The Nature of True Wealth

Wealth, as the term is used here, must be sustainable - and refers to three types of assets. First, there are the physical assets of property, money, and time. Second, there is the intellectual knowledge of education, know-how, and the lessons learned from experience. Third, there is spiritual wealth.  Spiritual wealth we define here in a secular way - it is our health and happiness. Wealth management, as defined here, is the use of physical wealth to increase intellectual wealth so as to assure spiritual health.  From this perspective, education takes priority over consumerism because education increases intellectual wealth and consumerism depletes physical wealth without increasing intellectual or spiritual wealth.  It is true that some brief happiness is experienced through consumerism.  But that brief happy experience is soon replaced with disappointment, new desires, and anxiety about debt. Increased intellectual wealth also increases happiness directly.  Again and again, research into human happiness has identified health, wealth, and education as the three pillars of happiness.  Consumerism also makes wealth unsustainable and depletes that which we are holding in trust for future generations.  In an MTO, the current generation are trustees for the real owners - future generations.  Our responsibility is to conserve our wealth and leave it intact for the next generation, and that generation assumes the same responsibility. We have a fiduciary duty to conserve capital. In this way, each succeeding generation is born into greater family abundance.  Increasing intellectual wealth increases our chances of doing that, while consumerism depletes physical capital for the temporary satisfaction of the trustees.  Not allowed.