Design Your Dream Life by Investing in “The 5 Types of Wealth”

6 minute read time.

The solution to your quest for more: defining and embracing the beauty of your enough. – Sahil Bloom, The 5 Types of Wealth

What does it mean to have a wealthy life? According to Sahil Bloom, investor, entrepreneur, inspirational writer and content creator, it’s not just about money. As he writes in his new book, The 5 Types of Wealth there are, as the title suggests, five different kinds of wealth and by investing in each you can build the life you’ve dreamed of.

Several years ago, Bloom, who is perhaps best known for the motivational mantras he shares through his social media, as well as his popular email newsletter, “The Curiosity Chronicle,” was “miserable.” From the outside, you’d think he had it all – a high-powered job in finance, a prestigious title, a fancy home and car. But below the surface, as he describes it, he was deeply unhappy.

The wake-up call to change his life came when a friend asked him two questions: How old are your parents and how often do you see them? Bloom, who was working a demanding 100-hour-a-week job at the time, Bloom replied, maybe once a year right now. Then he did the math and realized if nothing changed, he would likely only see his parents 15 more times in his life. “This was the math that broke me,” says Bloom. “This was the math that changed my life.”

THE 5 TYPES OF WEALTH, DEFINED

From there, Bloom set out on the “journey of a lifetime,” spending three years researching and conducting thousands of interviews across the globe with people of all ages to identify five types of wealth that are key to a fulfilling life. They include:

• Time wealth, which is freedom over how you spend your time, prioritizing activities that align with your values, and spending time with those who matter to you.
• Social wealth encompasses your relationships, not only the handful of deep ones you may have, but also the many more casual ones that help foster a sense of community and belonging.
• Mental wealth includes having a purpose and a continued desire to learn.
• Physical wealth involves maintaining our health and vitality as we age.
• Financial wealth is money, as well as knowing the definition of our “enough life” (more on that later).

BUILDING FINANCIAL WEALTH = DEFINING YOUR “ENOUGH LIFE”

When you think of wealth, the type that’s top of mind for most people is financial wealth. As Bloom says, when it comes to financial wealth, money isn’t “nothing,” but it shouldn’t be the only thing you are focused on. One of the first steps to building your financial wealth, he explains, is defining your “Enough Life.”

The “Enough Life” is when you have “just the right amount of financial wealth to live out your ideal days,” Bloom says. But how do you determine what the right amount of financial wealth is? Bloom says instead of having an abstract idea about what your future will look like, you need to have a clear, specific vision. For example, it’s not enough to say you want to spend three months per year traveling in retirement. Instead, you need to get a little more granular, specifying where you’d like to travel to, what kind of accommodations you’d like for yourself, and what sort of activities you’ll keep busy doing.

As Bloom notes, people should reevaluate their “Enough Life” every few years, as your definition of “enough” will likely increase as the years go by. “This is to be expected,” he says. “The goal is simply for it to be a conscious upward movement that can be measured or monitored, rather than a subconscious one that can accelerate out of control.”

IF YOU DON’T THINK YOU HAVE ENOUGH FOR YOUR “ENOUGH LIFE”

As we hit the “peak” of Peak 65 in 2025, an average of 11,400 Americans will turn 65 each and every day. That amounts to 4.18 million people reaching the traditional retirement age in a single year – the highest on record. According to recent research from the Alliance, many members of the Peak 65 generation may be approaching retirement with insufficient assets.

If you’re among them, building what you think your “Enough Life” should look like can be a challenge – but it’s not one you can’t overcome. As Bloom explains, you should look at your situation in two different ways: Functionally and emotionally. If you functionally feel like you’re behind, you need to make adjustments to your spending and work with someone, like a financial professional, to craft a plan to improve your situation.

On the flip side, he says if you look at the whole picture under the lens of the new definition of wealth, you might not be as behind as you think you are. “There are a lot of people in our culture who feel like they have not done well based on the default ‘scoreboard’ of just thinking about your life based on money. My suspicion is there are a lot of people who by the old definition aren’t doing so great, but by the new, comprehensive one, are doing a lot better than they realize.”

Related: Check out this simple “Check Off the Basics guide” to help you figure out your “enough”.

BLOOM’S THREE KEYS TO BOOSTING YOUR FIVE TYPES OF WEALTH

For those looking to boost their wealth in all five categories, Bloom offers the following three tips:

• Develop your own definition of success: “You will never feel successful until you create your own definition of success,” says Bloom. “At the end of the day, accepting other people’s definition is not the path to you living yours.”
• Don’t let your bank account define your life: “Your ‘wealthy’ life may be enabled by money, but in the end, it will be defined by everything else,” he says.
• Take time to think about life’s big questions: “I hope people wrestle these bigger picture questions about their life and what they care about,” says Bloom. “Reject the defaults we’ve been handed and live your life by design.”

Millions of Americans are retiring without knowing whether they will have “enough”. Take the RISE Score to help you figure out if you have enough retirement income to cover your essential expenses and live the life you want.