Wealth Is the Ability to Fully Experience Life

A different way to think about money.

Photo by Marcin Skalij on Unsplash

Making money feels like a hamster wheel.

What’s the point of it all? I’ve been riffing on this idea for a while. These are the ideas that have shaped my thinking so far:

• Wealth is quiet. Rich is loud. Poor is flashy.
• Money buys back your time.
• Having time makes you a billionaire.
• Having multiple income streams reduces stress. Stress reduction improves your quality of life.
• When you don’t need to work so hard for money, the meaning of your life quietly shifts. You become outwardly focused, not inwardly selfish.

Now, I’m no poet lover, but Henry Thoreau nailed it with this line: Wealth Is the ability to fully experience life.

The thing is, there’s more to money than you may realize.

The typical experience of life

You go to work. You earn money. Money pays bills and helps you buy stuff. Making money becomes an addiction. You put the experience of living your life off for a date in the future.

It’s so easy to mortgage our dreams to a bank in the hope four walls will enhance the experience of life. It doesn’t.