I’m Wealthy: The 4 Things I Can Afford to Make My Life Easier
Written by
Gina Hagler
Edited by
Joe Evans
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Wealth is generally thought of as having a certain level of income or net worth, but for Dr. Jim Dahle, founder of The White Coat Investor, wealth is just as much about having control over your life as it is about being rich. He believes that wealth involves money, time and relationships.
Let’s take a closer look at some advice from a wealthy person that will make your life just a bit easier.
Last-Minute Travel
Wealth makes Dahle’s life easier, allowing him to travel. Visiting a sick family member meant last-minute airfare in his case – tickets are more expensive the closer the purchase date is to the flight date. “There was also the cost of gas, parking, and (…) an Uber,” he said. All of these expenses could have prevented him, or someone not wealthy, from being able to be in the presence of loved ones.
It’s a normal part of life that friends and family end up living in different parts of the world, and while global connectivity is great, it’s not without a cost. Because Dahle is still in the workplace and saving much of his household income, the trip doesn’t serve as much disruption.
“This additional expense simply means we’ll invest a little less next month than we otherwise would have,” he said, indicating a clear benefit of his economic setup.
Unpaid Time Off
He stresses how time is limited for everyone, but with wealth, his family has greater control. Imagine needing to go on a week-long trip and you have no vacation days. If you were living paycheck to paycheck, the time off work would be a huge concern.
For Dahle, a much-needed vacation lacks the stress of dealing with the lost income. When your liquid assets are much higher than your expenses, you have more wiggle room to take the time for the things you enjoy or those that require your attention.
He described wealth as the ability to “disappear from your life for five days on short notice without your world blowing up.”
Housing Flexibility
You can see how weaving through all this is the idea of relationships. Rather than buying a new house, which would have technically been the “financially smarter” decision, Dahle and his family chose to renovate their home. They decided because they had grown close to their neighbors and the children had their friends. They had this “network” of relationships enabled by wealth.
Had his family been unable to afford to remain where they lived, those relationships would have suffered as a result. Instead, they didn’t have to uproot themselves.
Meeting Commitments
These are very real cases of how wealth is a mix of resources, time, and relationships working in complementary ways. And it doesn’t end there – Dahle has the time to spend with his kids, which many other parents would love to have but are too burdened by work. He described how a surprise trip meant that appointments needed to be changed, rides had to be carpooled, and so on.
These could easily be sources of stress that other families can experience, needing to juggle various commitments. In his case, having the “financial resources and the time that comes with financial freedom” meant his family could easily adapt to life’s surprises without bringing on much hardship.
He expresses through these anecdotes how people should reassess how they view wealth and realize how helpful it really is.
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