Blog – Health Ability Wealth

Wealth – It’s About More Than Money

Wealth is not absolute. Wealth is not just about money, but about a feeling of abundance. Everyone’s definition of wealth is a bit different.

Being wealthy may not be everyone’s goal in life. Some people simply don’t care, while others are obsessed with it. Where do you fall?

Consistent saving and conscientious investing inevitably leads to wealth. The goal may be financial freedom and independence, or just some extra flexibility.

What are different ways one can become wealthy?

Create a successful business
Develop a career with significant advancement opportunity
Inherit a large amount of money
Win the lottery
Participate in illegal activities

In the context of this blog, I will only focus on the first two paths to wealth, as the other three are too difficult to control or could land you in hot water.

But what does being wealthy even mean? Here is a list of possible definitions:

Being a millionaire
Earning a lot more than one can spend
Being able to pay all the bills on time
Spending more on wants rather than needs
Being able to stash away a certain percentage of one’s paycheck (the more the better)
Just having “enough”

Let’s examine some more specific scenarios:

Example 1

A young family has a gross annual household income of $90,000 and expenses of $50,000. After taxes the family saves and invests $20,000 per year. After 20 years the family has a total of 1 million dollars in savings. Is that family wealthy?

Example 2

A single person earns $250,000 per year. They pay high taxes and spend the rest of the income on cars, food and expensive vacations. Is that person wealthy?

Example 3

A retired couple has Social Security and pension income that covers all their expenses. They also have $300,000 in retirement savings. Is the couple wealthy?

Example 4

A middle-aged couple works part time (60%) at minimum wage, earning about $20,000 a year. They own a simple, paid-off house in a low cost-of-living area, rent out one of their bedrooms, and lead an extremely frugal lifestyle. They manage to add about $5,000 a year to their $100,000 nest egg. Are they wealthy?

As you can see, income is not the most important factor when it comes to measuring wealth. Behavior is a huge factor. Wealth and the habits that get you there require a mindset put into action.

In the end, everyone has a different opinion on wealth and there are plenty of people that feel they never have enough even though they are not likely to ever run out of money, where others feel extremely wealthy just having a year’s worth of expenses tucked away. Some people don’t worry or care about money at all. Where do you stand?

I am often surprised how little some people are willing to talk about money. We often discuss entertainment, leisure activities, sports, gossip and politics with a passion, but yet the one thing we spend so much time and energy earning is often a taboo subject. Could it be that people are apprehensive about discussing money because they know they have poor money habits and they are afraid of being judged?

There is a lot to unpack and discuss when it comes to Health, Ability, and Wealth. I hope you will enjoy any future posts that dig more deeply into various topics around those main subjects.

Ability – Innate, Acquired, Lacking or Lost

Ability is the key to being, creating, producing, and earning. It drives everything we do. How do we find out what our abilities are? How do we add to them and hone them? How do we deal with lack, decline or complete loss of ability?

Innate Abilities

Innate abilities are literally “abilities we are born with”. They also include basic abilities that we develop over time without consciously trying. Examples of abilities that are innate to most people are breathing, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, hearing, eating, digesting, and eventually walking and talking.

How about talents, like artistic or athletic predisposition or intellectual giftedness? Are they innate or acquired? If a person chooses not to take advantage of and develop a certain talent, the answer may be irrelevant.

Acquired Abilities

Acquired abilities are the ones many of us rely on to earn money. One may not have a special predisposition or talent for plumbing or accounting, but it is something that appeals to them, or they choose it because it can provide a living wage. There is essentially no limit to how many different abilities we can acquire (other than our time on earth and some hindrances described below).

Some people change what they do to earn money every few years and develop additional abilities to pursue a variety of hobbies, others are perfectly happy to work in the same profession all their lives and may only have a couple of leisure activities they pursue. The beauty is in the choice, and with instant access to any information nowadays, it is easier than ever to learn new skills, as long as one has the drive and discipline to do it.

Lacking Abilities

The lack of an ability maybe be apparent at birth or soon thereafter. Examples are vision or hearing impairments, inability to speak, or other disabilities present at birth. The lack of certain abilities may not become apparent until much later in life. Some people may struggle heavily with numbers or other logical concepts all their lives. Others may have difficulties with written communication. A third group may find personal interaction with other people extremely challenging.

While it is often possible to improve some of those skills, it may not be feasible to reach proficiency level. In that case, I would encourage a person to explore what types of work require less of those skills and more of their strongest abilities. I believe it is important to improve abilities as much as possible while being realistic about one’s limitations.

Lost Abilities

How do we deal with abilities we lose, either instantly, for example through an accident, or gradually due to a slow illness or the normal aging process?

Instant loss of ability may include injuries such as paralysis, accidental loss of eyesight or hearing, a brain injury that may affect many functions, or something as small as the loss of a finger.

Gradual loss of ability may include dementia, slow loss of hearing or eyesight, multiple sclerosis, and other illnesses.

The main factors to overcoming loss of ability are our own adaptability and willingness to work around it and the support system we have available, may that be family, friends, or a supportive employer. Every person on earth has some ability that makes them special and valuable. The tricky thing is to find them, further them, and use them to our advantage.

Health – and All Its Moving Parts

What is “Health?” Health is a broad term, and every person defines it differently. Does it just mean freedom from disease? Absence of pain? Do I have to be in amazing shape to consider myself healthy? Is health simply a physical state or is it more about mindset and behavior?

One thing most of us probably agree on is that life is easier when our health is better and more challenging when we are dealing with health problems.

Health affects our ability, and health may affect our wealth.

What are the most common issues affecting our health negatively? Quite a few things come to mind, loosely sorted from most avoidable to least avoidable and out of our control:

1. Lack of exercise
2. Poor nutrition
3. Self-inflicted injuries or diseases
4. Stress
5. Acquired illnesses
6. Environmental pollution
7. Accidents
8. Injuries inflicted by others
9. Congenital disabilities
10. Hereditary conditions

The world is a challenging place for our health, but there is a lot we can do about it. Allow me to generalize a bit as I explore each category, knowing full well that each person’s place of residence and economic situation may impose significant limitations on their control over aspects of their health that others take for granted.

Lack of Exercise

Exercise just means movement, lack of exercise means absence of movement. The amount of exercise we get is technically the easiest to control and the most critical to longer-term health, and exercise is generally free. Yet this is something many struggle with intensely, partly due to societal structures, and partly due to our own physical and mental inertia. I will dig deeply into this topic in future posts.

Poor Nutrition

One of my favorite topics is “Food as entertainment.” Issues around food choices appear to be largely psychological, and resolving them may require deep and painful self-examination. On the other hand, it is much easier to eat healthy than people think, and the long-term benefits are dramatic. I will address nutrition frequently on this blog.

Self-Inflicted Injuries or Diseases

This is a tough topic, and I do not have deep insight here. (Well, I indeed had one very significant event in my life that falls into this category, which I plan on writing about when the time is right.) Behaviors that put our health directly at risk (for example behaviors that result in contracting sexually transmitted diseases) or result in self-harm (including substance abuse or attempted suicide) are much too common and require highly personal treatment.

Stress

The topic of stress is another one that I feel passionate about. Stress and its detriment to one’s health deserves a lot of attention, and we have more control over it than we imagine. We may not be able to remove all sources of stress, but we have access to many tools to help counteract and manage stress.

Acquired illnesses

These are things like viral, bacterial or fungal infections. There is a lot we can do to avoid those: Good hygiene habits, staying away from people who we know to be ill, and keeping our immune system strong. Those actions only go so far though, and every person has a different level of susceptibility. I strongly believe good exercise and nutrition habits can be a big factor in preventing many of these illnesses.

Environmental pollution

This is a complex area, as we are exposed to so many artificial and natural compounds that may negatively affect our health. Many of them are right in our homes, where we should have control over them, but we often lack the awareness or ability to detect them. Then there are pollutants in our larger environment, in our air, water, and food supply. The challenge is that we often do not know what we are exposed to and therefore may not have a way to avoid those hazards, be it for economic or practical reasons.

Accidents

This could be anything from slipping on a rug at home or being involved in a car crash. I would include natural disasters in this category as well. Accidents are largely avoidable, and one could argue that an incident caused by our own or someone else’s negligence is not an accident, and could therefore fall into some of the other categories described here.

Injuries inflicted by others

This could be anything from getting injured through someone else’s negligence, which could also fall into the accident category, to being the victim of a violent crime. No prevention in the world could keep us fully protected from these types of injuries, unless we choose to isolate ourselves completely from all other members of society.

Congenital disabilities

A disability a person is born with; heartbreaking and not preventable by the person suffering the consequences.

Hereditary conditions

Also not preventable by the person with the affliction, and the condition may not make itself know until much later in life.

Conclusion

Now that we have categorized the issues potentially affecting out health, we can start thinking about steps to prevent them by limiting our risk and, if we are already afflicted by any of them, learn how to minimize their effect on our abilities. I will get into a lot more detail on some of these categories in the future. For now, read through this list and think about which categories are relevant to your life.

The start of something great!

Welcome to Health Ability Wealth. I am passionate about all three of these topics, as I believe focus on all of them in a balanced way significantly improves one’s quality of life.

You will find many practical blog posts here, as well as the occasional philosophical one. I am opinionated, but will generally avoid getting political.

If you are looking to make small or large improvements to your life, I would love to be one of your treasured resources. I plant to write one to two posts per week, or as frequently as my busy life permits.

Thank you for your visit to my site. I hope to be of great service.