Wealth - it may surprise you to know that it's NOT just about having plenty of money.

I have seen it reported in the media as to what it takes to be one of the top rich people. These reports state that people that have a salary of $250,000 per year (say) are the "rich" or "wealthy" people in society. Sadly, these articles are a lot of rubbish, written by dummies, for dummies. It is obvious that the writers have zero idea what true wealth really is - they don't understand it because they have never achieved it nor do they have any idea how to attain it.

If the media's definition and reports were true (and they're not), then if a "rich" or "wealthy" person earning $250,000 per year suddenly lost their job, by the media's definition, that person is no longer "rich" or "wealthy". How can a person be rich and wealthy today, but not tomorrow just because they're no longer employed???!!!

The answer to that is easy... they were never truly rich or wealthy to start with.

To be TRULY rich or wealthy, you need to have enough wealth so you do NOT have to work, and enough wealth to give you back your time.

You need to understand that just having enough money to buy what you want means you are a high income earner. However being high income earner is not the same as being wealthy. High income earners work long hours to earn their income, but are "time poor" for things outside work.

Whereas being "WEALTHY", is having both MONEY and TIME.

Having money, and no time to spend it is pointless.... you may as well be poor. The aim must always be to have BOTH money AND time. The end game needs to be the creation of wealth and not just money.

Wealthy people have more than they need in income-producing assets that generate more passive income than they need. Once a person gets to the point where they make more than they can spend AND not have to work, then they are truly wealth.... because they now have reached the point where they have BOTH money and time.

Wealth is about having all the money you need, and all the free time you want so you can do whatever you want, whenever you want and for as long as you like. Now THAT is true wealth!

Only by being truly wealthy, will you truly enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Only by creating a way to generate income in ways that free your time and no longer require the use of your time, will you be able to say you are wealthy.

Having a $12,000,000 home with a $4,000,000 mortgage, may mean you have a "high net-worth"of $8,000,000, but you are stuck paying off a $4M mortgage and will struggle to get any free time - you are definitely not truly wealthy in this case.

However, with a $2,000,000 home, and $6,000,000 of income producing assets, you still have the same "high net-worth" of $8,000,000, but $6,000,000 of your assets are producing income for you at (say) 7% - which is $ 420,000 per year! Of course, the income is NOT requiring your time in order to create it, which means you have time to do whatever you like - travel, charity work, tinker in your shed, purse hobbies etc.

Again... when you have reached such a point, only then are you truly wealthy, because you have BOTH money and time.

LESSON:

Being rich or being a high-income earner is about having money, but real wealth is about having BOTH Money and Time!

Remember: a gauge of true wealth is "how long you could survive if you stopped working today". If your answer is that you could live indefinitely and never have to worry about money again and never have to ever work again, then you are truly wealthy - congratulations!