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.”
Sahil Bloom is an inspirational writer and content creator, captivating millions of people every week through his insights and biweekly newsletter, The Curiosity Chronicle. Bloom is a successful entrepreneur, owner of SRB Holdings, and the managing partner of SRB Ventures, an early-stage investment fund. He spent the first seven years of his career in high finance, serving as a Vice President at a private equity fund with $3.5 billion in assets under management, as well as a board member at several of the firm’s portfolio companies
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.