Who Wants To Be A Thousandaire?

There is wealth and there is income. Most of us only think about income as the word wealth is for the wealthy, and the only way to be wealthy is to have a lot of income. So, we get out there and make as much money as possible. This is wrong! We must stop acting like squirrels so concerned with the acquisition of nuts that we lose track of where we put most of them.

Of course, we all want to be wealthy. Lottery jackpots confirm that. Let’s stop for a second. What is the meaning of wealth? Abundance of money is an easy answer. Abundance should not be confused with the word profuse – which means having a great or lavish quantity. Consider this definition of abundance: more than what is needed.

If a squirrel only needs 1,000 nuts for the winter, but it had gathered 1,107 nuts. Is that abundant? What if we say over a squirrel’s lifetime (10 years for the Western Gray) it needs 10,000 nuts for all the winters of its life, and it had gathered 11,070 nuts in total. That’s enough to survive an extra winter had a truck not run it over.

Unfortunate events aside, we could say our squirrel had gathered an abundance of nuts throughout its life. You, hopefully, will not be hit by a truck and live to enjoy the wealth you have built. You may not have a profuse amount of money, but you will have built wealth to carry you through the winter years of your life.