Power Tools: Money vs. Wealth

A Coaching Power Tool created by Nicole Manuel
(Financial Sustainability Coach, UNITED STATES)

Introduction:

Money is not the solution to a life of abundance and wealth. While money is certainly a part of wealth, my purpose is to help clients distinguish the difference between money and wealth and determine the best path to abundance for their specific needs. As a financial sustainability coach, I often assist clients in reframing the role of money in their lives. If you have ever heard the phrase

money doesn’t guarantee happiness

then you know that money is simply one of many tools that allows you to pursue the life of abundance you desire. The following scenarios might help clarify. Close your eyes and imagine these three unique situations and try to determine which one of these individuals is truly wealthy.

Scenarios:

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. Henry David Thoreau¹

Earlier, I mentioned that money is a part of wealth. How would you define wealth? Wealth can consist of many factors but your factors will most certainly differ from mine. You see, each individual is unique, and as unique individuals we each have different needs and desires in order to achieve our perception of wealth.

Wealth can be defined as a collection of experiences and transactions that create abundance in our lives. A wealthy person will have attained personal satisfaction in each desired area of his or her life. Wealth is not measured in dollars, it is measured in life satisfaction. We can then conclude that the people in the exercise are not truly wealthy as they are lacking abundance in specific areas of their lives.

If you take a close look at the graph below, you will notice that no piece of the pie is larger than the other. Health, finances, spiritual fulfillment, social interaction, and love are all areas of abundance. If we could translate this pie into a formula, it would say that wealth is a function (f) of health, finances, spirit, social interaction, and love, or w=f(h,f,s,si,l). When we achieve our desired level of each, we are wealthy. This is why someone with little money can be considered wealthy and someone with a lot of money may not necessarily be living in abundance if that person is not satisfied with what they have obtained.

Wealth is balanced living! No one component is more or less important as they all contribute to a balanced, vibrant, abundant life!

Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life. –Henry Ward Beecher²

Although wealth is not measured purely in dollars, money should not be treated as something completely unrelated to wealth. Money is currency in digital, paper, coin, or asset form. It is a means of exchange that has value because we give it power by saying that it does. The development of greed, corruption, debt, and money castes should not be blamed as a root of money. These ideals were created by the mind of man. Money in and of itself is not good or bad, it is neutral. We create stinginess and wealth with money as a tool; money does not create our problems. One can live abundantly with little money or with a lot of money.

If you are lacking the money you need to reach your goals then you have not yet claimed your wealth. If you have created for yourself the idea that money is evil or difficult to obtain, you are unknowingly denying yourself the chance to create abundance you deserve. Although there are alternatives to money as a wealth builder, money is absolutely a part of wealth. It is a tool that is there to assist you in creating a life of abundance. Once you begin to feel unafraid, worthy, and in control of your financial destiny, you will begin to recognize and be grateful for the abundance that surrounds you and create a life of wealth and satisfaction.