What’s Your Definition of Wealth?

 Next January I’ll have been in the finance industry for two decades.

Two decades.

I started young, let’s keep that in mind, but still. Twenty years of sitting across from people at some of the most vulnerable and pivotal moments of their financial lives. Twenty years of watching what money does to people. And what people do to money.

And here’s what all of that time has taught me more than anything else:

Money is only one piece of the wealth pie.

It’s an important piece. A real one. I’m not going to sit here and tell you money doesn’t matter — it does. It’s a tool. It creates options. It buys freedom and safety and experiences and opportunity. I use it to build a life for my girls and I take that seriously.

But I have sat across from people with substantial wealth who were deeply, quietly miserable. And I have sat across from people with far less who radiated something I can only describe as fullness.

So when I think about what wealth actually means to me — it’s this:

It’s feeling fulfilled from the inside out. It’s contentment that doesn’t depend on a number. It’s catching a fleeting moment and actually being present in it instead of rushing past it. It’s living so aligned with who you are that your energy becomes magnetic, and the right people, opportunities and blessings find their way to you.

It’s riding the edges of your comfort zone because you know that’s where you grow.

It’s the small moments you almost took for granted.

Wealthy isn’t a balance. It’s a feeling. And it starts from within.

So I’ll ask you what I ask myself:

What does wealth mean to you?