Finding Wealth on Your Own Journey

There isn’t a magical number that marks the point you are considered wealthy. What really determines wealth is more often than not our perception of seeing someone whom we think seems wealthy. It becomes a label we apply when we see someone with a nice home or car and say to ourselves they must be well off. I believe wealth is actually a combination of a lot of things that extend but include our bank account number.

I believe wealth is found through our own efforts and time invested building things in our life. It is the portfolio of our relationships, experiences, adventures and things we have accumulated along the way, including money. I don’t know if we just wake up one day and realize we are wealthy or if we ever feel completely secure with our wealth when it is tied to material things. More often than not I feel wealthy the most when I look at my family and the things that I count on most in my life.

I don’t know if we ever really get to the point we consider ourselves wealthy all the time or if it is just a label someone applies to us because we have more than they do. There is always someone with something more, newer, faster or better than we have it seems so are they more wealthy than us? If someone has no debt and some money in the bank are they wealthy? I think wealth is very much subjective based on where we are in our own life and what we think others have or don’t have around us. It reflects back on our own progress or lack thereof for goals we think we should be achieving.

Wealth becomes this measuring stick that determines our success in life. I think that is rather limiting but I can see that without a magical number of other condition that standardizes what wealth is than we are left with just comparing to one another. I believe we can feel wealthy and that is really the true representation of it. Wealth feels confident and bold like you have this plan and know which risks will pay out the most. It is a status symbol that makes others want to be like you and mimic your success they think you have so they too can be wealthy.

Wealth is best appreciated when it is earned. I believe that is true in all the ways we build wealth from the relationships we have in our life to what is in our savings account. While it is certainly nice to receive gifts, wealth is worked for with our own energy until we have that well earned badge of honor that gives us pride in what we have accomplished. Some may never know what that is or even see it but this is when we know we have done something great and have made a dent in what it means to be wealthy.

The tricky part is they usually don’t know what is in our bank accounts or what we have and are only basing this label of wealth on us because of what is seen or perceived. It is what we are wearing, driving, where we live, how we carry ourselves and how we speak and act that give this impression of supposed wealth. They may not know we are in the middle of our journey towards or own wealth and not even close to it. Yet to them we already have wealth often just because we are trying to do better for ourselves.

The journey of wealth starts when we are awar