When you hear the word wealth, what immediately comes to mind?
- Money in the bank?
- A garage full of lambos in every color?
- Owning a pet monkey?
The truth is that wealth is often viewed only in material & financial terms. When in reality, there are 4 types of wealth that we should pursue in order to live a well-balanced and fulfilled life.
In today’s post, we will be covering 1) what those 4 types of wealth are and 2) what we can do today in order to start building these different types of wealth.
Let’s dive in.
1. Time Wealth
One of the most important types of wealth that we can build is time wealth.
That is because our time represents the most valuable asset that we own. It is a non-renewable resource that we can never generate more of; once our time is spent it is gone forever.
As a result, we should do everything in power to strive towards becoming a time millionaire.
In a nutshell, a time millionaire is an individual who measures their wealth in terms of how much free time they have to do what they want. To a time millionaire, money is only seen as a tool in order to regain as much time back as possible (usually denoted in seconds).
This represents a fundamental shift from what we have been taught from an early age: our worth as humans is more than just how much money we have in our bank accounts.
There are several different tools at our disposal in order to build up our time wealth including:
- Increasing our streams of passive income
- Choosing a flavor of financial independence that works with our lifestyle
- Decreasing our largest expenses
- Viewing purchases in terms of how much life it costs us
- Doing more meaningful work
We don’t have as much free time as we think we do. As a result, we need to take the necessary steps in order to add millions of seconds back to our life clocks.
2. Health Wealth (Physical + Mental)
The ancient Greek physician Herophilus once remarked:
When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, strength cannot fight, intelligence cannot be applied, art cannot become manifest, wealth becomes useless.
Herophilus
The truth is that while we may be living longer lives compared to previous generations, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are living healthier lives. This is because when we don’t see an immediate impact to our daily lives, it’s easier to just say “screw it” and not do anything.
However, over a long enough period of time, this can increase our chances of developing chronic diseases that have the ability to severely impact our quality of life. As a result, we need to prioritize our physical and mental health today in order to increase our chances of having a better quality of life in the future.
I’m definitely guilty of this. I ignored my mental health for years and eventually developed money dysmorphia. While I built a substantial amount of financial wealth in a short amount of time, it did not come without it’s consequences.
As hard as it was, I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle. What helped me establish and maintain healthier habits was this video by Matt D’Avella who introduced me to the two day rule:
3. Social Wealth
The next type of wealth is social wealth.
Social wealth is comprised of the relationships that we create and maintain in our lives.
Social wealth isn’t about the number of connections or followers that we have on social media. Instead, social wealth is measured by the number of close, meaningful, and fulfilling relationships that we have with our family and friends.
As a social species, these relationships assist in satisfying our emotional needs for security, belonging, and meaning. With that being said, the quantity and quality of these relationships vary person by person (Introverted vs. Extroverted, etc.).
While it is perfectly normal for our social circle to consolidate as we get older, we should continue to invest our time into the quality relationships that can satisfy our emotional needs.
Furthermore, having an active social life can fend off health issues associated with loneliness. According to the CDC, loneliness can have the following impacts to our physical health:
- Social isolation significantly increased a person’s risk of premature death from all causes, a risk that may rival those of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity.
- Social isolation was associated with about a 50% percent increased risk of dementia.
- Poor social relationships (characterized by social isolation or loneliness) was associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke.
- Loneliness was associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.
- Loneliness among heart failure patients was associated with a nearly 4 times increased risk of death, 68% increased risk of hospitalization, and 57% increased risk of emergency department visits.
Even at age 27, I have far fewer relationships than I did 10 years ago. While the number of people I call and chat with each week has dwindled, it is outweighed by the few quality relationships that provide me with a greater level of emotional connection that I had a decade ago.
4. Financial Wealth
The final type of wealth is the “lambo and pet monkeys” type of wealth: financial wealth.
I purposefully put this type of wealth last because it’s the least important type of wealth.
Let me explain.
Money is a tool that should only be pursued to the extent in which it helps us reach our goals. This is best exemplified by the story of the mexican fisherman.
Money is also a resource that we can easily gain more of. Whereas having more time, living healthier lives & maintaining quality relationships are things that we can not get out of an ATM.
With that being said, nobody wants to be a corporate slave. As a result, we should leverage growing our financial wealth in order to buy back as much of our time as possible via the following blueprint:
- Increasing our Income
- Decreasing our Expenses
- Investing the Difference
Final Thoughts
By only associating wealth with our financial situation, we lose sight of what it means to live a well-balanced and happy life.
I’m not denying that financial wealth can help with the other types of wealth. However, we should always remain cognizant of the tradeoffs that we are making and not lose sight of what’s really important.
Because no amount of money is worth a less healthy life with less time for the more important things like quality relationships.
Thank you for reading! 🙂
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