28 signs of true wealth

or my personal list of nasty liabilities I'm trying to avoid

Imagine asking your neighbor, “what does it mean to be wealthy?”

Their knee-jerk response would probably be, “how much money you have, duh!”

**I say imagine because I would never actually talk to my neighbors. I live in an apartment complex where the one unwritten commandment that everyone agrees upon is - Thou shalt not talk to thy neighbor. Ever.**

But is that true wealth?

The older I get the less sure I am.

I’m starting to think that true wealth isn’t merely the number on a screen or the assets you’ve accumulated.

True wealth is a lack of (nasty) liabilities.

And not just what your accountant considers those to be.

You probably won’t agree with all my personal signs of true wealth because, well, it’s personal.

Actually, let’s take it a step further, I hope you don’t agree with all of them and come up with your own because that means you’re an independent thinker.

Without further ado, here are my 28 signs of true wealth:

1. No alarm clock.

2. No daily commute.

3. No pear-shaped boss.

4. No work uniform (especially neckties).

5. No networking events.

6. No caffeine past noon.

7. No smoking.

8. No processed sugars.

9. No food that your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize.

10. No meal without some physical exertion first.

11. No jogging (and god forbid no power walking).

12. No gym machines.

13. No TV in the bedroom.

14. No doom scrolling in bed.

15. No phone notifications from apps.

16. No email on Sunday.

17. No selfies.

18. No (unnecessary) yearly technology upgrades.

19. No news. Not ever.

20. No talking shit behind someone’s back. Say it to their face!

21. No crippling need to impress strangers.

22. No worrying about what you have zero control over (that’s almost everything).

23. No clinging to outside approval.

24. No disharmony between your words and actions.

25. No blind faith in any product that’s highly advertised.

26. No books from the New York Times bestseller list.

27. No prejudice of a country without going there.

28. No rejecting a belief without putting yourself in the believer’s shoes.

By simply removing known causes of unwealth (nasty liabilities), what are you left with?

True wealth.

What did I miss?

PS — I haven’t checked all these boxes (yet). But I’m working my ass off.