“It seemed rather incongruous that in a society of super sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.” - Erma Bombeck

Welcome! My name is Douglas Tsoi and I am a spiritual director and financial-spiritual coach. I typically serve people who consider themselves “spiritual, but not religious,” people who don’t want to belong to a religious institution, but still want to explore what is means to live spiritually, and honestly, in the world, especially with their money.

A little of my background: I grew up Seventh Day Adventist, but it never stuck and I stopped going to church when I left for college. Very early on, I made a commitment to live simply for financial, spiritual, environmental, and philosophical reasons. In my 20s, after a layoff/firing as a corporate technology lawyer in San Francisco, I discovered Quaker silent worship and had what I would consider the first authentic spiritual experience of hearing that still, small voice within me. I moved to Pennsylvania and taught history at a Quaker boarding school for four years. Teaching, worshipping, and living in a spiritual community was a transformative experience and I deepened my commitment to live in voluntary simplicity, integrity, and stewardship.

In my 30s, I moved to Portland, Oregon and became a sustainability officer for the government. After a particularly painful breakup, I went through a deep depression for a number of years. During that time, I was not suicidal, but I would say that I didn’t care if I lived or died. During that darkness, the only times I felt OK were when I was playing soccer and seeing my spiritual director, Jack Kennedy, a former Jesuit priest. I will forever be grateful for his care and concern during that period.

I was laid off from my sustainability job in 2015 and realized that I hit financial independence at age 42 because all my life I had lived simply and saved and invested. So I founded and ran a school for lifelong learners, Portland Underground Grad School, which I later sold in 2018. Currently, I teach Financial Freedom, hold events like the Gratitude Dojo, and run experiments in reparative economic justice. You can find my writing on my Substack newsletter about the intersection of personal finance and spirituality, Money and Meaning.

During the pandemic, I trained as a Franciscan spiritual director, initially not to become a spiritual director like Jack Kennedy, but because I wanted spiritual community. But in practicum, I found that sitting with people as they talked about their spiritual lives as a spiritual experience in and of itself. In addition, I have studied Eastern religion: Buddhism, Taoism, and the yogic traditions. I had a number of mystical experiences with psychedelics. I partially trained to become a hospital chaplain to be with the sick and dying.

My overall mission is to help people participate in grace.

“This is the first, the wildest, and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.” — Mary Oliver