We often equate people who have a lot of money as being wealthy. They are typically people who own a business or are successful entrepreneurs in various fields and industries. Wealth, depending on what your value system is, can take on many forms. I think the average mentality of wealth is someone who is rich, has millions, has a lot of investments and owns multiple businesses. I could be wrong but I’m going to put a stake in the ground based on what I hear from people over the years. Wealth doesn’t necessarily have to just be money, I think the biggest thing that’s missing from the wealth equation is time.
Time is the most expensive commodity and something we can never get back once it’s gone. Time is the most expensive resource known to man and should be included within your wealth and treated with more importance than money. You can be rich and have all the money in the world yet if you are a salve to whatever is creating that money then to me your not wealthy at all. What good is a ton of money if you don’t have the time to spend any of it? Personally I’d rather have more time than money as I believe it’s more important. I’d rather be debt free, have all the time in the world and have a small amount of money than a large amount of money and no time to do anything with it.
You hear of many parents who run a family business that are pretty much a slave to the business, they cannot step away from it and while they may have turned a profit after the initial 2-5 years, they need to continue working at it. Not saying every business is like this but talk to your Pita Pit, Subway, or any other traditional franchise and ask if the owner is working. I’d say about 80% of the time its the owner making your food. I love talking to these guys and have talked to many, that’s where I come up with the 80% that owners are the ones slaving away. Its almost sad in a way because with the recession that’s still going on a lot of these businesses have had to let their staff go and the wife and husband are the ones working behind the counter.
So money and time are pretty big in wealth, but how about your relationship with your spouse. Is it a healthy one? Are you constantly at battle and stressed at each other? (Top reason most couples fight is because of money). Do you have that time thing I talked about before and spend enough of it with your spouse? Are you doing things to ensure you work at your marriage instead of letting it slip away. Do you respect your spouse? I think that’s a huge one and to be honest most of us don’t respect our spouses and I’ll give you some examples right now.
- Calling your wife the old lady, ball in chain, etc. I used to hear “old lady” from my x-boss all the time, to me that’s just disrespectful.
- When your with “the guys” and people end up talking about their wives in a negative way. This also goes for when girls are with “the girls”. What right do you have to put your spouse down when amongst your friends? I see this ALL the time at lunch time or when I’m out with the guys golfing or having a drink. You will never catch me say anything negative about my wife.
- I could go on with many more examples but I think you get the picture, have some respect for your significant other 24/7, regardless of who your with.
I think those three combined is what determines someone as being “Wealthy”. It’s not just as simple as having a lot of money, as said before if you have no time to spend it, what does it matter? When you have that time and money how is your relationship so that when you are together do you take advantage of it in a great way. Everyone has their own opinion and really it’s based on your value system of what makes you wealthy. More to think about I guess.
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