How 401k Advisors Live a ‘Full’ Personal and Professional Life

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We’re stressed and we know it. The always-on, hyper-connected world in which we live, driven by digital demand, is leading to an increase in anxiety among working Americans.

Fred Barstein

Barnes & Noble reported a 25% surge in anxiety-related books in one year. Weighted blankets, which The Atlantic calls a “must-have” holiday gift for anxiety sufferers, also expect a significant increase in sales by 2026. The National Center for Biotechnology Information found that while anxiety is up among all age cohorts, it’s particularly pronounced among those 50 and younger. 

It’s one reason Fred Barstein is fielding more meditation-related questions at financial advisor conferences. Where once the largely conservative, buttoned-up professionals might dismiss meditation as self-help psychobabble, they’re now looking for something (anything) to help. 

But Barstein was quick to emphasize it’s not only the anxiety-relieving benefits mediation provides; it’s the desire for a more fulfilling, peaceful, and “present” life.

It’s to a point where Barstein, Founder and CEO of The Retirement Advisor University (TRAU)The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU), and 401kTV, hosts Meditation 101 conference sessions, usually sandwiched between more traditional practice management and regulatory topics. While he describes his personal experience, he’s humble and careful not to “speak on behalf” of the mediation discipline he follows since he’s not a teacher. Nonetheless, the sessions prove popular. 

“Some people in this industry achieved everything they thought would make them happy,” he said. “Jobs, money, vacations, cars, houses, and they’re not happy and not fulfilled.”

He referenced George Harrison’s spiritual journey, in which the Beatle experienced overwhelming financial and material success at a very young age and realized he wanted—needed—something more. 

“It’s very difficult for people with financial means to be happy,” Barstein added. “They wrongly thought that money and material things will solve all their problems.”

A spiritual enthusiast for 35 years, he’s meditated for the past 12 (two hours a day for the last five years), which he doesn’t consider long; yet Barstein’s intensity balances his self-described inexperience. 

He claimed the discipline he follows, Vipassana, is considered the pure teachings of Buddha (but added he’s not Buddhist). The method isn’t theoretical, “it tells you exactly what to do. It’s like paint-by-numbers to achieve a masterpiece.”

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIPASSANA TEACHINGS IS FOUND HERE.

The mediation topic is raised in 50% of his conversations with advisors and financial services providers. Usually incidental, they’ll ask about recent travel and vacations, and Barstein will mention a meditation retreat. Never wanting to evangelize, he’s happy to discuss meditation only if they push further. It’s not about moral superiority or his ego, he said, but it does help him simply by talking about it.

Getting started

The first question is almost always about how to begin, and Barstein is characteristically blunt. 

“I tell them to go on a 10-day retreat. They then ask if there’s anything else, and I say ‘No, that’s it,’ because it’s very intense. As much as people are interested, no one has ever gone on the 10-day retreat. It’s 10 hours of meditation a day, with no books, phone, or writing. It just seems so extreme and impossible, which is the first reaction I had, but I was curious.”

Calling it an internal seed that was awakened, he arrived at one of 200 Vipassana meditation centers nine months after first learning of it. With no way to prepare, Barstein likened it to diving into a pool of ice-cold water. 

“Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die,” he quipped. “Meaning, you have to put in the work to get the results.”

The stay at the centers is of no cost to the individual and is supported by donations. The benefits received make it very worthwhile, Barstein said. On the surface, it calms the mind, but then goes deeper to get rid of “mental defilement.”

“If I get angry and resentful and act on it by saying or doing something stupid, it only hurts me,” he said. “You have to realize and be mindful of that. Divorce, bankruptcy, whatever it might be, the first noble truth is that suffering is unavoidable, and suffering in this instance also means dissatisfaction. The material things in this world will not provide lasting satisfaction, so how do you deal with it?”

The second noble truth is that the end of suffering is from not reacting but remaining detached, and it must be learned.  

“In the material world, if you give your time, it’s lost,” he concluded. “In the metaphysical world, by helping someone and giving something, you get something in return. That’s ultimately what this is about, which is happiness.”

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