Three Levels of Wealth
How much money do you want or need?
I’m currently looking at three levels of wealth, on a financial basis, to give this question a bit more nuance and connection to things I actually care about, and the functionality of my life.
When we tie our goals and visioning, and our goal-setting, to real outcomes and futures we genuinely believe in, I find that it’s a lot more calm, focused, and aligned to go about getting there.
I’m currently considering wealth (on a financial, personal basis) on three levels:
Sustenance,
Reserves, and
Discretion
Sustenance is the level of financial wealth (including income and/or savings and/or investments) where my needs and an acceptable volume of my wants are addressed.
Reserves is the level of financial wealth, particularly financial or wealth accumulation, that meet my personal values thresholds and belief thresholds on how much “backup plan” I’d like myself and others to have access to, for cases outside of moment to moment Sustenance. This could be sketched out to include retirement, medical emergencies, unforeseen costs outside of regular/irregular costs (like a car insurance bill that comes every six moths - for our household, that’s part of Sustenance). “Reserves” is the level of “extra” I’m happy to see in my personal account for creating margin during stress, strain, and transition - those times when we want resilience and antifragility in our systems - and the level of “reserves” I care about for my household has some sort of tie to some beliefs I’m forming on how I’d like to see societies or countries distribute their own reserves. How much “sovereign wealth” should each citizen hold, vs. the modern construct where a country’s GNP is a certain level, but distribution means that functionally most citizens still don’t have access to a buffer for individual resilience, nor the three intrinsic goods of mobility, variety, and choice that Alison Gopnik and Erin Bennett point to in their phenomenal parenting book The Gardener and the Carpenter.
Discretion is the financial wealth that we hold (or could cultivate and hold - or direct!) beyond Sustenance and Reserves. Once those buckets are full, we’re in the world of Discretion. Here buying all the 1990s NSYNC albums trades off or combines with possibilities like gifting money to others (in our modern context of individual resource ownership). Some folks might invest their Discretion wealth in startups, either with or without an impact objective. Some might buy a $2,000 showerhead. Some might spend it on “hookers and blow,” or betting on a pool game, or getting a tree pruned, or paying off the county so that their favorite tree does NOT get pruned.
People prioritize these differently
The thing about these levels is that people, and even we!, seem to prioritize these differently - or at least order them differently, even amidst different contexts or different stages of life.
I’ve definitely spent money or deployed assets toward Discretion before, when my Sustenance and Reserves were not considered, thought of, taken care of, or addressed.
I’ve definitely saved for Reserves at the expense of both my Discretion and Sustenance.
It’s new for me to be generating resources FIRST for sustenance, thinking carefully and mindfully about the level of reserves I find appropriate (rather than gravitating toward the polarities of “Save ALL the money! No amount is enough!” or “Wealth is for the hoarders! Relinquish any claim on more than I absolutely can survive with in a particular moment in time!”).
How do you think about these layers? How do you prioritize them? Which come(s) first?
Do you have beliefs and goals that are aligned to these layers that organize a system where your own wealth levels and the wishes or beliefs you have about society, either how “it” is or how it should be, ladder over to your own particular experience?
We can realign these levels - and realign ourselves and our beliefs on the world
If these layers aren’t clear for you, it’s definitely possible to realign ourselves with them in a calm, grounded, and clear-minded manner.
It can be an emotionally connected and internally self-honoring process.
It does NOT have to feel like somebody else’s rules, imperatives, or dominion when it comes to how we relate to our money - not just on the level of practice, but on the level of goals, visions, desires, ideals, and patterns we set out and create for ourselves.
It can start by just journaling about these three categories.
For me, after journaling, starting conversations with like-hearted friends who are also exploring their relationships with money and wealth authentically - the good, the bad and the ugly - has been monumentally helpful. Here’s a podcast about how we did that in 2021!
Alongside that, tracking wealth, tracking income, and starting to track the way one influences the other has been a mind-alteringly, yet gradual, way of addressing and shifting some of the old world I felt about money before it was fully examined, into a new set of habits and possibilities where it’s becoming possible for me to get clear for myself and the world about wealth levels and a workable belief system about them, that allows me to nourish myself toward flourishing and thriving - rather than just staying crushed by the hamster wheel of struggle, trying to persistently overcome something shady and mysterious that - ultimately - appeared to be anchored (primarily) inside.
What will you create? What am I missing?
If these ideas or layers provoke insights or new impact for you, reach out to me on Twitter and let me know!
If I missed a layer, or if you have other favorite articles on this topic or things you think relate, I’d love to read those too.
