Maximizing Our Wealth : Earning Riches Other than Money

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We can’t find treasure if we don’t know that it exists. Think about all those personal finance gurus and investing seminars everywhere. Most people know the importance of money and wealth and there are entire industries dedicated to helping people earn wealth and achieve lives of abundance and financial success.

We mustn’t forget, however, that while money can indeed buy things like health, free time, personal enrichment, and more, there are still other kinds of “wealth” aside from a fat bank account or investment portfolio and that money is just one tool we can use to attain success in other areas of our lives.

Keep reading to learn some more examples about those other forms of wealth that we all must work on.

Maximizing Our Wealth : Earning Riches Other than Money

Saying money is not the only form of wealth sounds obvious, but when was the last time we all actually acknowledged all the others? Our health, relationships, life experience, overall happiness, and more?

There are many kinds of wealth, and one way of classifying them is through the Empowered Wealth quadrants developed by Lee Bower (which I first read about on Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles). Here’s an overview of the four quadrants:

• Human Assets – This includes everything we are as a human. Our morals, spirituality, habits, values, character, health, family, and more.
• Intellectual Assets – This includes our memories, knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills, talents, life experiences, and more.
• Financial Assets – This is what people think about when we speak of wealth. This includes how much money we have, our salaries, our businesses, our investments, real estate, the value of things we own, and many other financial assets.
• Civic Assets – This is what we contribute to society. It’s the taxes we pay, how much we give to charity, and more.

As you can see, wealth and abundance in life is more than just money. The question now is, when was the last time we seriously thought about working on those other areas of our lives?

When did we last take time to improve our health? Our morals and spirituality? Our relationship with out family? When did we last try to develop new and better habits?

When did we last try to learn something new, or try something that we were once scared of? When did we last try to travel and see more of the world and experience different cultures? When did we last try to learn a new skill or polish a hidden talent?

When did we last contribute more to society, like donating a little money or volunteering for charitable organization?

Those are just a few.

On the other hand, what about those of us who are cursed with negative money beliefs like “money is evil” or “money is not important”? Those who think that way often neglect to take care and improve their finances, and that can lead to all sorts of personal and financial problems later on like massive debt or having no money for serious emergencies.

What’s the main point of all of this?

It’s simply a reminder that we need to stop and review our lives right now. We might just be single-mindedly pursuing something at the expense of everything else. We’ve all heard the phrase “there’s more to life than work”, but there’s also more to life than just money, relationships, knowledge, fame, fortune, or something else.

We have to learn to take a bird’s eye view of things and improve all aspects of our lives. Is there a part of your life that you’ve been neglecting?