Douglas E. Lynam embodies what happens when a former Marine turned monk decides to become a financial advisor—a walking contradiction who found his calling by combining seemingly opposing worlds.
After graduating at the top of his Marine Corps Officer Candidate School class in 1995, Doug turned down his commission to become a Benedictine monk, realizing that unresolved emotional issues and high explosives were a bad combination. When his monastery went bankrupt in 1999, he began studying finance with monastic intensity to help his community survive.
A graduate of St. John's College (the Great Books School), Doug served as head of mathematics at a prestigious private school while a monk. In 2014, while examining his school's retirement plan for a class project, he discovered systemic problems plaguing teacher retirement plans nationwide. This led him to launch an investment advisory firm from inside the monastery.
After twenty years of being the most junior monk in what turned out to be a cult, Doug left in 2017. He merged his company with LongView Asset Management, where he helped manage over $250 million in assets and built the first fully environmentally sustainable 403(b) retirement plan for schools in the US. In 2024, he left LongView to become a full-time writer, coach, and contemplative hermit.
His first book, From Monk to Money Manager, combined practical financial advice with spiritual wisdom. His latest work, Taming Your Money Monster, uses the Enneagram to help readers transform their relationship with money while offering a universal framework for ethical financial decisions.
A Type Three on the Enneagram, Doug has counseled numerous A-list Hollywood celebrities and gained deep empathy for others through his own financial struggles. When not writing about himself in the third person, he can be found in Santa Fe, NM, hiking the mountains and probably overthinking something about the nature of consciousness while trying not to be vain about his humility.
For professional inquiries or speaking engagements, contact doug@douglynam.com.
