Recently an article came on Forbes, titled “Three Fallacies of Wealth Creation, And Three Antidotes.” (1)
It begs a very interesting question.
What is wealth?
Is it a pile of Benjamins in your bank or brokerage account?
Sure, that is one definition.
I’m sure you have heard the aphorism “Time is Money”.
This phrase reminds me of when I was a teenager. My Dad was landscaping the custom house he just built. He bought 8 large date palm trees towering over 20 feet each and had them shipped in from Palm Springs,California. Each tree was around $5,000 if I remember right.
I asked my Dad how the trees could cost so much.
He explained that these trees had been grown from just a seedling and had been nourished for 7-10 years to get to that size.
What he was paying for was TIME, not necessarily the trees themselves.
Wealth is really a function of time. Keep in mind that money has no intrinsic value; it is just paper or figures on a screen. The time and work it took for you to build your nest egg is then traded for other useful items, food, shelter… you get the idea.
So the question is how much wealth (or time) have you accumulated so that you can have the assurance you will never run out?
For some of you, you might be sitting pretty and have all of this figured out.
For others…when they do the actual math…they realize with taxes, inflation, longevity risk, health risks, and many other risks…
That a pile of pennies doesn’t mean mathematically you have a higher chance of NOT running out of your pennies.
And could actually spend more in your retirement years.
In this article it says “Wealth isn’t just a footing on a balance. It’s a measure of how well you can live”
That might single-handedly be the best definition of wealth I’ve ever read.
If that is correct…and wealth is measured by how well you can live…
Wouldn’t it make sense to use actual cold hard facts and math to give you the best scientifically optimized retirement?
If you agree…
Then we might not want to chat for 15 minutes.
If you do feel like optimizing your retirement scientifically…based on facts.
Just reply to this email and I will send you a link to get on my calendar.
Remember — It’s Your Time…