ago, but they’re still strong compared to what we’ve seen for most of the past decade,” Schulz said.
Milan Markovic | E+ | Getty Images
The average tax refund is 11.2% higher this season, compared with about the same period in 2025, according to the latest IRS filing data.
As of April 10, the average refund amount for individual filers was $3,397, up from $3,055 about one year ago, the IRS reported on Friday.
The IRS data reflects about 114 million individual returns received, out of about 164 million expected through Tax Day. Next week’s filing update is expected to include data through the April 15 deadline.
President Donald Trump‘s 2025 legislation, rebranded to the “working families tax cuts,” was a key talking point for Republicans on Tax Day.
With the November midterm elections approaching and Republicans defending slim majorities in Congress, many GOP lawmakers have highlighted Trump’s tax breaks and higher average refunds.
Meanwhile, affordability has been top of mind for many Americans amid rising costs of gas, electricity, food and other living expenses.
For filers who expected a refund this season, nearly one-quarter, or 23%, planned to use the funds to pay down credit card debt, and the same share said they would save the payment, according to the CNBC and SurveyMonkey Quarterly Money Survey, released in April. It polled 3,494 U.S. adults at the end of March.
Who benefited from Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’
“It’s been a great tax season for the American people,” many of whom have benefited from Trump’s tax breaks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a White House press briefing on Wednesday.
More than 53 million filers claimed at least one of Trump’s “signature new tax cuts” — the deductions for tip income, overtime earnings, seniors and auto loan interest — the Department of the Treasury also announced on Wednesday.
Those filers, who claimed the deductions on Schedule 1-A, have seen an average tax cut of over $800, according to the Treasury. Tax cuts can trigger a higher refund or reduce taxes owed, depending on the filer’s situation.
Some filers who itemize tax breaks have also seen benefits from the bigger federal deduction limit for state and local taxes, known as SALT. Trump’s legislation raised that cap to $40,000, up from $10,000, for 2025.
The latest SALT deduction limit change is expected to primarily benefit higher earners, according to a May 2025 analysis of various proposals from the Tax Foundation.
The Treasury has not released data on how many filers have claimed the SALT deduction during the 2026 filing season.
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on April 16, 2026.
NYSE
U.S. stocks climbed to record highs on Thursday against a backdrop of war, an oil supply shock and economic forecasts warning of stunted growth amid a protracted conflict.
Many investors may be thinking: Why?
Largely, it’s because the stock market is a barometer of what investors think will happen in the future, rather than an assessment of the present day, according to economists and market analysts.
Investors are essentially shrugging off the Middle East conflict as a blip that will be resolved relatively quickly, they said.
“The stock market isn’t trying to price what’s happening today,” said Joe Seydl, a senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “The stock market is always trying to price what the world is going to look like six to 12 months from now.”
Why stocks have been ‘resilient’
The S&P 500, a U.S. stock index, fell about 8% in the initial weeks of the Iran war, from the start of the conflict on Feb. 28 to a recent low on March 30.
But stocks have rebounded since then, erasing all losses since the beginning of the war. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Thursday — about 11% higher than its nadir at the end of March. That followed a record close on Wednesday.
“The market has remained very resilient in the face of the war and has rallied strongly on the prospect that it will be resolved,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.
A ship waits to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran, which is conditional on the opening of the strait, in Oman on April 8, 2026.
Shady Alassar | Anadolu | Getty Images
And while investors cheered the possibility of a diplomatic off-ramp to the conflict, the temporary ceasefire has appeared tenuous, with the U.S. and Iran each accusing the other of breaking the agreement.
Nations haven’t been able to reach a peace deal ahead of the ceasefire’s end. Vice President JD Vance said U.S. officials left peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend after the Iranian delegation refused to agree to American demands not to develop a nuclear weapon.
The markets ‘have memory’
Ultimately, the stock market is signaling a collective belief that tensions will ratchet down, the war will end in the near term and oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz will normalize, economists said.
That’s largely because investors have been conditioned to believe that President Donald Trump will back off if the economic pain becomes too intense, economists said — the so-called “TACO” trade, shorthand for “Trump always chickens out.”
“Investors strongly believe — and have been conditioned to believe — he’s going to stand down, find a way to pivot, declare victory and move on,” Zandi said.
Trump has pushed back on the notion of backing down, framing his brinkmanship as a savvy negotiating tactic.
Economists pointed to a recent example of this dynamic: in April 2025 during so-called liberation day, when the Trump administration levied a host of tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
Within days — after the stock market had cratered more than 12% — Trump announced a 90-day pause on those tariffs. Stocks then saw one of their biggest daily rallies in history following Trump’s reversal.
Investors remember that Trump often de-escalates geopolitical shocks — which is why they’ve seized on positive headlines that hint at progress in peace talks, for example, Seydl said.
“The markets have memory,” Seydl said.
AI stocks and the ‘tech boom’
Traders celebrating at the New York Stock Exchange on April 15, 2026, as the S&P 500 closed above the 7,000 level for the first time.
NYSE
There are other factors underpinning market resilience during wartime, economists said.
One is the investors’ enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and technology stocks, which account for almost half of the S&P 500’s market capitalization, Zandi said.
“Those stocks run on their own dynamic independent of anything, including the war in Iran,” Zandi said. “I think we would have been down a lot more and it would have been harder for us to recover had it not been for the very, very optimistic perspectives on AI.”
We’re in the middle of a “tech boom” — and investors are likely to remain optimistic until they think the tech cycle has run its course, Seydl said.
More broadly, stock investors are essentially making a bet on the future earnings growth of a company — and the earnings backdrop has been “pretty solid,” Seydl said.
Consumer spending appears to be stable, for example, economists said. And companies are getting a boost to their after-tax earnings from the GOP’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” which, among other things, made it easier to write off investments upfront and therefore reduce their tax liability, Zandi said.
Going forward
Experts said there will be an economic hit from the Iran war, though.
“Despite the recent news of a temporary ceasefire, some damage is already done, and the downside risks remain elevated,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, director of research at the International Monetary Fund, wrote Tuesday.
A protracted conflict risks deep and global economic pain, he wrote.
Even if the conflict is short-lived — as the broad market expects — stocks are unlikely to march much higher until it’s clear the U.S. is on the other side of the war and its economic fallout, Zandi said.
If investors are incorrect, and President Trump doesn’t back down or quickly extricate the U.S. from the war, the stock market may see a “full-blown correction” or worse, Zandi said. A stock market correction is a decline of at least 10% from recent highs.
“Everyone thinks they know what the script is,” Zandi said. “Now they just need to follow the script. If they don’t, the market will have some real problems.”
The uncertainty provides yet another example of why the average investor with a long time horizon should stick to their investment plan and ignore the noise, experts said.
“Trying to time the market is very difficult if not impossible for the average investor,” Seydl said. “It’s better to take a long-term perspective and ride out bouts of volatility.”
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