How do you define wealth?

DIFFERENT VALUES: IT GOES BEYOND ONLY MONEY AND THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF MEASURING IT

- Marius Fenwick

Most people immediately think about money when one mentions wealth. Although money is an important component to ensure a certain lifestyle leading up to and into retirement, there are many other factors and measures of wealth that lead to a fulfilling life and retirement.

There are many ways of measuring wealth, and the limited ones mentioned below can be expanded exponentially. I intend this article to point out that wealth goes beyond only money.

Monetary wealth (cash and investments)

We get an overdose of information and literature about the "money side" of life and retirement.

One cannot dispute the importance of prudent money management principles and accumulating sufficient funds to ensure an independent, self-sufficient retirement. I will not elaborate on the monetary wealth component in this article.

I will, however, point out the risks of being obsessed with money and accumulating monetary wealth at the expense of some of the other wealth areas in everyone's life.

Freedom wealth (time)

Freedom means different things to different people. In general, we can consider freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, political freedom, freedom of love, freedom of choice and any other freedom you may choose.