Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 37th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced anthology from people of all walks of life, on how to discover “enoughness” (the state of being & having enough) in a noisy world.

This is a re-send of a past edition because Mr. Solomon is coming to an event hosted by our church this weekend for a weekend retreat!!! What better time than to re-read this lovely letter for his daughter!

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before reading the collection.

Photo Credit: Marty Solomon

The following is an excerpt of a chapter from an unpublished book that Marty Solomon wrote for his daughter Abigail, titled “She Giggled.” The chapter was penned in 2012 and posted to his blog, Covered in His Dust, on April 7th, 2015.

In the book, Marty writes about the lessons he learned from her childhood that guided his own walk with God. In the following excerpt of the chapter, “She Giggled,” Marty looks at how the story of Peter walking on water came to life from watching his daughter, Abigail.

To hear Marty personally read this chapter for his daughter, he does so here, in episode 116 of The BEMA Discipleship Podcast.

This chapter is an outstanding meditation on finding our “enoughness” (ultimately that we have enough…that we are enough in His eyes).

Marty is the host of the BEMA Podcast and author of the book Asking Better Questions of the Bible, which have had a great impact on the vision of this project as well as the letter I wrote to my two daughters on discovering “enoughness” (our call to rest, to trust the story that creation is good, and that we are enough).

And so, I am so excited to share this heartfelt piece with you from Mr. Solomon, written for his daughter, Abigail.

About Marty Solomon

After being born in a small, southern Idaho town and being raised in a fundamentalist evangelical community of faith, Marty pursued a sense of calling into the ministry. He studied at Boise Bible College and received a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Ministries.

Marty went to Israel for the first time in 2008 and it changed everything. Some great mentors pointed Marty in the direction of different academic voices who were pursuing Scripture through the lens of a historical, Jewish perspective—a perspective Marty was unaware of. Through each new lesson, the Bible began to make more sense, and the invitation to partner with God in pursuing the concept of shalom was becoming more and more compelling. He also saw an approach to discipleship where these young men possessed a fiery passion to become like their rabbi; or, as the rabbis would say, to be “covered in his dust.”

Marty now serves as the President of Impact Campus Ministries and has a passionate belief that the best way to pursue all of these dreams for changing the world is to work with the young adults who will be creating that world. He longs to help them see why the work they do every day is part of how God is putting the world back together. He eagerly desires to spread the news among college students that God is looking for partners.

Source: Marty Solomon

She Giggled

By: Marty Solomon

2012

I continue to be fascinated by Jesus’s exhortation to have faith like a child. There is something about the nature of a child’s understanding of his or her world that Jesus finds exemplary. It’s hard for me, if I’m honest, to actually consider a child being an example of faith. At best, I have thought of this lesson as cute — but certainly not packed with precious depth.

And yet, I guess I’ve interacted with enough of Jesus’s teachings to know better. As a Jewish rabbi teaching his disciples valuable and important lessons, I know that if a rabbi such as Jesus takes the time to set up a scenario and then uses it as a picture of spiritual formation, the listeners had better take note. Visible lessons from the rabbi are never intended to be empty — or easy, for that matter.

In short, I need to stop treating that lesson as trivial or something that belongs on the flannel graph.

Part of my experience as a father, as I continue to make valuable observations, has been to notice how much profound depth there is to this very lesson. As the story goes in one gospel, Jesus gathers the children around him. How long does this gathering and discussion take place? We are not told. I have always assumed that Jesus takes about twenty seconds to gather some kids up, looks at his disciples and other listeners and says, “Unless you have faith like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom.” Then, I have always imagined him ushering the children away, so that he could proceed with his much more important, significant, and profound rabbinical teachings for the day.

But after watching children at great length, I have begun to question my chronological assumptions. Perhaps this wasn’t merely a two-minute lesson that day; perhaps it didn’t resemble the silly “children’s sermon” the pastor gives before the “real” message. Perhaps this teaching was much more profound than I realized. Let me just suggest another possible scenario.

Imagine Jesus and the disciples arose that morning, went about their typical duties, gathered in the synagogue for morning readings, and left for the day’s adventures. I picture maybe Matthew asking the question, “Rabbi, who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

I picture Jesus pausing, silently gazing off into the nearby village and, without a word, marching off in the direction of the houses. Jesus arrives on the outskirts of the village and sees a whole host of children, ten or fifteen of them, playing in a courtyard. He leads his disciples into the courtyard with the honored parents watching and welcoming him and his disciples, gracious to have such esteemed guests.

The disciples, of course, are watching, paying attention to Jesus’s every move as he scoops up a child and begins to playfully interact with the children. As a disciple, of course, your main duty is to mimic every move of your rabbi and so you begin to engage the children in horseplay, as well. I imagine Jesus and his disciples spending the day with the children — telling stories, playing games, maybe even taking naps.

As the day begins to come to a close, the family insists you stay for dinner. As you begin to recline in the shade of a nearby tree, Jesus speaks some of the first and only words he’s spoken to you all day.

“Watch the children.”

You watch and you recline and you eat. As the sun begins to set in the sky, Jesus calls one of the children over by name. He takes him and pulls him close under his arm and he looks around at all of his disciples, making eye contact with all of them.

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

I have discovered there are great lessons to be learned from watching children.

The Strength of a Little Girl

Not too long ago, Mom was at work and it was a nice day outside for a blustery winter in Idaho. It was just dad and daughter, so I took her to a local park. In a rare moment for this control-freak of a father, I decided I just wanted to let my daughter be. I wasn’t going to assume that toys or swings were what her entertainment of choice would be. I would watch her and keep her out of trouble, but I had this desire to see what she would do if she was left to be the captain of her own ship.

She had just learned to walk.

The whole experience of learning to walk was an incredible thing to behold as a parent. There are certain milestones you wait for in a newborn’s life — the first time she rolls over, the first crawl, the first tooth — but there is nothing that compares to the ability of walking.

There’s the sheer panic the parent feels when their kid isn’t walking as soon as their friends’ kid is. You begin to question whether or not your child is going to be okay just a few weeks after “all the other children are walking.” It’s an interesting thing, really. You don’t obsess over teeth or weight like you do for walking.

And I can remember the joy of seeing my child learn to crawl or mutter her first words. But nothing compares to the pure thrill of those first five or six steps. It’s an incredible high — a rush of adrenaline and cheering with the look of bliss and joy covering your child’s face. It’s a look that says they are having the ride of their life on their own two legs for the first time. It’s a look that says she is so happy to be the joy of her parents. It’s a great look.

But anyway, back to the park. She had just learned how to walk and walking was, as they say, the cat’s meow. She was on top of the world just walking around in the grass. I was here only to watch, enjoy, and keep her from disappearing into a sprinkler hole.

At one point in our afternoon she had walked off to the side of the park and down a very slight slope. I say “slight” from the perspective of someone who stands at 6’4’’, not as a one-year-old. I was actually quite impressed she had not fallen face-first on the way down the slope. Now, however, she had turned around and decided she was ready to make her ascent back up the hill.

What I witnessed next was simple.

But what I witnessed next I will never forget as long as I live.

This upward slope was a brand new experience for her; she had never encountered the physics of walking uphill. She attempted to take a step and immediately fell backward. The green grass was nice and long from a whole fall and winter season of no lawn mowers. She was unhurt. There was no need for Dad to step in. He could continue to observe.

She giggled.

She got back up (which is not an easy process for a one-year-old just learning to walk in the grass). She attempted to take a step…

She fell.

She got up. She attempted to take a step.

She fell.

She got up. She fell.

She giggled.

I expected to hear a cry or a whimper, but one never came. I expected to hear her whine and stretch out her hand to Dad for assistance. But she was just fine.

She giggled.

And she got up, she tried again, and she fell.

Without exaggerating, I can honestly say this process repeated itself a good twenty times before anything changed. Each and every time, she got up, she stepped, she fell. Every now and again, she would giggle.

At this point, she had begun to make some adjustments based on her newfound data in this one-year-old physics laboratory of sorts. She shifted her weight differently. She took her time. She placed her feet differently in relation to her body and the slope. She placed her feet, took a step, and took another step. She had remained upright.

She screamed a happy little girly scream.

She took another step — and fell.

She giggled.

O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH

There is a story in the gospels we all know quite well. It’s the story of Peter walking on the water. It’s an amazing story that fascinates us to no end. Our western minds are blown away as we consider the possibility of a man pursuing Jesus out onto the waves of the Sea of Galilee, performing such a miraculous feat to mirror that of his rabbi. It’s almost too much for us to believe. And then, just as we’re beginning to become skeptical, Peter meets all of the worldly expectations and succumbs to the failure we’ve all been wishing he would defeat as our representative. He wavers, he fails, and he sinks.

I’ve seen the look in too many people’s eyes as they read that story. It’s this look of hopeful disbelief, followed by a “that’s what I thought would happen” expression on their face (even if they’ve read the story a thousand times, I will see this expression or hear this tone). We then listen as Jesus scolds Peter’s faith — while we all readily put ourselves into Peter’s shoes and share his scolding — and we nod.

But there is so much more taking place in this story. Much has been taught about this story already, so I don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing anything. Ray Vander Laan had an excellent treatment of this subject in That the World May Know, a series put out by Focus on the Family (DVD 6, “In the Dust of the Rabbi,” Zondervan). Rob Bell treated the subject very well in Velvet Elvis (Zondervan, 2005). And another great and concise source of reference for this story can be found in the NOOMA video entitled Dust (flannel.org), among many others. I could not recommend these resources enough (or any others from these teachers, for that matter).

The first-century concept of discipleship was such that the most “successful” thing you could do in the Jewish culture, the thing they valued the most, was the study of Torah. One of the pinnacle experiences of the Jewish school system was being given the opportunity to become a talmid — or as we say it, a disciple.

If you thought you had what it takes as a student of the Torah, you would apply for discipleship under a rabbi. One of the greatest honors a boy could receive would be the acceptance of a rabbi to be his talmid. If a rabbi chose you as a disciple, he was in essence saying to you, “I believe you have what it takes to become just like me.” It was a great honor. So, the path of a disciple was a path of memorizing the rabbi’s teachings, taking on the rabbi’s set of interpretations, and — most importantly — becoming just like the rabbi.

This meant you spent all day, every day, trying to mimic the thoughts, actions, and teachings of your teacher. Some Jewish scholars say they have seen a rabbi proceed into a restroom and in his wake are ten or twelve young disciples.

You want to be just like your rabbi.

If your rabbi does it — you do it.

And you know that you can do it — because if you could not have done it, the rabbi would never have called you. The rabbi’s call is his affirmation in your ability and potential.

Peter finds himself in a boat that night with the other disciples and they end up encountering Jesus, who happens to be walking on the water. If Jesus is walking on the water, what does Peter want to do? He wants to be just like his rabbi.

“Lord, if it’s really you, call me out to you on the water.”

“Come.”

And Peter does. He walks on the water. It’s an incredible story. Peter is a true disciple.

And then Peter sinks. But why does Peter sink? The answer for many of us is that Peter loses faith; he sees the wind and the waves and he loses faith. This is correct, but as Bell asks: whom does he lose faith in? Jesus?

Jesus is not sinking. Jesus is doing just fine.

Does Peter lose faith in Jesus’s ability to help him walk on water?

Or, does Peter lose faith in himself?

Jesus rescues Peter, pulls him into the boat, and then asks, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Is this actually a rabbinical scolding of Peter’s failure to accomplish his task? Or is this question of Jesus actually driving at his belief in Peter?

“Peter, if you didn’t have what it takes to walk on water, I never would have called you out. You had everything you needed to do this! I believe in you, Peter! You can do whatever I call you to do. I will never ask you to do something you cannot do.”

Listen to what Bell says in Velvet Elvis:

So at the end of his time with his disciples, Jesus has some final words for them. He tells them to go to the ends of the earth and make more disciples. And then he leaves. He promises to send his Spirit to guide them and give them power, but Jesus himself leaves the future of the movement in their hands. And he doesn’t stick around to make sure they don’t screw it up. He’s gone. He trusts that they can actually do it. 

God has an incredibly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things.

I have been told that I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that Jesus believes in me.

I have been told that I need to have faith in God. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that God has faith in me. 

The rabbi thinks we can be like him.

TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO GIGGLE

I often watch my children and wonder when it was that I lost faith in myself.

Now, I’m not talking about a narcissistic faith that seems to elevate my standing in God’s created order and lacks humility. I’m certainly not trying to promote some humanistic worldview that seems to assert that the answer to our ills somehow lies within us. I truly and earnestly believe the hope for all of this world’s brokenness lies in the power of the resurrected Christ and the reality of Jesus.

But I’m talking about the faith in myself that recognizes I’m made in the image of God — the kind of faith that might actually be willing to believe there must be something worth loving and worth saving if God was willing to save it through the story of the cross.

I wonder, as I watch my children, how it was that my innocence was somehow connected with my confidence. (Boy, there’s another chapter or two waiting to be written, eh?)

Jesus tells me that if I were to watch children for a little while, it would probably do me some good — that if I cannot change and become like little children, the Kingdom will be out of my reach.

One of the things that I’m noticing about children is they have incredible faith in themselves. They know Dad is there and they know Mom is there and they know they are loved and they just want to play and smile and laugh and tumble.

It seems like later on in life, we begin to question all of those things.

Is Dad really there for me? Am I really worth loving? Can I really do this?

And we try to do the things we know in our hearts we were created to do. We step out of the boat and we begin to walk, but we know the wind and the waves are out there somewhere, just waiting to sabotage our one fleeting moment of weak courage. We try and we sink.

And we’re not surprised, really, are we?

We knew it would happen just like this. There’s no way we could ever walk on water. So we grab for our life preserver and we climb back into the boat and we hold our gaze on the floor and we take the scolding we knew we had coming. O me of little faith. O me the big doubter. It’s just another failed attempt to live out what God intends for my life. When will I ever learn? I should just get used to this and stay in the boat next time; it will save me the humiliation and the pain and the failure. It’s much safer and nicer here in the boat.

Yeah. Next time, I won’t be so silly.

I picture Jesus grabbing me by the chin and jerking my head up, waiting for my gaze to meet his. And with a divine sparkle in his eye, he looks into my soul — the soul he knows intimately because he personally knit it together — and says, “You can do this.”

I go back in my mind and remember my daughter on that slope.

Twenty times. Thirty times.

Ten minutes later, we have finally traversed the twelve feet that leads to the top of the slope. And she laughs and she giggles and she prances and waddles along the now-level ground and she is thrilled to be at the top and to run and play with ease.

Of course, she was happy to be at the bottom of the slope, too.

I’ve come to a new realization: I want to learn how to giggle.

Now, I would never suggest we trivialize sin for even a moment. I’m not saying that failure is somehow okay and God doesn’t care about our success. I am not one of the Jesus followers who seems to whip God’s grace around like it’s a “Get Out of Jail Free” card from the Monopoly game of real life. In fact, I’ve noticed it’s the very fact that I take my sin so seriously that I end up being incapacitated.

But there’s something here I’m supposed to learn about my daughter.

There’s something about that slope in the park that’s bringing me closer to the Kingdom of Heaven.

I’m tired of being immobilized by my failures. I’m tired of being the guy who knows there’s no way he can pull this off. I’m tired of having a laundry list of excuses. I’m tired of letting this stinking slope get the better of me. I’m tired of wondering whether or not my Father is there for me. I’m tired of trying to decide if I’m really worth being loved. I’m tired of worrying about what the world wants from me and expects from me and thinks of me and says about me.

And I can’t just snap my fingers and make the slope go away. My problems and my hiccups and my sins are things I’m going to have to deal with. I’m going to have to get over the problems that seem to keep me down. The Spirit of God is trying to complete the work within me that He started a long time ago. I have some falling to do, and I have plenty of getting up to do. And I have a salvation that needs to be “worked out with fear and trembling” and it’s going to take some effort.

But I wonder if God would rather sit in a boat and say, “You of little faith…”

Or if He’d rather sit on a park bench and watch His children learn how to walk. I wonder if He could actually sit back and enjoy Himself if we could learn how to fall and get up and fall and get up and keep believing and keep getting back up and keep refusing to give up because we’re going to make it up this slope and we’re just so glad to be with Dad and to be loved and to know that we’re okay.

I know that I love to watch my daughter learn new things and not be stopped by her failures.

I love to watch her giggle.

I want to learn how to giggle.

- Marty Solomon

Further Resources:

• If you liked this piece by Marty, you may like the letter I wrote to my two daughters (Evelyn & Lillian) on discovering “enoughness” as Marty’s work on the BEMA Podcast greatly impacted my letter to them, as well as the overarching mission of The Wealth Letters…which is to help others discover enoughness

• Learn more about Marty & Impact Campus Ministries

• The BEMA Podcast - Marty & team do a deep dive through the Bible from an Eastern perspective.

• Marty’s Book: Asking Better Questions of The Bible

SHOUT-OUTS

• Thank you to Chris Barrett of Barefoot Studios for introducing me to the BEMA podcast, which in turn, allowed for this piece by Marty to be included in the anthology.

• Thank you to Cheryl for referring a friend to The Wealth Letters…you are so appreciated! It is people like you who share this project with others that helps to put a smile on my face! Welcome to the Leaderboard Cheryl!

  

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend?

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology and future published book?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 38th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced collection of writings from people of all walks of life, on how to find “enoughness” (the state of being & having enough) in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before reading the collection.

The following is a letter written by Matthew Gutierrez on September 17th, 2024 to his future children (and his younger self), outlining memories & reflections that have shaped how he chooses to live a life with intentionality; with the hope of passing along his findings on finding inner peace, love, and calmness.

About Matthew Gutierrez

is a writer, editor, & journalist who writes about fostering calmness in his newsletter, , which he started in 2021.

In addition to his newsletter, his stories have appeared in the pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sarasota Magazine, and the Washington Post, among others.

Matthew wrote about college basketball at The Athletic, the sports publication, before working as a senior writer at Fundstrat Global Advisors, a Wall Street equity research boutique. He has written about interesting people ranging from a bartender who works 50-hour weeks to run a school in Nicaragua to students at a Harlem Lacrosse program to a Native American lacrosse stick maker.

A native of Princeton, New Jersey, Matthew graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in finance and journalism, and is married to his soulmate, Ally.

Finding Inner Peace

By: Matthew Gutierrez

September 17th, 2024

To my future children (and my younger self),

Several years ago, a former neighbor died unexpectedly while he was walking his dog. What I remember most about him were not things like the car he drove or what clothes he wore. I remember how, when we saw each other by the mailbox or trash bins at the end of our driveways, he’d smile and wave, ask how school was going, or how my baseball team was playing. I also remember the winter mornings when he had shoveled our driveway without us ever asking. That’s what became foremost in my thoughts.

Let that guide us all about how we want to live and how we want to be remembered. Ditto with another deceased former neighbor, whom I remember for her big laugh and smile and all of the kind words she said about me, my mother, and the people we were becoming. The lesson here: Do not hesitate to perform kind acts toward yourself and others, because we all have a fundamental need to love and be loved. Among my many regrets through my life’s first 27 years, I wish I had done more to include the kids who were bullied or cast aside at school. Like author George Saunders, I regret failures of kindness. Ultimately, we all want to be accepted, cared for, and welcomed.

Another memory: The night before Thanksgiving 2017, I was covering a basketball game, and well after the game had ended, only two people remained: me and another writer, Mike Waters, who must have known I was a college student on campus for the holiday break. As we were packing up, he asked if I wanted to visit his house the following day for Thanksgiving dinner. I politely declined — my mom was visiting the next day — but it was one of the kindest offers I’d received.

This is to say what spiritual leader Ram Dass once said, “We are all just walking each other home.” We’re on this stunning blue planet, this magical place, together to support and love one another before our time is up. “We’re here for a little window,” the writer Brian Doyle has said, “and to use that time to catch and share shards of light and laughter and grace seems to me the great story.” May that sentiment drive us to love harder, be kinder, reach out to friends, repair relationships where we can, tip well, laugh a bit, smile, and try to be the reason someone feels seen or supported.

Indeed, that is the great story.

***

Stress and anxiety can get the best of us, myself included. What helps me calm down the mind? The power of the breath, exercise, and plenty of time out of doors in the fresh air, while celebrating little luxuries like clean sheets, fresh coffee, and a great sweat following a workout. (Please take care of your mind and body like your life depends on it, because it does.)

I encourage you to write handwritten letters to people. Anything can be an art if done mindfully and carefully, from washing dishes and folding clothes to driving, cooking, and making things around the house.

Dreams and goals can guide us, but please do not rush or wish your life away. Case in point: Around first grade, I remember taking a break with a friend by the water fountain and telling him something like, “I can’t wait to grow up and be an adult.” Then a nearby custodial worker chimed in_, without hesitation, saying something about how we should savor our childhood as much as possible. The years do fly by.

There is no true life path or purpose; we all wander through the wilderness on our own paths and timelines. A beautiful life is one where you hold doors for others and where, when someone gets interrupted, you circle back to say, “What were you saying?” Constantly try to see the good in a circumstance and the best in other people. “Practice kindness all day to everybody,” Jack Kerouac said, “and you will realize you're already in heaven now.”

***

“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” ~Emily Dickinson

We all have doubts and fears, and they make us human. For all that he accomplished, Leonardo Da Vinci wondered in his notebooks, “Tell me if ever I did a thing.” So go a little easy on yourself. Keep a journal throughout your lifetime to record the ordinary moments and incredible miracles. Write about your worst days, your best days, and everything in between. Try to measure these precious days not only by “what did I get done?” but also by “whom did I help?”

Know that the “good old days” are likely unfolding right now — not just in the past clouded by nostalgia. Love others and the world with every fiber of your being, for everything and everyone we’ve ever loved will one day be gone. Stay active and move plenty — we weren’t built to sit on couches and stare at screens all day. At the same time, it’s OK to take your foot off the gas, be content, and leave money on the table.

We live in a world our grandparents didn’t think possible; our ancestors would marvel at our paradise.

Why rush? To reach another to-do list? Another year? Ultimately, death awaits.

Compliments put fuel in peoples’ tanks. Buy beers for the kitchen staff, tip the sanitation worker, and leave flowers for your neighbor — do stuff like that.

Your life task? Some people say it’s simply to enjoy the passage of time. I agree. We weren’t alive for billions of years, and we will be dead for a lot longer than we’ll live. Why not have fun, befriend yourself, create beautiful art, and project love?

Remember, you have a big heart capable of so much love. A cluttered, anxious mind doesn’t negate that. Life is right now, and most thoughts are temporary visitors, just clouds floating in the sky.

***

This note is already a bit all over the place, so I’ll end with this: Some of my regrets over the past 27 years include losing touch with old friends, hurrying, not always telling others how I truly feel, not always prioritizing health and fitness and mental peace, not taking the time to smell the roses, and failing to believe in myself.

When you are very young, learn a foreign language (and an instrument or two). Discover the value of rest, breaks, nature, and delicious food. Learn to cook for yourself, then for others. Learn to use tools and work with your hands. Learn to clean a house nicely and organize your possessions, though realize that you don’t need many items for lasting happiness and inner peace. And if you can help it, don’t work a vapid job that merely pays bills; pursue a career that ignites you and contributes meaningfully to our world.

May this inspire you to live a beautiful life and celebrate your gifts.

With all my love,

Matthew

Resources:

• Matthew’s newsletter:

SHOUT-OUTS

• Thank you to for being willing to write such lovely piece for The Wealth Letters. I subscribe to Matthew’s newsletter, , and appreciate his reflections & meditations on how he is navigating finding a life of peace and calmness in a noisy world.

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend?

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 37th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced anthology from people of all walks of life, on how to discover “enoughness” (the state of being & having enough) in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before reading the collection.

Photo Credit: Marty Solomon

The following is an excerpt of a chapter from an unpublished book that Marty Solomon wrote for his daughter Abigail, titled “She Giggled.” The chapter was penned in 2012 and posted to his blog, Covered in His Dust, on April 7th, 2015.

In the book, Marty writes about the lessons he learned from her childhood that guided his own walk with God. In the following excerpt of the chapter, “She Giggled,” Marty looks at how the story of Peter walking on water came to life from watching his daughter, Abigail.

To hear Marty personally read this chapter for his daughter, he does so here, in episode 116 of The BEMA Discipleship Podcast.

This chapter is an outstanding meditation on finding our “enoughness” (ultimately that we have enough…that we are enough in His eyes).

Marty is the host of the BEMA Podcast and author of the book Asking Better Questions of the Bible, which have had a great impact on the vision of this project as well as the letter I wrote to my two daughters on discovering “enoughness” (our call to rest, to trust the story that creation is good, and that we are enough).

And so, I am so excited to share this heartfelt piece with you from Mr. Solomon, written for his daughter, Abigail.

About Marty Solomon

After being born in a small, southern Idaho town and being raised in a fundamentalist evangelical community of faith, Marty pursued a sense of calling into the ministry. He studied at Boise Bible College and received a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Ministries.

Marty went to Israel for the first time in 2008 and it changed everything. Some great mentors pointed Marty in the direction of different academic voices who were pursuing Scripture through the lens of a historical, Jewish perspective—a perspective Marty was unaware of. Through each new lesson, the Bible began to make more sense, and the invitation to partner with God in pursuing the concept of shalom was becoming more and more compelling. He also saw an approach to discipleship where these young men possessed a fiery passion to become like their rabbi; or, as the rabbis would say, to be “covered in his dust.”

Marty now serves as the President of Impact Campus Ministries and has a passionate belief that the best way to pursue all of these dreams for changing the world is to work with the young adults who will be creating that world. He longs to help them see why the work they do every day is part of how God is putting the world back together. He eagerly desires to spread the news among college students that God is looking for partners.

Source: Marty Solomon

She Giggled

By: Marty Solomon

2012

I continue to be fascinated by Jesus’s exhortation to have faith like a child. There is something about the nature of a child’s understanding of his or her world that Jesus finds exemplary. It’s hard for me, if I’m honest, to actually consider a child being an example of faith. At best, I have thought of this lesson as cute — but certainly not packed with precious depth.

And yet, I guess I’ve interacted with enough of Jesus’s teachings to know better. As a Jewish rabbi teaching his disciples valuable and important lessons, I know that if a rabbi such as Jesus takes the time to set up a scenario and then uses it as a picture of spiritual formation, the listeners had better take note. Visible lessons from the rabbi are never intended to be empty — or easy, for that matter.

In short, I need to stop treating that lesson as trivial or something that belongs on the flannel graph.

Part of my experience as a father, as I continue to make valuable observations, has been to notice how much profound depth there is to this very lesson. As the story goes in one gospel, Jesus gathers the children around him. How long does this gathering and discussion take place? We are not told. I have always assumed that Jesus takes about twenty seconds to gather some kids up, looks at his disciples and other listeners and says, “Unless you have faith like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom.” Then, I have always imagined him ushering the children away, so that he could proceed with his much more important, significant, and profound rabbinical teachings for the day.

But after watching children at great length, I have begun to question my chronological assumptions. Perhaps this wasn’t merely a two-minute lesson that day; perhaps it didn’t resemble the silly “children’s sermon” the pastor gives before the “real” message. Perhaps this teaching was much more profound than I realized. Let me just suggest another possible scenario.

Imagine Jesus and the disciples arose that morning, went about their typical duties, gathered in the synagogue for morning readings, and left for the day’s adventures. I picture maybe Matthew asking the question, “Rabbi, who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

I picture Jesus pausing, silently gazing off into the nearby village and, without a word, marching off in the direction of the houses. Jesus arrives on the outskirts of the village and sees a whole host of children, ten or fifteen of them, playing in a courtyard. He leads his disciples into the courtyard with the honored parents watching and welcoming him and his disciples, gracious to have such esteemed guests.

The disciples, of course, are watching, paying attention to Jesus’s every move as he scoops up a child and begins to playfully interact with the children. As a disciple, of course, your main duty is to mimic every move of your rabbi and so you begin to engage the children in horseplay, as well. I imagine Jesus and his disciples spending the day with the children — telling stories, playing games, maybe even taking naps.

As the day begins to come to a close, the family insists you stay for dinner. As you begin to recline in the shade of a nearby tree, Jesus speaks some of the first and only words he’s spoken to you all day.

“Watch the children.”

You watch and you recline and you eat. As the sun begins to set in the sky, Jesus calls one of the children over by name. He takes him and pulls him close under his arm and he looks around at all of his disciples, making eye contact with all of them.

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

I have discovered there are great lessons to be learned from watching children.

The Strength of a Little Girl

Not too long ago, Mom was at work and it was a nice day outside for a blustery winter in Idaho. It was just dad and daughter, so I took her to a local park. In a rare moment for this control-freak of a father, I decided I just wanted to let my daughter be. I wasn’t going to assume that toys or swings were what her entertainment of choice would be. I would watch her and keep her out of trouble, but I had this desire to see what she would do if she was left to be the captain of her own ship.

She had just learned to walk.

The whole experience of learning to walk was an incredible thing to behold as a parent. There are certain milestones you wait for in a newborn’s life — the first time she rolls over, the first crawl, the first tooth — but there is nothing that compares to the ability of walking.

There’s the sheer panic the parent feels when their kid isn’t walking as soon as their friends’ kid is. You begin to question whether or not your child is going to be okay just a few weeks after “all the other children are walking.” It’s an interesting thing, really. You don’t obsess over teeth or weight like you do for walking.

And I can remember the joy of seeing my child learn to crawl or mutter her first words. But nothing compares to the pure thrill of those first five or six steps. It’s an incredible high — a rush of adrenaline and cheering with the look of bliss and joy covering your child’s face. It’s a look that says they are having the ride of their life on their own two legs for the first time. It’s a look that says she is so happy to be the joy of her parents. It’s a great look.

But anyway, back to the park. She had just learned how to walk and walking was, as they say, the cat’s meow. She was on top of the world just walking around in the grass. I was here only to watch, enjoy, and keep her from disappearing into a sprinkler hole.

At one point in our afternoon she had walked off to the side of the park and down a very slight slope. I say “slight” from the perspective of someone who stands at 6’4’’, not as a one-year-old. I was actually quite impressed she had not fallen face-first on the way down the slope. Now, however, she had turned around and decided she was ready to make her ascent back up the hill.

What I witnessed next was simple.

But what I witnessed next I will never forget as long as I live.

This upward slope was a brand new experience for her; she had never encountered the physics of walking uphill. She attempted to take a step and immediately fell backward. The green grass was nice and long from a whole fall and winter season of no lawn mowers. She was unhurt. There was no need for Dad to step in. He could continue to observe.

She giggled.

She got back up (which is not an easy process for a one-year-old just learning to walk in the grass). She attempted to take a step…

She fell.

She got up. She attempted to take a step.

She fell.

She got up. She fell.

She giggled.

I expected to hear a cry or a whimper, but one never came. I expected to hear her whine and stretch out her hand to Dad for assistance. But she was just fine.

She giggled.

And she got up, she tried again, and she fell.

Without exaggerating, I can honestly say this process repeated itself a good twenty times before anything changed. Each and every time, she got up, she stepped, she fell. Every now and again, she would giggle.

At this point, she had begun to make some adjustments based on her newfound data in this one-year-old physics laboratory of sorts. She shifted her weight differently. She took her time. She placed her feet differently in relation to her body and the slope. She placed her feet, took a step, and took another step. She had remained upright.

She screamed a happy little girly scream.

She took another step — and fell.

She giggled.

O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH

There is a story in the gospels we all know quite well. It’s the story of Peter walking on the water. It’s an amazing story that fascinates us to no end. Our western minds are blown away as we consider the possibility of a man pursuing Jesus out onto the waves of the Sea of Galilee, performing such a miraculous feat to mirror that of his rabbi. It’s almost too much for us to believe. And then, just as we’re beginning to become skeptical, Peter meets all of the worldly expectations and succumbs to the failure we’ve all been wishing he would defeat as our representative. He wavers, he fails, and he sinks.

I’ve seen the look in too many people’s eyes as they read that story. It’s this look of hopeful disbelief, followed by a “that’s what I thought would happen” expression on their face (even if they’ve read the story a thousand times, I will see this expression or hear this tone). We then listen as Jesus scolds Peter’s faith — while we all readily put ourselves into Peter’s shoes and share his scolding — and we nod.

But there is so much more taking place in this story. Much has been taught about this story already, so I don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing anything. Ray Vander Laan had an excellent treatment of this subject in That the World May Know, a series put out by Focus on the Family (DVD 6, “In the Dust of the Rabbi,” Zondervan). Rob Bell treated the subject very well in Velvet Elvis (Zondervan, 2005). And another great and concise source of reference for this story can be found in the NOOMA video entitled Dust (flannel.org), among many others. I could not recommend these resources enough (or any others from these teachers, for that matter).

The first-century concept of discipleship was such that the most “successful” thing you could do in the Jewish culture, the thing they valued the most, was the study of Torah. One of the pinnacle experiences of the Jewish school system was being given the opportunity to become a talmid — or as we say it, a disciple.

If you thought you had what it takes as a student of the Torah, you would apply for discipleship under a rabbi. One of the greatest honors a boy could receive would be the acceptance of a rabbi to be his talmid. If a rabbi chose you as a disciple, he was in essence saying to you, “I believe you have what it takes to become just like me.” It was a great honor. So, the path of a disciple was a path of memorizing the rabbi’s teachings, taking on the rabbi’s set of interpretations, and — most importantly — becoming just like the rabbi.

This meant you spent all day, every day, trying to mimic the thoughts, actions, and teachings of your teacher. Some Jewish scholars say they have seen a rabbi proceed into a restroom and in his wake are ten or twelve young disciples.

You want to be just like your rabbi.

If your rabbi does it — you do it.

And you know that you can do it — because if you could not have done it, the rabbi would never have called you. The rabbi’s call is his affirmation in your ability and potential.

Peter finds himself in a boat that night with the other disciples and they end up encountering Jesus, who happens to be walking on the water. If Jesus is walking on the water, what does Peter want to do? He wants to be just like his rabbi.

“Lord, if it’s really you, call me out to you on the water.”

“Come.”

And Peter does. He walks on the water. It’s an incredible story. Peter is a true disciple.

And then Peter sinks. But why does Peter sink? The answer for many of us is that Peter loses faith; he sees the wind and the waves and he loses faith. This is correct, but as Bell asks: whom does he lose faith in? Jesus?

Jesus is not sinking. Jesus is doing just fine.

Does Peter lose faith in Jesus’s ability to help him walk on water?

Or, does Peter lose faith in himself?

Jesus rescues Peter, pulls him into the boat, and then asks, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Is this actually a rabbinical scolding of Peter’s failure to accomplish his task? Or is this question of Jesus actually driving at his belief in Peter?

“Peter, if you didn’t have what it takes to walk on water, I never would have called you out. You had everything you needed to do this! I believe in you, Peter! You can do whatever I call you to do. I will never ask you to do something you cannot do.”

Listen to what Bell says in Velvet Elvis:

So at the end of his time with his disciples, Jesus has some final words for them. He tells them to go to the ends of the earth and make more disciples. And then he leaves. He promises to send his Spirit to guide them and give them power, but Jesus himself leaves the future of the movement in their hands. And he doesn’t stick around to make sure they don’t screw it up. He’s gone. He trusts that they can actually do it. 

God has an incredibly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things.

I have been told that I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that Jesus believes in me.

I have been told that I need to have faith in God. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that God has faith in me. 

The rabbi thinks we can be like him.

TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO GIGGLE

I often watch my children and wonder when it was that I lost faith in myself.

Now, I’m not talking about a narcissistic faith that seems to elevate my standing in God’s created order and lacks humility. I’m certainly not trying to promote some humanistic worldview that seems to assert that the answer to our ills somehow lies within us. I truly and earnestly believe the hope for all of this world’s brokenness lies in the power of the resurrected Christ and the reality of Jesus.

But I’m talking about the faith in myself that recognizes I’m made in the image of God — the kind of faith that might actually be willing to believe there must be something worth loving and worth saving if God was willing to save it through the story of the cross.

I wonder, as I watch my children, how it was that my innocence was somehow connected with my confidence. (Boy, there’s another chapter or two waiting to be written, eh?)

Jesus tells me that if I were to watch children for a little while, it would probably do me some good — that if I cannot change and become like little children, the Kingdom will be out of my reach.

One of the things that I’m noticing about children is they have incredible faith in themselves. They know Dad is there and they know Mom is there and they know they are loved and they just want to play and smile and laugh and tumble.

It seems like later on in life, we begin to question all of those things.

Is Dad really there for me? Am I really worth loving? Can I really do this?

And we try to do the things we know in our hearts we were created to do. We step out of the boat and we begin to walk, but we know the wind and the waves are out there somewhere, just waiting to sabotage our one fleeting moment of weak courage. We try and we sink.

And we’re not surprised, really, are we?

We knew it would happen just like this. There’s no way we could ever walk on water. So we grab for our life preserver and we climb back into the boat and we hold our gaze on the floor and we take the scolding we knew we had coming. O me of little faith. O me the big doubter. It’s just another failed attempt to live out what God intends for my life. When will I ever learn? I should just get used to this and stay in the boat next time; it will save me the humiliation and the pain and the failure. It’s much safer and nicer here in the boat.

Yeah. Next time, I won’t be so silly.

I picture Jesus grabbing me by the chin and jerking my head up, waiting for my gaze to meet his. And with a divine sparkle in his eye, he looks into my soul — the soul he knows intimately because he personally knit it together — and says, “You can do this.”

I go back in my mind and remember my daughter on that slope.

Twenty times. Thirty times.

Ten minutes later, we have finally traversed the twelve feet that leads to the top of the slope. And she laughs and she giggles and she prances and waddles along the now-level ground and she is thrilled to be at the top and to run and play with ease.

Of course, she was happy to be at the bottom of the slope, too.

I’ve come to a new realization: I want to learn how to giggle.

Now, I would never suggest we trivialize sin for even a moment. I’m not saying that failure is somehow okay and God doesn’t care about our success. I am not one of the Jesus followers who seems to whip God’s grace around like it’s a “Get Out of Jail Free” card from the Monopoly game of real life. In fact, I’ve noticed it’s the very fact that I take my sin so seriously that I end up being incapacitated.

But there’s something here I’m supposed to learn about my daughter.

There’s something about that slope in the park that’s bringing me closer to the Kingdom of Heaven.

I’m tired of being immobilized by my failures. I’m tired of being the guy who knows there’s no way he can pull this off. I’m tired of having a laundry list of excuses. I’m tired of letting this stinking slope get the better of me. I’m tired of wondering whether or not my Father is there for me. I’m tired of trying to decide if I’m really worth being loved. I’m tired of worrying about what the world wants from me and expects from me and thinks of me and says about me.

And I can’t just snap my fingers and make the slope go away. My problems and my hiccups and my sins are things I’m going to have to deal with. I’m going to have to get over the problems that seem to keep me down. The Spirit of God is trying to complete the work within me that He started a long time ago. I have some falling to do, and I have plenty of getting up to do. And I have a salvation that needs to be “worked out with fear and trembling” and it’s going to take some effort.

But I wonder if God would rather sit in a boat and say, “You of little faith…”

Or if He’d rather sit on a park bench and watch His children learn how to walk. I wonder if He could actually sit back and enjoy Himself if we could learn how to fall and get up and fall and get up and keep believing and keep getting back up and keep refusing to give up because we’re going to make it up this slope and we’re just so glad to be with Dad and to be loved and to know that we’re okay.

I know that I love to watch my daughter learn new things and not be stopped by her failures.

I love to watch her giggle.

I want to learn how to giggle.

- Marty Solomon

Further Resources:

• If you liked this piece by Marty, you may like the letter I wrote to my two daughters (Evelyn & Lillian) on discovering “enoughness” as Marty’s work on the BEMA Podcast greatly impacted my letter to them, as well as the overarching mission of The Wealth Letters…which is to help others discover enoughness

• Learn more about Marty & Impact Campus Ministries

• The BEMA Podcast - Marty & team do a deep dive through the Bible from an Eastern perspective.

• Marty’s Book: Asking Better Questions of The Bible

SHOUT-OUTS

• Thank you to Chris Barrett of Barefoot Studios for introducing me to the BEMA podcast, which in turn, allowed for this piece by Marty to be included in the anthology.

• Thank you to Cheryl for referring a friend to The Wealth Letters…you are so appreciated! It is people like you who share this project with others that helps to put a smile on my face! Welcome to the Leaderboard Cheryl!

  

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend?

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology and future published book?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 36th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced anthology from people of all walks of life, on how to discover enoughness.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before reading the collection.

Photo Credit:

The following is an open letter written by to his readers on March 13, 2024. The original piece can be viewed here.

In this letter, Scantron reflects on the notion that no person ever said, “I wish I had less fun, and grinded 24/7 instead.” Rather, we are here to “fart around.”

About Scantron (in His Own Words)

Source: About Scantron

We Are Here to Fart Around

By:

March 13, 2024

I saw a tweet recently where presumably a guy asked his friend to go Dune 2 with him and some other friends. His friend replied, “I can't; I am world building atm (at the moment).”

First off, I am unsure what world building is. Second off, how does world building stop you from seeing Dune 2 or how does anything truly stop you from hanging with some friends? This wasn’t about world building in video games, either. Life isn’t that serious. 

World building sounds a bit audacious, but if I had to guess, world building also probably involves money. The world revolves around money. But the pursuit of money isn’t everything. It can deceive you into thinking you enjoy something and it can convince you into letting the days pass you by.

That is not how it should be. Life is meant to be fun. We are here to fart around. 

---

Early in my career, I really struggled with doing close to nothing on the weekends. I struggled to relax. I was young, naive, and fresh out of college. I thought weekends should be spent one of two ways:

1. Grinding away - Going to the gym, working on a side project, reading books, running long distances, etc. It wasn’t working per se but more of how are you bettering yourself outside of work. It was not relaxing and sitting in front of your TV and watching football all day. We only have so much time on this earth, it better not be wasted on a couch.

2. Fun, crazy, exotic experiences - Tailgate an SEC football game, go to the beach, bar hopping all night long, etc. The weekend was the time to let loose and when you came into the office on Monday you better have something cool to share.

Except, I was dead wrong. The more I got into my career, the more I realized a lot of the time people have on the weekends was with people they love, doing simple things, and relaxing. It was not about having the best weekend or grinding the hardest. It was about enjoying the small stuff and sometimes, simply relaxing and doing unproductive things that make you happy. 

Farting around was not easy for me because it comes with a connotation of just moving carelessly through life and not having a care in the world. Except, sometimes you need times and weekends like this. I should constantly want to better myself but I should not think I constantly must be doing something to better myself. There is an important distinction there. You are allowed to have fun and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Ironically, the way to the most money is by doing something that allows you to relax and rest before going full steam ahead again. 

In working out and growing muscle, the formula is work + rest = improvement. You have to break the muscle down to be able to build it back up. You can’t just constantly work the muscle or the muscle will never grow. Our mind is no different. Our mind is a muscle. You have to do meaningful work in life but to do meaningful work, you also have to let your mind rest. It is full steam ahead but full steam ahead all the time will drive you right into the ground. 

Paul Graham talks about the need to take care of the body in his essay How to Do Great Work, 

“Ultimately morale is physical. You think with your body, so it's important to take care of it. That means exercising regularly, eating and sleeping well, and avoiding the more dangerous kinds of drugs. Running and walking are particularly good forms of exercise because they're good for thinking.”

Exercising, sleeping, and eating well are all important. Not to mention, spending time with those you care about. If you do none of these things, it is incredibly hard to be happy when you are lonely, unhealthy, and tired. Work and money are not everything and thinking they are is a sure way to lose.

To do great work, it is important to have enthusiasm that surrounds it. It is important to pay close attention to your morale. Morale compounds. Enthusiasm helps you do good work, which improves your attitude and helps you to do even better work. Being enthusiastic is worth at least 25 IQ points. 

Not to mention, the people you surround yourself with have a huge effect on your morale. Hopefully, they energize you. Don’t always deprioritize them for the pursuit of more money or the pursuit of bettering your career because, in reality, they probably make you better at what you do. They push you to be a better version of yourself. Sure, there are moments when it might be necessary to prioritize work or money but safe to say, that seeing them may even help you in the pursuit of more money and the pursuit of bettering your career all while helping you not burn yourself out. You are allowed to hang out with people. You are allowed to have mindless disruptions.

---

We are led to believe the fewest disruptions lead to the best work which in turn leads to the most money. We can always live a life where we are optimizing for the fewest disruptions. But sometimes those disruptions are necessary. Our world has been continually optimized for convenience to minimize those disruptions. Everything is literally at the tip of our fingers. Everything is optimized for comfort. It is a comfort crisis. 

I can get my groceries delivered for free but I never do. It is a disruption in my day to go to the grocery store but I always find myself walking through that front door and never getting delivery. Don’t worry there are other monetary benefits such as extra fuel points to my free delivery package. I am not just paying for free delivery for no reason but that is beside the point. What keeps me coming back to the store is sometimes you run into people you haven’t seen in ages. Sometimes you just get to drive with your windows down on your way there and enjoy the nice day. Sometimes it is just nice to leave your desk and interact with people after a long day of work from home. All of this happens because you go to the store. Sometimes, for no other reason than needing a bag of granola, you can’t quit. Sure, it is already the third trip to the grocery this week but sometimes it doesn’t have to make sense and you take advantage of the luxury of being able to fart around.

Not everything has to make monetary sense. The world tries to demand us to do it for the money. Why don’t we pay a $5 fee to save time, gas, and money on groceries? Why don’t we save for our 401k instead of taking the trip we have always wanted? Why don’t we chase the high-status jobs? Why don’t we seek to be in the highest-paying careers? 

It makes me think of this quote from Naval, 

“The great ones don’t do it for money or fame or power. 

Or to build an institution, or to help others, or to save the world.

Like a child tinkering, they create for its own sake.

Free of the burden of ambition.

Deaf to the demands of the world.”

Children love to play. With playing, comes time spent doing things out of curiosity and doing things for fun. Doing things that might just not make sense. Maybe just farting around. Show me a person doing great things and you will see a kid playing. Kids can play for hours on end and not get bored because there is no ulterior motive there to influence them. It is just for the love of the game, the love of the task, and the love to just play. Not for money. Not for fame. 

We don’t have to obsess over money. The real great ones just fall in love with the process and figure the rest, money included, will fall in line later. All the people who spent days sleeping on the floor to chase a dream, clearly didn’t have money as the top priority or they wouldn’t be broke chasing a dream.

Life is like a terminal illness. When the time comes, you won’t care about all the time you spent obsessing over money, what you are building, or your projects. I used to think life was all about grinding or having the best time possible that everyone would be jealous of, but it is not. Then I began to change my mind and I think Anna Quindlen said it perfectly in a commencement speech, 

“The exam comes at the very end. No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time at the office. I found one of my best teachers on the boardwalk at Coney Island maybe 15 years ago. It was December, and I was doing a story about how the homeless survive in the winter months.

He and I sat on the edge of the wooden supports, dangling our feet over the side, and he told me about his schedule; panhandling the boulevard when the summer crowds were gone, sleeping in a church when the temperature went below freezing, hiding from the police amidst the Tilt a Whirl and the Cyclone and some of the other seasonal rides. But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were sitting now even when it got cold and he had to wear his newspapers after he read them.

And I asked him why. Why didn't he go to one of the shelters? Why didn't he check himself into the hospital for detox? And he just stared out at the ocean and said, "Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view."

And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he said. I try to look at the view. And that's the last thing I have to tell you today, words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. You'll never be disappointed.”

If you are forever concerned about what the big picture may bring, the next deal to be made or the next partnership to close, you will never notice the little things and never enjoy the view. Humans are meant to get out and experience the world. Humans are meant to fart around, to laugh, and to enjoy the view. Humans are not meant to have everything be about money, to be about grinding 24/7, or to be about building something with the fewest disruptions. Even if you are building the world, that can wait too. You don’t want to miss the view.

Appreciate you reading.

-Scantron

Further Resources:

• If you liked this letter by Ryan, you likely will enjoy this letter written by Kolin, where he writes a letter to himself from the future:

The Wealth Letters

#005 - The Wealthy 24 Year-Old

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above…

Read more

3 years ago · 9 likes · 9 comments · Jordan | The Wealth Letters

• Scantron’s newsletter:

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 35th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced anthology from people of all walks of life on how to discover enoughness in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before reading the collection.

Photo Credit:

The following is a letter written from Polina Pompliano to her two children, Sofia & Leo, on “winning the lottery,” and more specifically, how to define (and find) true wealth in their own lives.

The letter was written on May 3rd, 2024 for The Wealth Letters Anthology. Thank you so much Polina for contributing your letter!

About Polina

Polina is a mother, wife to , author of the book Hidden Genius, and author of . Polina was previously a reporter for FORTUNE Magazine.

She is passionate about her family as well as learning from the stories of others, in what she likes to call “people-focused learning,” the notion that people and their stories are at the center of any learning pursuit. Stories trigger emotion, and emotion triggers memory.

The Wealthy Immigrant

By:

May 3rd, 2024

Dear Sofia and Leo,

They say the greatest lottery in life is where you were born. For my family, that lottery was much more literal.

In 1999, my parents and I were living in Bulgaria. My dad had picked me up from school, and as we approached our building, a neighbor called out to him that some of our mail was delivered to their apartment instead. She handed him a thick envelope, and his eyes widened until he opened it and yelled, “Yes!” approximately one hundred times.

We had won a green card to come to the United States. The U.S. green card lottery has been called “the unwinnable lottery” because only one quarter of 1% of applicants actually end up with the golden ticket. Without that absurd stroke of luck, my life would’ve turned out quite differently.

I recently reflected just how much my parents — your grandparents — left behind to start over here. They both worked multiple jobs with crazy hours and horrendous commutes.

In Bulgaria, my dad had been a 33-year-old with a master’s degree in chemical engineering and more than a decade of work experience. But in the first few months in the U.S, he was working part-time at a hotel and a fast-food restaurant.

I recently asked him, “Were you upset that it felt like you were starting over?”

And his answer surprised me. He said, “Not at all.”

He told me that he pictured two mountains — one small and one big. The small one represented his potential in Bulgaria. He had obtained a degree from one of the most prestigious and rigorous universities, and he was working on something tangentially related to what he studied in school. But he was close to the peak of that small mountain, and then that was it. There was nowhere else to go from there. His potential was capped.

But when we moved to the U.S, he says, he pictured himself jumping from the small mountain to an equivalent place on the bigger mountain. Unlike the small mountain, that place meant that he was near the bottom rather than near the top. There was a lot more climbing left to do. Rather than seeing it as a burden, he saw it as an opportunity.

Though I had my own struggles with moving to the U.S, it’s my parents who deserve the credit for climbing this steep mountain with a heavy backpack filled with worries and responsibilities. They re-built their lives in a foreign country without support because it really was an endeavor with no safety net. But the good news is: We made it … not to the top, but definitely far from the bottom.

The apartment complex where we first lived has been bulldozed and re-built. So has the shopping center. So has the bus stop. So has our life.

In the acknowledgements section of my book Hidden Genius, I write: “To my parents, who sacrificed everything to move to a foreign country in pursuit of a better life. Those early years in the United States were unspeakably difficult, but I’ll never forget the moments of joy and laughter along the way.”

Because that’s the thing I’ve realized in the last 24 years in the United States: It’s true that the early days were difficult. Unspeakably difficult. But during those days of uncertainty and chaos, there was always the certainty of … us. My best memories were formed during that time because of a well-timed joke, a language mix-up, or the first time I encountered a breaded, deep-fried, sausage on a stick you Americans call “a corn dog.”

Remember, three things: 1) You won the lottery of being born in the greatest country on earth; 2) No one can take away the wealth of knowledge you acquire throughout your life; and 3) You can choose what mountain you climb.

And so, even though my parents and I had no money to our name, we were wealthy beyond belief. Because, kids, “wealth” is all about how you define it. To me, wealth is not your job title. It’s not your social status. It’s not how much cash you have in your bank account.

Wealth is the knowledge that you can bet on yourself time and time again to figure it out. You’ll fall, you’ll get up again, and you’ll keep climbing. That’s OK. That will happen no matter which mountain you choose to climb. Just make sure that you set your sights on one whose peak feels worth it, no matter how challenging the path.

Further Resources:

• Polina’s Book: Hidden Genius

• Polina’s Weekly Newsletter:

• An outstanding podcast episode with delving deeper into Polina’s life & book!

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 34th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced anthology from people of all walks of life on how to discover enoughness in a noisy world.

If you haven’t done so, please read or listen to the manifesto before diving in to the collection, as it will give a clear vision of the project; the Who, What, and Why.

The following letter is an updated (version 2) letter written by Jordan Olmscheid to his two daughters on how to find the “good life” in a noisy world (written on April 26, 2024). The original (and much too long letter) can be viewed here.

The original letter (written on November 29, 2022) absolutely applies, but as time passes, I (Jordan) continue to learn, grow, and have new discoveries that I want to pass on to my daughters. Not to mention that brevity is usually the better option.

Jordan is a girl dad, husband, Christian, small business owner, and curator of The Wealth Letters.

Jordan, pictured with his wife, Carmen, and daughters Evelyn & Lillian. Photo credit to Maggie Kamenick.

Dear Evelyn & Lillian,

has a theory in his book, Steal Like an Artist, that says:

So, even though this letter is designed for you both, it’s also me talking to the younger Jordan of high school who was ingrained in academics and sports; working non-stop towards college and that “next step” of life. I am also talking to the younger Jordan in college, just about to graduate and getting prepared for the “real world.”

Life is noisy…you are bombarded from every angle on what you should be (and what you shouldn’t), who you should be (and who you shouldn’t), what to look like, what to say, how to act, what you should feel, and on and on…you have a computer in your pocket with 10 apps that are designed to give you a 1 minute dopamine hit and scroll to the next…these apps are designed to keep you coming back by promising you ways to be better, look better, and attain the happiness that seemingly many other people have, that you don’t!

The world is screaming for your attention, and will do almost anything to get it…I’m not going to lie, you are going to battle every single day, and I assure you that you likely will continue to be bombarded with this noise non-stop…so, what do you do with that? 

You need to trust the story that you are enough…in Genesis, God created the earth and everything in it, and said it was GOOD. God’s story of creation says that it is good…meaning that YOU are good; YOU are enough.1

You are going to be confronted with a few questions, early and often, and they’re questions that may not always seem so clear or straight-forward to answer (and that’s okay)!

What does it all mean?

Why am I here?

How do I find happiness, contentment, and meaning? (The Good Life)

These are the very questions I have been asking myself for as long as I can remember (and still seem to ask myself these questions even to this day). While I certainly don’t have the magic answers, I do have experiences that have molded my own answers to these questions (and perhaps it might help you navigate the answers to your questions).

So here goes.

We all need to work. Work at jobs to support our families, work to get good grades in school, work to become a better athlete, work to create and keep lasting relationships… do not look at work as a penalty; look at it as a blessing! Look at it as something we were designed to do.

Arthur Brooks2 talks about meaningful work and provides a parable that illustrates this well:

There’s an old story about a guy who is walking down the street and he sees somebody who is putting one brick on top of another, and he asks him, “So, what are you doing?” The man replied, “Well, obviously, I am just laying bricks.” There is another guy next to him doing the same thing. So, he asks him, “What are you doing?” The second man said, “Well, I am building a wall.” There is a third guy doing the same thing, and he asks him, “What are you doing?” The third man said, “I am building a Cathedral.”

What’s your answer to how you look at your work?

“Are you laying bricks or are you building a cathedral?”

The next elephant in the room we all must navigate is money. Many have said that "money doesn't buy happiness.” But girls, as your grandpa says, "I would sure like to give it a try." Even though I KNOW this to be true, I still struggle with thinking that money will provide me security, and that if I just had “X” dollars, I would be secure & content. This is a scarcity mindset in that says I don’t fully trust God and his abundance. Rather, I am caught up with what the world (empire) tells me what security looks like.3

Please understand that money is not what life and wealth is all about, and money, on its own, does not equate to happiness. However, I do feel that having a healthy relationship with money, and building a strong financial foundation will give you more space to focus on the other important things in your life, rather than stressing about your finances.

Invest your money with simplicity & low costs.

Listen to JL Collins from his book on how to take The Simple Path to Wealth. Mr. Collins has a place in my heart because he wrote the book for his daughter with the hope to help her navigate money successfully; just as I am now writing to you both, hoping I can save you from some of the mistakes I have made. JL tells his daughter to save a portion of her income (more is better), live on less, and invest the difference. Invest in low cost index or target date funds with low fees. Many employers have these options available to their employees, and you can even invest in these vehicles without an employer through an IRA. We can talk about this more when you are ready, but for now, understand the The Simple Path to Wealth in one sentence:

“Live on less than you earn, and invest the difference.”

Mr. Collins even writes about the Simplest Path to Wealth of all, which is perhaps the utmost easiest way to invest it and forget it, which is through low-cost target-date funds. You put in an age that you think you will stop working at, and the fund will invest your money for you, and will get less aggressive as you age all on auto-pilot. If you don’t want to have to think at all about how to invest your money, then I suggest taking JL’s advice and investing your money into a target date retirement fund!

Sounds so easy doesn’t it? But, we are human beings that get caught up in fear and greed when it comes to our money.

It took first-hand experience for me to realize that the simple formula for investing is, indeed, simple, but difficult to follow. In the past few years with the COVID pandemic, high inflation, and rising interest rates causing the stock market to move up and down by 30% or more in short order, I did not “stay the course.”4

I got scared when I saw your mother and I’s hard earned money seemingly dwindling away as everyone was saying that, “This time is different! The stock market is surely going to plunge further! We are headed to another Great Depression because we are in a world-wide pandemic!”

Your mother and I had been diligently saving on our high-income teaching salaries for years. Yes, this is sarcasm - as they say, “You don’t get into teaching for the money.” For me to see years of diligent saving being wiped out in short order causes one to do irrational things.

I thought I knew better and got out of the market. And guess what happened? You got it! The market recovered quickly and furiously. I consider myself to be an educated individual when it comes to money and finances; and yet, I made the exact mistake that I said I would never do, which was to think that I knew better than the market.

Sometimes we need to experience things ourselves to truly believe it. Well girls, I experienced the downfall of thinking I knew better than the market. Don’t do this…invest your money with simplicity and continue to do so over time.

Ok, one last simple formula for you on this mammoth we have to deal with in life called money. Bob & Linda Lotich, authors of Simple Money, Rich Life gives us four short statements for how to have a healthy relationship with money, which is:

Bob and Linda take the “give all you can” statement to the extreme: They have a goal of giving away their age in % of their income every year! Think about that, if they are 40 years old, they will give away 40% of everything they make. For the Lotich’s, they are living proof that they can live a rich life while still giving away a large portion of their money. You can live a fruitful, enjoyable life where one can be christ-centered and have money! It doesn’t need to be an either-or thing.

Girls, there is only 1 thing in this world that actually is too good to be and is true…and that is God’s grace! What is grace? In simple terms, it is something given that is not deserved.

Think about a time when you treated someone with utter disrespect, and you knew that you deserved the consequences of your actions…but, the person forgave you with no strings attached. That is grace.

We are all imperfect people living in an imperfect world. We all will someday pass on from this earth, but it is our gracious God, who by His choice and by His grace, has forgiven our imperfections and tells us that we are enough. You are enough!

Because you are enough in His eyes, you don’t need to look back and wonder what “could have been.” This robs you of your joy. It robs you of what is right in front of you now. I now look at where I am today with a healthy marriage, two beautiful baby girls, a supportive family and friends group; and I know that what has happened in my past has shaped me and prepared me to do what I am called to do - which is to be a loving husband, father, and follower of Christ. If I commit to being those things, the rest will fall into place.

It’s not door A or door B, and you choose wrong. Rather, God will bless you whichever path you choose.5

Find your battle buddies. Your mother and I have a support group that we can turn to when life is going along smoothly, as well as when the inevitable times come when life can’t seem to be going more wrong. We are blessed to have close relationships with our parents and siblings that we can feel comfortable telling our struggles to, and asking for guidance.

Evelyn, your godfather called me every single day, without fail, to just listen when I was going through a very tough time in my life in high school. To this day, we know we are there for one another no matter what happens. We are battle buddies.

Your mother and I are in a small group with other Christians who are in the same stage of life as we are. We are all navigating the trials of balancing careers, raising kids, and trying to strengthen our marriages. They challenge us to think beyond ourselves; to think beyond our struggles of the moment. Having a small group of people to do life with that you can count on, and can trust, will pay dividends to you. We are not made to navigate this life on our own.

As much as I would love it if you both would consider your mom and me to be in your battle buddies, I understand that this may not always be the case. And so, I urge you to perform your due diligence on who is going to be your team of people; your battle buddies. Will they push you to strengthen your faith? Will they give you the opportunity to be you? Will they challenge you, in a healthy way, to achieve your goals and vision for your life?

Proverbs 13:20 says that:

Find a mentor (or two, or three)

There is a saying that says, “Don’t re-invent the wheel.” You both are going to be confronted with countless decisions. Seemingly simple decisions like:

• What do I want to eat?

• What should I wear?

• What movie do I want to watch?

But, you will also be faced with decisions that will not be so easy:

• Should I go to college?

• Where do I want to go to college?

• Should I be dating that person?

• Will this purchase provide positive outcomes to my life?

And, even decisions that may seem unanswerable:

• Who am I going to be?

• What am I supposed to do with my life?

• Why am I here?

Some of these decisions you will be able to make without much thought. But, some of these decisions will cause you to truly think critically; to question which direction of action is best. This can be scary on your own, especially if you don’t have the experience to draw from to make an educated decision.

Don’t re-invent the wheel. Find those who have experienced similar decisions before you. What happened to them? How did they feel? What do they wish they would have done differently?

I own a business, and I would not be successful without the mentorship of my parents (your grandma and grandpa). Why? Because they both own or have owned their own businesses ever since I can remember. Owning a business is not something that comes naturally. It takes trial and error. It takes long hours. It takes experiencing what works and what doesn’t. These have all been true in my experience as a business owner.

But, the mentorship of being able to ask my parents for guidance on what has worked for them, roadblocks to consider, and ideas to make the business better considerably shortened my learning curve, and helped in alleviating the mistakes they went through on their business journeys.

It is invaluable having a mentor (or two, or three) who you have fact-checked, studied, and done your due diligence on enough to know that their guidance and wisdom can be reliably counted upon without question. The people in my life that I can go to with a question or concern, and take their guidance and wisdom without question, is my mother (your grandma O.), my father-in-law (your grandpa J.), my older brother (your uncle Darrin), and the men in my small group. Over time, their modeling and guidance has proven time and again to be reliable.

Who are you going to count on when you have decisions to make that seem like there is no right answer? Who can you go to, without question, and know that their guidance is reliable?

Find them, and ask for directions.6

Things don't always make sense, but they don't always have to

That’s tough for my perfectionist black and white brain to deal with. I want to know the answers. I want to know what’s next. I like having a plan in place for everything in life.

But, that is not how life always works. Sometimes, the answers aren’t always available in the moment. Sometimes, you cannot know what is next. Sometimes, your plan is completely torn apart. What will you do when things don’t make sense? When life seems to be unfair? When you are confronted with struggles and cannot seem to find the answer?

To be honest, I don’t have the answer to these questions. I have had a rollercoaster of plans that have changed from being set on playing college basketball at a top academic school, to deciding to not go to college at the last moment, being mentored on business, to going back to college, to coaching college basketball, to becoming a teacher, to working 80+ hour weeks building a business (don’t worry, that was before you both were born), to now being a physical laborer as the majority of my profession.

I don't always know how or why this avenue has been taken, but I am learning that I don’t always need to know. There is someone greater than I who has the plan in place, and I just need to trust the story.7

You will find that the more you rely on Him, the more He will meet you halfway and continue to provide.

Comparison is the thief of joy and true self-contentment.8
We are told what is beautiful. We are told what will make us happy. We are told what we should want, how we should feel, and how we should be treated. So, what happens when our circumstances do not line up with what we are told? I don’t have a million dollars, so I must not be financially secure. I don’t get to go on the 2-week vacations that I am seeing posted on social media, so I must be missing out. Everyone I see always looks so happy and seem to have it all together; what am I doing wrong?

These are questions I have asked myself. And maybe, these are questions you have asked yourself too.

Dr. Amy Silver said:

“The process of constantly evaluating our own behavior, thoughts, emotions, relationships, jobs, houses, clothes, looks, lives to each other is one of the most damaging internal narratives we can have.

It can make us miserable as we assess our own situations in comparison to the world of others.”

It can be so easy to compare. To want to get to what’s next. To want to get out of school and go to college. To want to get out of college and get into the work force. To want to get to a higher paying job, so that you can buy a nice home. To want to focus on saving your money so that you can someday retire.

On their own, none of these things are bad (they are actually quite good in moderation). But, if we put our focus on only those things, we miss out on Shalom (God’s blessing of peace, rest, & abundance in the NOW, not some distant future).9

Ok, if you made it this far, thank you for humoring your father…I leave you with something that has helped me when I am struggling with what seems to be the weight of the world on my shoulders; wondering why bad things happen, wondering why I am not always happy; ultimately wondering why I’m here…

It’s an overly simplistic, but oh so powerful phrase from pastor Francis Chan, and he says: “We are here to love God, others, and self…not much else matters.”10

Evelyn & Lillian…Have dreams. Have goals. Have fun!  And when it seems like things just aren’t going the way you envisioned, remember that you are seen…you are enough…you are loved.

If you take the stance of love, hospitality, and trusting God’s story, the “good life” will be yours.

Love,

Dad

Thank You for Your Support!

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 33rd edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before diving in to the collection.

Photo Credit: Clint Murphy

The following is an excerpt from an open letter written by Clint Murphy to his Twitter/X readers on June 29th, 2023.

Clint outlines how too many people are focused on becoming financially wealthy, when we should rather be focused on “True Wealth.”

About Clint Murphy

Biography credit: Clint Murphy

True Wealth

By: Clint Murphy

June 29th, 2023

(Excerpted from original piece)

Too many people are focused on becoming a millionaire when they should be focused on True Wealth.

True wealth focuses on the combination of your five pillars of health:

• Mental

• Spiritual

• Physical

• Financial

• Emotional

When you're healthy in each area, you're truly wealthy.

We achieve mental, spiritual, physical, financial, and emotional health when we focus on our life purpose, financial independence, strong relationships, as well as physical and spiritual nourishment.

Picture yourself with a True Wealth Bank Account. Whenever you make a decision, ask yourself: “Am I making a deposit or a withdrawal to my True Wealth Account?” Focus on deposits, always.

Make your life’s purpose intentional by building your Life Purpose Portfolio, which includes killing your ego, living your values, and being an incomparable you. When you live with purpose, your life will be well-lived. Your daily actions in life should align with your purpose.

Kill Your Ego

We're socially programmed from early childhood to want a new car, a nice house, the fancy title, and new promotion. Stop and ask yourself, “Do I want this? Does this align with my bigger purpose? Do I know what that purpose is?”

Live Your Values

Consider the people you admire and ask yourself:

• What behaviors do they have?

• What traits are visible to you?

• What books do they read?

• What do they listen to?

• How do they behave?

Use this information to determine what you value and how to live.

An Incomparable You

You are a masterpiece and also a work in progress. The best part is you're the artist! Do not get caught up in the comparison game, which does not end well for anyone. When crafting your life purpose portfolio, make it uniquely your own.

Goodwill & Strong Relationships

Goodwill and strong relationships help us bounce back from life-altering setbacks, and the people we surround ourselves with determine our success in life. Choose your circle, choose your rooms, and trust that service to others > the highest pay.

The circle you surround yourself with is the circle that will make you. Your network is your Net Worth. Surround yourself with people who will push, challenge and support you. If you want to increase your intelligence, never be the smartest person in the room. If you want to be fitter, don't be the fittest person in the room. Choose the room to align with your goals.

When you help others, you're helping yourself. Your material wealth will not live on when you're gone, but the people you touched and the charity you provided will live in the hearts of the people you touched. Choose wisely.

Physical & Spiritual Nourishment

We need strong physical, spiritual, and emotional health. Covid brought to light how fragile these three things can be and that without health, there truly is no wealth. Learn to slow down, pause, breathe and listen.

The power of pause. Spirituality/Meditation. Mindfulness. Slowing down. Being present. Doing this, you will be able to recognize you are already enough. No amount of material objects will impact that and you can let go of the "wants.”

Further Resources:

The Growth Guide (Clint’s website)

Clint’s Podcast

Twitter / X (Clint shares insights on life, money, productivity, etc)

Shout-Outs!

1. Ellen Fishbein - Ellen runs an independent book publishing company called Altamira Studio, and she was kind enough to look over The Wealth Letters and give her input on next steps for turning the collection into a published book.

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 32nd edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before diving in to the collection.

Video credit: @tyromper on Twitter

Below, is a transcribed letter from Tyler’s video he created for the 8th edition of The Wealth Letters on February 23rd, 2023 where he gives us a glimpse into what true wealth means to him.

The letter has been lightly edited for clarity.

About Tyler Romper

Tyler is a #1 dad & husband, poker player, farmer, fitness enthusiast, and personal life coach.

He has written three books: Maximizing Fatherhood, How I Made $1.7 Million Playing Poker, and 9-5 Fitness.

What is Wealth?

Tyler Romper

February 23rd, 2023

(Transcribed from original video recording)

I was recently asked the question, what does it mean to be wealthy? What do I think wealth is? I think, like most people, when you hear that question, the first thing you think of is money. I think we've seen 100,000 commercials by the time we're 18 that tells us being wealthy is about driving a certain type of car, having a certain kind of watch, having fancy clothing, and having all kinds of stuff.

And I definitely think when I was a youth, that's what I chased. I had a pretty unique experience. By the time I was 22-23, I was making several hundred thousand dollars a year playing poker.

By the time I was in my mid 20s, I had made seven figures playing a card game. And so to me, being wealthy really didn't have anything to do with creating margin in my finances, buying assets, or creating freedom of my time.

It was trying to look wealthy. I think that's a big distinction we need to make, looking wealthy and being wealthy. I looked really wealthy. I had a brand new Mercedes Benz. All my clothes were Armani and Gucci. I had awful looking Prada shoes that were like 1200 bucks. Everything was fancy. Everything I did was fancy. And people would have said, man, he's probably wealthy.

Truth is I was one changed law away from ruin. And that's what happened. They changed the law back when I was playing online poker overnight. I went from making a couple hundred thousand bucks a year to having no income.

I had created this lifestyle that I couldn’t keep up with. That's the kind of “dream” (more of a nightmare) that a lot of people, especially in the West chase nowadays.

Money is a fantastic tool, and allowing your money to work for you is how you really become financially wealthy. I make less money now than I ever did back then, but I am much wealthier now than I was.

True wealth, first and foremost, is your health. If you don't have your health, you have nothing.

We often see people making this trade of their health for money. They'll grind late hours, they'll sacrifice their body, they'll sacrifice sleep to grind a little bit more. They're always on this grind mode. Ultimately, to make money, they'll trade their health.

It's always a poor trade. There is a saying that says:

“A healthy man desires a thousand things, a sick man only desires one.”

I think there's so much wisdom in that. No 90 -year -old billionaire is going to swap lives with me right now. I've got youth. I've got health. I can get around. I can do anything I want. I can go run, lift, jump, explore, and travel. Somebody who's got a billion dollars but is near the end of their journey probably would much rather go back.

We have this misconception that stuff = wealth. Right now, I'm wearing a free sweatshirt that was gifted to me and K-Mart shorts. I have no more fancy clothes. I drive a nine -year -old soccer dad SUV that gets me from point A to point B.

Most people that would see me would think, man, he probably isn't wealthy, right? To me, I think I'm the richest guy in the world. I'm surrounded by family and a home that loves me. I have all my basic needs provided for. I have freedom of time.

I never have to drive to a meeting I don't want to go to. I don't have a boss telling me what to do. I am wealthy with time. I think that's what we all really want. Money is a tool that buys time. Money comes and goes; time doesn't. Once it's gone, it's gone forever.

I think wealthy people understand this, and is why we purchased 70 acres of farmland back in our hometown. Half of our basic needs are met completely passively through our farmland.

I'll never have a car payment again. I'm going to invest that money into more assets that buy my time back.

True wealth is health, loved ones, and freedom of time.

Every day, I work with people I want to work with. I choose to only work on the things that I want to work on that I'm passionate about. I get to be around my family as much as I want. I think those are the things that really make us wealthy.

Take it from a guy who had all that fancy stuff and fancy lifestyle in his early 20s. I was miserable trying to keep up with the Joneses… trying to buy the next thing. Once you realize that happiness comes from within, it has nothing to do with stuff. You realize it's the simple things.

A cool exercise I did many years ago that led me to this definition of wealth was I asked myself, “What does a perfect day look like for me?”

I really started to break this down. I said, What do I really want to do every day? What do I want my weeks to look like? It had nothing to do with stuff. It was the time I was spending with my loved ones. The time I had to go to the gym, sit in the sauna, take a walk every day. That stuff matters a lot to me.

I think we all need to look inside and ask ourselves the question, “What does wealth mean to me?” I've had the opportunity to hop on calls with guys who are billionaires, and wealth looks different to them than it will to me.

To them, they feel like they have a different mission; a different calling. I don't downplay anybody else's definition of wealth, but I do think we need to be honest and take a hard look at what it means to our own selves. I urge you to take a moment and do what I did and map out what your perfect day looks like. What's your perfect week look like? What kinds of things are included in there?

Take a look at your budget and see what tweaks are needed to achieve those things, because again, we don't get time back. That's the number one resource. Nobody gets to their deathbed and says, “I wish I would have made more money.” Nobody gets to their deathbed and says, “I wish I would have got that promotion.”

Most people say, “I wish I had more time. I wish I had taken that risk. I wish I had spent more time with my family and loved ones.”

I'll leave you with this. I'm really big on gratitude. I've done a gratitude journal for over four and a half years in a row without missing a day.

When I am feeling down, I go back and I read that gratitude journal. There isn’t one thing that had to do with stuff or money. It’s my daughter wrapping her arms around me and just giving me a hug and whispering in my ear, “I love you, daddy.” An awesome moment that my wife and I had on a date night. Adopting our son and hearing him speak for the first time. Getting our second son. These are the things that make up my gratitude journal.

I challenge your thinking. I think society programs us to think more money and more stuff. Oftentimes we're just working to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't really care about. I realized I was on that hamster wheel for a while.

What is wealth? What's it look like? Ask yourself that question today.

Further Resources:

To view Tyler’s books and coaching opportunities, visit his website.

Tyler also shares insights daily with his Twitter audience at @tyromper

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the Anthology?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 31st edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before diving in to the collection.

Photo Credit to Douglas Tsoi via

The following is an excerpt of an open letter written by to his readers at on February 23rd, 2023 about the intersection of money & meaning. The complete piece can be read here.

About Douglas

Douglas is a spiritual director, founder of the School of Financial Freedom, and writes the publication, where he explores the intersection of personal finance and spirituality.

In Douglas’ words:

Excerpt from Douglas Tsoi’s Open Letter

February 23rd, 2023

I spent most of my life wanting to be “smart.” To do well in school. Get a “good job.” Now after financial freedom, I have a little distance, I see all those urges as part of running the rat race. The only reason you want to be smart, do well in school, and get a good job is a basic insecurity. If I don’t, I’ll be a failure, practically but also existentially.

I’ve realized something even more basic, something so simple that we don’t understand the implications of it: capitalism rewards thinking. In turn, it deemphasizes caring. As capitalism absorbs more and more of culture, and take up more and more of our personal time, it’s happening to us too.

Look at the salaries of thinking professions (finance, management, engineering) versus caring professions (teaching, nursing, elder care). Ever thought about who gets paid more, and why? The most “successful” people I know are in thinking jobs.

Are you a “successful” person? How much of your job is about thinking versus caring?

There are two dangers to this type of “success”: First, you’re spending your life hours in a disembodied experience. Most “successful” people I know are in their heads all day. They spend 8-10 hours at a desk engaged in mental activity. They might “get a workout in” at the end of day. During breaks, they’re on the phone, responding to texts, reading news, scrolling through social media and I suspect “successful” people spend more. The average human spends over 7 hours a day, almost half their waking life, in front of a screen. How is that not an addiction? To spend 35 years of waking life front of a TV, computer, or phone is a poverty of presence. And most of the time, we think we’re enjoying it. That is a loss of life.

Second, you’re being rewarded for reinforcing and reproducing capitalist thought. Remember that we’re only thinking culture’s thoughts. By thinking so much about how to make an impact, how to scale, how to be more effective, or be “better,” we’re just reproducing an industrial improvement worldview where nothing is good enough and everything has to be improved and made bigger. And the hamster wheel is infinite: if you do this well, you’ll be rewarded for it. Then you’ll simply create a world of this for yourself and others. And you'll think it's success.

Most people I know are exhausted by thinking. But they are actually afraid of getting off the treadmill, because, when they do, they encounter the difficult sensations they’ve been stamping down while staying in their heads.

But thinking is disconnection from ourselves, from others, and from God. It’s part of our addiction to our not-enoughness. Our dissatisfaction with ourselves is the root of trying so hard to be “effective,” for “measuring,” and for “improving.”

What is wealth?

Over the years, my students have never really written about wealth in terms of money. Some responses:

• Wealth is a full practice of health, happiness, creativity, and mutual benefit.

• Wealth is intimate self awareness and a state of flow.

• Wealth is community— an abundance of people to remember their birthdays, sit with their wounds, and mirror back their beauty.

• Wealth is the ability to get 8+ hours of sleep every night.

• Wealth is the opposite of resentment.

• Wealth is time. Time for naps, time for walks, time for cooking, time for laughing, time for stillness, time for nature.

• Wealth is spacious in your schedule and time to just be human.

• Wealth is the ability to be more in their bodies.

Lovely, isn’t it? Again, it’s never about money. Once you have enough money, all these other things open abundantly to you. You get to indulge in all these things that truly satisfy us. But in our society, we don’t really know what is wealth or what is enough. So we sacrifice wealth in order to get more money.

Remember the thoughts in our head are simply capitalist culture? Note that nothing my students describe wealth has anything to do with do with more thinking. Because you’re not forced to work, financial freedom is mental liberation as well. Not only can you think what you want, but you don’t have to think at all. It’s a chance to become more than just the thoughts in your head and become an embodied aliveness and presence in the world.

Further Resources

Douglas’ Newsletter:

Douglas’ Financial Freedom Class: School of Financial Freedom

If you enjoyed reading a letter from a spiritual director, you might like this past edition of The Wealth Letters too:

From Stress to Rest: A pastor’s sermon notes on how we handle money, and how money handles us.

Shout-Outs!

1. - Thank you to Douglas for writing this piece and being part of The Wealth Letters collection of correspondence from people of all walks of life on finding a life of abundance in a noisy world.

2. - Thank you to Jason for sharing a podcast episode I had the honor to be on with and his podcast Talking Billions with his audience. Jason shares a variety of insights on fatherhood, faith, and investing over on his Twitter (X) page.

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 30th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before diving in to the collection.

Photo Credit to Jim O’Shaughnessy

The following are two letters written by , the first being to all parents, and the second to his children on April 22, 1985.

Both letters are sourced from & credited to.1

About Jim O’Shaughnessy

James P. O’Shaughnessy is the founder and CEO of O'Shaughnessy Ventures LLC ("OSV"), an investor in and accelerator of creative endeavors. He is also the host of the Infinite Loops podcast, and New York Times Business best-selling author of the book, What Works on Wall Street.

O'Shaughnessy lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife and is the father of three children and grandfather to three as well. 2

Before getting to Jim’s letter to his children, I believe it will provide us with some context as to why Jim felt called to write for his children. And so, here is Jim’s letter to all parents:

Why Writing Letters to Your Kids Is the Best Gift You Can Give Them as Adults

By: Jim O’Shaughnessy

“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I’ve always believed in the written word. Having to put your thoughts in writing helps you understand if you clearly understand what—and how—you want to say something. And if you keep written journals, there is simply no way to let hindsight bias take over, for there, in your own hand, is what you thought about something at the time, with revisions through selective memory impossible.

Writing clarifies. It illuminates. It helps you follow your own growth (or decay) in the way you look at the world and how your ideas have changed—or remained the same—over the course of your life. As someone with boxes and boxes of old journals, if I want to know what 21-year-old me thought about something, all I must do is pull out that journal and read. Sometimes I’m amazed by how much my views have changed—often dramatically—as I have made my way through life.

Yet equally telling is how little some of my foundational beliefs have changed. For the most part, I find that that, if anything, they have become stronger, better articulated, and better supported.

I’m a big believer in reading as much as you can that takes the other side of what you think. We’re all subject to confirmation bias, and a great habit to build is to always search out beliefs that counter your own. If they make you change your mind, as has happened with me, then your original belief really wasn’t that sound to begin with, so, by always challenging yourself, you make your thinking stronger and more truly reasoned.

You should also try to seek out the best arguments for things you don’t agree with—called creating a “Steelman” as opposed to the far more common “Strawman.” You’ll often see nothing but Strawman arguments in popular media and I’ve sadly concluded that, for the most part, popular media stopped presenting serious, well-articulated essays that might help sway you to a different point of view. But there are more great, serious essays available today to all of us than ever before—it’s part of what I call “The Great Reshuffle” which is the ongoing transformation of almost every aspect of our lives that technologies and inventions are ramping up for society at an exponential rate.

We could be living through one of the most interesting periods of human history, and you have a chance to narrate it for yourself and your children. I’ve long advocated writing continuous letters to your kids, but given all the changes we’re living through, it might give you an extra special opportunity to let your kids see it all unfold.

This compels me to again urge every parent reading this to get in the habit of writing your children a series of letters so that they too can understand you, and, with luck, themselves better. Having to articulate thoughts in a letter allows you and your children time to reflect on things in a way that is often difficult in the day-to-day events of your lives together.

It’s something that I always wish my dad had done, as we had a rather difficult time understanding each other and I think a series of letters from him would have helped me understand him much better than I ultimately did.

Ideally, you should start as soon as you can and continue to write over the years. I started when my son, Patrick, was 7 days old and continued until my last child turned 21. As each child hit 21, my wife—the true marvel in the parenting hall of fame–would select photos and publish the letters in book form for each of my kids. The last letter of each book was written specifically to the child the book was for, but otherwise, all the letters were for all my kids.

Below is the first letter I wrote, which I hope spurs you on to do this for your kids. Rarely are things 100 percent win/win, but in the case of letters for your kids, that’s the reward for taking the time as your kids grow to have a conversation with the adult they will become.

Jim’s First Letter to His Children

April 22, 1985

Dear kids,

Firsts are exciting and somewhat perplexing. This is the first entry in a book I’m going to keep for you; its direction not yet known to me. Thus, the thought of giving you something created over the years excites me, but I am also perplexed about what I really want to write here.

I know that I don’t want this to be a diary, detailing the days, for although we already love you we know that a diary of when you eat and sleep wouldn’t be exciting reading. In some ways, I hope to be able to say all the things fathers want their children to know, yet so many times forget, or neglect to tell them.

If nothing else, you will see how I changed, from a 24-year-old brand new father, to one who has watched you grow up, and, with luck, grown up myself.

Most of all, you may be able to know both me and yourself better through this collection of “letters” and we must all strive to understand ourselves and those we love, for through our understanding and experience comes the wisdom that no one person can teach another, no school can transmit it. It must come from within, from learning, from logic and experience. If I could, I would describe it for you; I can’t. Perhaps you will agree when you are older.

I also want to tell you about me, my life, my thoughts, perhaps you can gain some understanding of yourself through understanding me. If I was going to describe my own impulses in a paragraph, it would be advice to you as well, so here, in Lao Tzu’s words, it is:

“He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who controls and has mastered himself is mightier still. He who receives his happiness from others may be rich, but he whose contentment is self-willed has inexhaustible wealth. He who occupies a place provided for him by others may live a long life, but he who dwells in his own self-constituted place, even though he decays, is eternal.”

That bit of wisdom really embodies many of my goals, and many of my beliefs.

You will always be only as good, only as happy, only as successful as you perceive yourself to be. Happiness springs from within, never from without. Virtue too; honor; and love. All the things that make a life worth living. Thus, if you are unhappy, don’t look outside yourself for causes, the reside within; likewise, if, like me, you are happy, understand the source within your soul.

Love,

Dad

Learn More About Jim O’Shaughnessy

O’Shaughnessy Ventures

Jim’s Bio

If you enjoyed reading a letter from a parent to child(ren) like Jim’s, you may like these past editions of The Wealth Letters too:

#001 - The Wealthy Window Washer: A father’s letter to his two baby girls on his search for true wealth & contentment.

#002 - The Wealthy Mother: A letter from a mother, wife, lawyer, and author to her two young daughters a year prior to her passing, "to address what will likely be the greatest question of your young lives."

#003 - The Wealthy Author: A father’s letter to his kid: The 9 money and life lessons most people learn too late in life

Shout-Outs!

1. & - Thank you to Jim for writing these beautiful letters, and to Polina for bringing them to the world!

2. - Johnny was kind enough to share The Wealth Letters with his readers over at A Man’s Work…Thanks Johnny! A Man's Work is a weekly newsletter about modern manhood. Every week, you'll get brutally honest takes on how men are facing their toughest challenges and the tools men are using to overcome those challenges. It's deep. It's useful. It's way more fun than it should be.

   Men and women welcome! Check it out here:

A Man's Work: Hot takes and tools for modern manhood

Exploring what manhood and men's emotional work looks like today

By Johnny Bowman

3. - Jonah was also kind enough to share The Wealth Letters with his readers over at his newsletter…Thanks Jonah! Dive into a world of captivating fiction with "TaleCraft: A Fiction Odyssey." Explore Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Horror, and more. Subscribe for stories that will keep you hooked!

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 29th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

The manifesto is a great place to start to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters before diving in to the collection.

Photo Credit: J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy

The following is a poem by J. Money, written on December 15th, 2023 specifically for The Wealth Letters (his final draft was written on February 16th, 2024) and is what’s referenced in this post.

J runs the wildly successful blog, Budgets Are Sexy, and was kind enough to take the time to reveal what wealth is in his own life in the hopes that someone else might take something and apply it to their own philosophy.

In J’s words,

“so….I started an outline of this, and then it accidentally morphed into some sort of poem lol”

About J. Money

Directly from J:

About J. Money: Credit to Budgets Are Sexy

“Wealth is freedom”

Wealth is freedom.

Freedom to create.
Freedom to live.
Freedom to love!
Freedom to sleep in, or hustle, or do whatever your spirit is moving you in the moment.

Wealth is freedom from worry of the things you have control over
(and grace over the things you do not).

It’s the ability to drop everything and help out a friend when they most need you,
or jump on a project (or quit a project!), or re-arrange life whenever it gets too out of balance.

Wealth is health – in both body and mind.
And being able to say “no” when you want to say no,
and “yes” when you want to say yes!

It’s choosing love over hate,
and recognizing what your gifts are as early as possible so you can give them back to the world.

Wealth is having enough money to not worry,
but not too much where it makes you worry.
It’s the stuff that brings you joy,
but also the stuff that challenges you and makes you stronger.

Wealth is the ability to believe in yourself and know that you are “enough”,
and also that you are loved and worthy and very much needed in our world.

Wealth is peace.
Wealth is freedom.
Wealth is contentment.
Wealth is something we’re always striving for, but not everyday getting. (And that’s okay!)

Wealth is a state of mind, and it flourishes within each and every one of us.

Wake up. Be You. Be thankful. Do your best. Be wealthy 🙏

- J. Money

Further Reading / Resources

Blog: Budgets Are Sexy

J. Money’s Twitter

Email: j@jmoney.biz

Shout-Outs!

1. Angelique Kidjo - Angelique was featured in the 28th edition of The Wealth Letters as the Wealthy Diva, and she was kind enough to share it with her audience. Thanks Angelique!

2. & & - Matthew, Bogumil, & Polina all took the time to read over my book proposal I have prepared for select book publishers and provided some helpful edits. I read all three of their newsletters, and love the range of topics they write about. If you enjoy The Wealth Letters, you will appreciate their work too!

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend?

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

If you go to the Leaderboard, you can share the custom link with your friends and get rewarded for helping to spread the word!

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading to you by clicking the play button above.

Welcome to the 28th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Please read or listen to the manifesto before diving into the collection to better understand the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters.

Thank You!

A special thanks go out to the following people who have been nice enough to share The Wealth Letters with a friend or loved one. Your support is greatly appreciated, and is a driving force towards this project becoming a published book in the future!

1. My lovely wife, Carmen - My better half shared this project with a co-worker who then shared it with her husband and children (the husband will be writing a letter for The Wealth Letters). Thank you babe!

2. - Charlie shared The Wealth Letters with his readers at . Charlie is a recovering addict writing about it (ALL)…because “life’s too short not to.” Thank you Charlie!

3. - Viam shared The Wealth Letters with his readers at where he writes about philosophy every Wed. & Sunday morning. Thank you Viam!

The following is an open letter written by Angélique Kidjo to the girls of the world. This letter was sourced by of .

Angélique Kidjo (Photo by The New York Times)

About Angélique

Five-time Grammy Award winner, Angélique Kidjo, is one of the greatest artists in international music today, with sixteen albums to her name. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva", and named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Kidjo hopes that her songs might inspire the kind of togetherness that ultimately leads to transcendent change. In her own words:

“For our own survival, we need to recognize the humanity that we all share and learn how to live together. There’s just no other way.”

An open letter to the girls of the world

Dear Girls of the World,

I was a 12-year-old girl living in the center of Cotonou, Benin, in West Africa. Music was all around us, with the traditional singers and their drums and with the radio blasting songs from the entire world.

Singing had always been my passion. My mom even told me I sung before I spoke. One day, I discovered an uplifting song that made everyone dance. It was called “Pata Pata.” The power and beauty of the voice singing it mesmerized me. I had to get the 45 rpm single right away. That’s when I first heard the name of Miriam Makeba, the famous South African singer. I also learned her struggle against apartheid and her success all over the planet.

Even though at home I could see the respect that my father had for my mom, I could feel the world was unbalanced and that it was so hard for girls and women to succeed. Many of my girlfriends at school were dropping out at an early age as the social pressure was huge. Most of them could not choose their own destiny. It was as if they would always be the daughter, the wife or the mother of someone.

But looking at Miriam’s smile on the cover, her confidence and the respect she inspired, I started to dream. If an exiled African woman born from a poor family had been able to accomplish so much, there might be a little chance for me to follow her steps. Lost in my thoughts, lying on my bed, listening to her music for hours, learning by heart the lyrics of all her songs -- in my imagination, I was already traveling with her, singing with her, meeting world leaders and advocating with her for the freedom of her people.

That dream has never left me. I grew up and I experienced much rejection, many obstacles, but Miriam’s voice was always singing in my head. I started to have some success singing on the national radio.

One day, on the way back from school, a group of teenagers recognized me and insulted me, calling me a whore because I was a singer. I came back home, crying, and wanted to give up singing for good. Mama Congo, my maternal grandmother, happened to be home. She asked me why I was crying so much. Once I explained, she gave me a piece of advice that I have never forgotten and that I want you to remember when you feel your dreams are shattered.

She told me: “Do you want to be a singer?”

“Yes, Grandma.”

“Then, you can’t let the opinion of other people discourage you. Don’t give up on your dreams, don’t allow them to define who you are or they would have won!”

Many years passed. I left my country like Miriam had done. I worked hard, listening to constructive critics and ignoring the naysayers, keeping Miriam’s songs close to my heart. Then, in a different decade, in a different country, the day finally came when I was asked to sing as the opening act of my beloved idol. I could not believe it.

Please remember girls: Don’t let anyone define who you are!

Angelique Kidjo

Further Reading / Resources About Angelique

Biography

Music

Facebook

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

If you go to the Leaderboard, you can share the custom link with your friends and get rewarded for helping to spread the word!

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 27th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Being we have new readers each week, this is a re-share of the 3rd edition, which was originally published on January 8th, 2023.

If you haven’t done so, please read or listen to the manifesto before diving in to the collection, as it will give a clear vision of the who, what, & why of The Wealth Letters.

The following letter was written by Morgan Housel on June 19, 2020. The letter was written for his daughter, who was born on June 3rd, 2019. His letter was released to his readers on cnbc.

Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund. His book, The Psychology of Money, has sold over two million copies and has been translated into 52 languages. His 2nd book, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, was an instant New York Times Bestseller (released in November, 2023).

Learn more about Morgan at MorganHousel.com.

Photo credit to MarketWatch

On June 3, 2019, my wife and I welcomed our daughter into the world. She’s barely old enough to walk, so her job (mostly eating and sleeping) hasn’t changed much.

But, one day, she’ll need some money and life advice. As a father who has spent much of his career studying and writing about money, behavioral finance and business, this is what I’ll tell her:

1. Don’t underestimate the role of chance in life.

It’s easy to assume that wealth and poverty are caused by the choices we make, but it’s even easier to underestimate the role of chance in life.

The families, values, countries and generations we’re born into, as well as the people we happen to meet along the way, all play a bigger role in our outcomes than most people want to admit.

While you should believe in the values and rewards of hard work, it’s also important to understand that not all success is a result of hard work, and that not all poverty is due to laziness. Keep this in mind when forming opinions about others, including yourself.

2. The highest dividend money pays is the ability to control time.

Being able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want and for as long as you want provides a lasting level of happiness that no amount of “fancy stuff” can ever offer. 

The thrill of having fancy stuff wears off quickly. But a job with flexible hours and a short commute will never get old. Having enough savings to give you time and options during an emergency will never get old. Being able to retire when you want to will never get old.

Achieving independence is our ultimate goal in life. But independence isn’t an “all-or-nothing” — every dollar you save is like owning a slice of your future that might otherwise be managed by someone else, based on their priorities.

3. Don’t count on getting spoiled.

No one can grasp the value of a dollar without experiencing its scarcity, so while your mother and I will always do our best to support you, we’re not going to spoil you.

Learning that you can’t have everything you want is the only way to understand needs versus desires. This in turn will teach you about budgeting, saving, and valuing what you already have.

Knowing how to be frugal — without it hurting you — is an essential life skill that will come in handy during life’s inevitable ups and downs.

4. Success doesn’t always come from big actions.

Napoleon’s definition of a genius is the person “who can do the average thing when everyone else around him is losing his mind.”

Managing money is the same.  You don’t have to do amazing things to end up in a good place over time, you just have to consistently not screw up for long periods of time.

Avoiding catastrophic mistakes (the biggest of which is burying yourself in debt) is more powerful than any fancy financial tip.

5. Live below your means.

The ability to live with less is one of the most powerful financial levers, because you’ll have more control over it than things like your income or investment returns. 

The person who makes $50,000 per year, but only needs $40,000 to be happy, is richer than the person who makes $150,000, but needs $151,000 to be happy. The investor who earns a 5% return, but has low expenses, may be better off than the investor who earns 7% a year, but needs every penny of it.

How much you make doesn’t determine how much you have, and how much you have doesn’t determine how much you need.

6. It’s okay to change your mind.

Almost no one has their life figured out by age 18, so it’s not the end of the world if you pick a major that you end up not enjoying. Or get a degree in a field that you’re not 100% passionate about. Or work in a career and later decide you want to do something else.

It’s okay to admit that your values and goals have evolved. Forgiving yourself for changing your mind is a superpower, especially when you’re young.

7. Everything has a price.

The price of a busy career is time away from friends and family. The price of long-term market returns is uncertainty and volatility. The price of spoiling kids is them living a sheltered life.

Everything worthwhile comes with a price, and most of those prices are hidden. They’re sometimes worth paying for, but you should never ignore their true costs.

Once you accept this, you’ll start to view things like time, relationships, autonomy and creativity as currencies that are just as valuable as cash.

8. Money is not the greatest measure of success.

Warren Buffett once said: True success in life is “when the number of people you want to have love you actually do love you.”

And that love comes overwhelmingly from how you treat people, rather than your level of net worth. Money won’t provide the thing that you (and almost everyone else) want most. No amount of money can compensate for a lack of character, honesty and genuine empathy towards others.

This is the most important financial advice I can give you.

9. Don’t blindly accept any advice you’re given.

All the lessons here, including this last one, are things that most people learn too late in life. But feel free to reject them.

Your world will be different from mine, just as mine is different from my parents. No one is exactly is the same, and no one has all the right answers. Never take anyone’s advice without contextualizing it with your own values, goals and circumstances.

Your parents love you. We are so happy you’re here. Please let us sleep.

- Morgan Housel

***Letter attributed and credited to Morgan Housel and cnbc.

SHOUT-OUTS

A special thanks go out to the following people who have been nice enough to share The Wealth Letters with others:

1. Diego: A regular reader & supporter of The Wealth Letters. Thank you Diego!

2. : JD writes , an authentic parenting story told through the eyes of a Montessori dad in an effort to educate others and support others on their parenting journey.

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

If you go to the Leaderboard, you can share the custom link with your friends and get rewarded for helping to spread the word!

Your ideas and feedback are always welcome!

Please reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or leave a comment!

Jordan

Welcome to the 26th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Please read or listen to the manifesto before reading the collection to better understand this project’s purpose.

The following is a letter written for The Wealth Letters by Katherine Clemons on November 13th, 2023 outlining what her “true wealth” is, and how you can find yours.

Katherine Clemons

About Katherine

Katherine is the creator and founder (or foundress) of Kat Clem & Me, a non-profit that aids in funding & grants for minority small business owners, as well as ForeFoundress, which helps women navigate entrepreneurship with grit & grace.

Her primary focus is assisting women of color, both aspiring and established entrepreneurs, in forging their unique journeys and establishing enduring legacies.

Central to her mission are the values of establishing a lasting legacy and working towards bridging the racial wealth gap within her lifetime.

True Wealth

By: Katherine Clemons

Dear Dreamer,

I want you to know it’s still possible. No matter how many years have gone by or the failures you’ve faced, it’s not too late to dream again. True wealth is built on your dreams, and yet few reach it.

Today, I’ll give you the secrets of becoming the few. Nothing is impossible. In fact, the word itself says, “im possible.”

Create a Personal Definition of Wealth

When you were a child, the world was limitless. You believed in things like magic and Santa without a doubt. So, why now do you struggle to believe in yourself?

Maybe it’s because you don’t know what you’re looking for. At least with Santa, you saw the presents under the tree, right? Well, Let’s make you a believer in your dreams, and define what you’re looking for.

What does “true wealth” mean to you, and what “presents” come with receiving true wealth?

For me, true wealth is living a life that feels handcrafted and it allows me to spend time with friends and family, marathon train throughout the week, and provide life-changing information to female founders through my newsletter.

So, what’s true wealth to you?

Use the sentence structure below to create your true wealth statement:

• True wealth is (your definition), and it allows me to (3 “presents” you receive from true wealth).

Break your Idea into Bite-Sized Pieces

Now that you know what you’re looking for, we can break down your “presents” into actionable steps you can start today!

Step 1: Based on your true wealth statement, create goals you can complete within 1 - 3 years.

Step 2: Based on your 1-3 goals, create goals you can complete within the next 90 days.

Step 3: Based on your 90-day goals, what actions do you need to do weekly?

Step 4: To complete your weekly goals, what can you do today?

Now that you have a starting point, you’re on your way to achieving true wealth. I only have one more piece of advice for you.

Enjoy the Journey

Having a plan is exciting, but remember to enjoy the journey. Those who hyper-focus on the outcome become frustrated and quit. Enjoying the journey helps you forget about the time and throws you into today.

The days will pass anyway, you can be one step closer to true wealth or you can frustrate yourself into quitting. The choice is yours, and no matter what you choose, remember it’s never too late to dream and try again.

With all my love,

Katherine Clemons

Learn More About Katherine

Katherine Clemons

SHOUT-OUTS

A special thanks go out to the following people who have been nice enough to share The Wealth Letters with others:

Matthew has been a long-time reader of The Wealth Letters and has recommended the project to his readers over at Inner Peace, where he writes about meditations & reflections to foster calmness.

Bogumil explores the many facets of wealth and living a rich and fulfilling life in his essays and podcast Talking Billions. I can say that Bogumil is an outstanding human being and one who has been very willing to share his insight on The Wealth Letters and how to spread its mission.

Darnell is a sports writer for The Athletic covering the Chicago Bulls, and writes Money Talks, where he shares the journey of his and his daughter’s path to financial independence & generational wealth.

DuVay writes Hard Knox Life, where he writes “at the intersection of life is hard knocks and majickal and magnetick shit happens.”

If you go to the Leaderboard, you can share the custom link with your friends and get rewarded for helping to spread the word!

Share The Wealth Letters

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 25th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Please read or listen to the manifesto before reading the collection to better understand this project’s purpose.

The following is an excerpt from Andrew Carnegie’s essay written in 1889 which has come to be known as The Gospel of Wealth, and was originally published in the North American Review. The entirety of the essay can be read at Carnegie.org.

Picture source

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) was one of the titans of America’s Gilded Age, and considered to be one of the most successful entrepreneurs in world history. He was also a prolific author, writing hundreds of speeches and seven books.

Carnegie wrote two articles first published in the North American Review in 1889, which together have come to be known as The Gospel of Wealth. Carnegie boldly articulated his view of the rich as mere trustees of their wealth who should live unostentatiously, provide moderately for their families, and use their fortunes to promote the “general good.”

Carnegie believed in giving wealth away during one’s lifetime (he gave away 90% of his wealth, the equivalent of $5.9 billion in 2022).

Source 

The Gospel of Wealth

By: Andrew Carnegie

Excerpt

Citation: 

Andrew Carnegie. The Gospel of Wealth. New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2017 (first published in 1889).

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years. In former days there was little difference between the dwelling, dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers.

The Indians are today where civilized man then was. When visiting the Sioux, I was led to the wigwam of the chief. It was just like the others in external appearance, and even within the difference was trifling between it and those of the poorest of his braves. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us today measures the change which has come with civilization.

It is easy to see how the change has come. One illustration will serve for almost every phase of the cause. In the manufacture of products we have the whole story. It applies to all combinations of human industry, as stimulated and enlarged by the inventions of this scientific age.

Formerly articles were manufactured at the domestic hearth or in small shops which formed part of the household. The master and his apprentices worked side by side, the latter living with the master, and therefore subject to the same conditions. When these apprentices rose to be masters, there was little or no change in their mode of life, and they, in turn, educated in the same routine succeeding apprentices.

There was, substantially social equality, and even political equality, for those engaged in industrial pursuits had then little or no political voice in the State. But the inevitable result of such a mode of manufacture was crude articles at high prices. Today the world obtains commodities of excellent quality at prices which even the generation preceding this would have deemed incredible.

In the commercial world similar causes have produced similar results, and the race is benefited thereby. The poor enjoy what the rich could not before afford. What were the luxuries have become the necessaries of life. The laborer has now more comforts than the landlord had a few generations ago. The farmer has more luxuries than the landlord had, and is more richly clad and better housed.

Poor and restricted are our opportunities in this life; narrow our horizon; our best work most imperfect; but rich men should be thankful for one inestimable boon. They have it in their power during their lives to busy themselves in organizing benefactions from which the masses of their fellows will derive lasting advantage, and thus dignify their own lives.

The highest life is probably to be reached, not by such imitation of the life of Christ as Count Tolstoi gives us, but, while animated by Christ's spirit, by recognizing the changed conditions of this age, and adopting modes of expressing this spirit suitable to the changed conditions under which we live; still laboring for the good of our fellows, which was the essence of his life and teaching, but laboring in a different manner.

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of Wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.

The best uses to which surplus wealth can be put have already been indicated. These who, would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown in to the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy.

In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to use the aids by which they may rise; to assist, but rarely or never to do all.

Thus is the problem of Rich and Poor to be solved. The laws of accumulation will be left free; the laws of distribution free. Individualism will continue, but the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; intrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself.

Such, in my opinion, is the true Gospel concerning Wealth, obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem of the Rich and the Poor, and to bring "Peace on earth, among men good will."

SHOUT-OUT

A special shout-out goes out to Chenell Basilio, who has referred 20 people to The Wealth Letters!

Chenell writes a newsletter called Growth in Reverse, where she reverse engineers how top creators grow from 0 to 50,000+ readers. Even if you are not a creator, I think you will appreciate how much time & effort she puts into her deep dives.

If you go to the Leaderboard, you can share the custom link with your friends and get some sweet rewards, like getting listed in the future published book of The Wealth Letters as a founding supporter!

Would you be awesome like Chenell and share with a few friends by text, email, or socials?

Share The Wealth Letters

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

Please reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 24th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Please read or listen to the manifesto before reading the collection of letters to better understand this project’s purpose.

This edition is a little different in that it is a letter written to you (the readers of The Wealth Letters) on my takeaways & findings from a 2-hour lunch with Peter Brandt. This was also posted to Twitter.

If you read my letter to my daughters, you will know that Peter Brandt was referenced for his wisdom on using strict risk management when it comes to investing your money, and so it was an absolute pleasure and blessing to be able to sit down with a true mentor!

Source: The Factor Report

What I Learned from The Wealthy Commodity Trader

By: Jordan Olmscheid

Most of what I've learned & come to be in my faith, as a husband & father, in business, and as an investor is due to mentorship. I was blessed recently with the opportunity to meet one of my mentors, Peter Brandt, over a 2-hour lunch.

Peter is a world class investor (top 0.5% in the world) who is featured in Jack Schwager's Market Wizards series of books, has made his living solely from investing for decades, and has a following of 1M+ people who have read his books and learn alongside him at The Factor Report.

But, his passion for his faith, family, and focus on excellence in everything he does is what impressed me more than his investing success. Peter is a world-class investor, but I think more importantly a world-class follower of Jesus, husband, father, and human being.

Like me, Peter was born and raised in the north tundra of MN where he received a scholarship to play hockey at St. Cloud State University (for anyone who doesn't know hockey, SCSU is a national powerhouse). Peter married and had children at a young age which pushed him to grow as a father and husband early on.

He transferred to the University of MN for journalism. (Useless side-note: I found it amusing that Peter started at St. Cloud State and transferred to the U of M, because I did the exact opposite - I started at the U of M and transferred to St. Cloud State).

I couldn't connect how Peter crossed the bridge from journalism to legendary investor...by happenstance, he was shown the trading floor (or "the pit") at the Chicago Board of Trade and said it was nuts, and was hooked. I now understand what all the yelling and screaming and waving of papers is all about that we see in the movies! Peter said that is exactly what the pit was like because everything hangs on order flow, and the traders in the pit are trying to get their orders filled.

Peter managed funds for some very large corporations before trading his own funds to earn his living. Some say the best investors are born...Maybe. But in Peter's case, he learned and willed his way to being one of the best to ever do it. It takes YEARS of trial and error and studying the markets to be able to do this successfully. It took Peter a few years to be profitable and a few more years to do it for a living.

Over the long-term, he said that 10% of traders maybe make a little money, but less than 1% make enough to make a living. Who could muddle through 5+ years of trading and learning before truly breaking through to the point where he could do it for a living? Peter was able to because he engineered his situation from a place of strength.

Before going off on his own, he made an agreement to be able to come back to his current position after a year with a pay raise. They accepted because he was one of their best. This allowed Peter the flexibility and mindset to approach trading the right way without the stress of "needing to make it" cloud his judgement & decision-making.

Peter attributes his investing success to his own mentors, as well as putting himself in a position of strength and security to actually give it enough time to see it through.

Faith. Peter doesn't work closely with anyone who is not a man/woman of faith...it's what he has done from the start and has treated him well over his 50+ years in business, investing, and life. I love how Peter said that he is unapologetically open about his faith, and that while some people may shy away from that, it has done so much more for good in his life.

He plays pickleball 6 days/week and has ridden over 1,000 miles on his bike this year. What is interesting is that pickleball has grown in sport and popularity, and Peter notices how the younger generation has really taken hold of the game!

When asked about his wisdom on building wealth for most of us, he said that almost everyone should dollar cost average into the S&P 500, get the big expenses under control (he drives a car that is 15+ years old), and do this from the get-go; and you will be wealthy at 50+. Peter said it's not mandatory for building wealth, but he owns a % in Bitcoin as a hedge with the understanding that it is equally likely to go up in price as it is to go to zero. For the majority of us, 2% of your investable assets may be a good starting point (again, understanding that this investment may go to zero).

Looking back, he didn't optimize for building wealth. He was focused on the cash flow from his trading business to live his life. Peter said that if he optimized for building wealth (using cash flow from his trading business to invest in the S&P 500, rental real estate, etc) he would be worth much more than he is today.

I asked about investing in the stock market and its volatility, and how to manage our emotions when we are seeing our investments fluctuate. He said to just continue to buy for years and hope for a downturn because then you are buying at lower prices. Peter referenced Warren Buffet (perhaps the most well-known investor of our time) and how Mr. Buffet says that most people should buy the S&P 500 over time and that's it...nothing more anyone should need to do. Buffet and Brandt, two world-class investors saying that 99% of us should just buy the S&P 500...I think it would behoove us to listen.

Peter has written two books and says that he has a couple more in him before he goes. My goal is to have The Wealth Letters published into a book down the line, along with live readings of the letters in a community / theatre format. Peter gave advice to me on the publishing process, as well as who he works with on his own publishing at Harriman House.

I was able to confirm the idea that collecting insights from the highly successful to the ordinary folks on the keys to living a wealthy life is a mission that can truly help others.

To summarize, Peter said to tune out the noise of this world and everything/one screaming for your attention, and focus on faith, family, and excellence in what you do.

If these are your true north, then true wealth, excellence, & legacy will be a byproduct of those things.

Thank you for reading, and thank you Peter for being willing to be vulnerable and share your story!

- Jordan Olmscheid

More from Peter

Website

The Diary of a Professional Commodity Trader

SHOUT-OUT

A special shout-out goes out to Chenell Basilio, who has referred 17+ people to The Wealth Letters!

Chenell writes a newsletter called Growth in Reverse, where she reverse engineers how top creators grow from 0 to 50,000+ readers. Even if you are not a creator, I think you will appreciate how much time & effort she puts into her deep dives.

Chenell took some time to look at my project and gave some outstanding insight as to how to go about reaching more people, time management strategies, etc. I did a write-up of everything I learned from her that you can read here.

Chenell gets a shout-out in this edition, is now listed on the Leaderboard (currently holds the #1 spot), received book summaries of my top 3 books for living a wealthy life, and will be listed as a supporter in the future published book of The Wealth Letters.

These perks were given to Chenell as she took advantage of referring friends to this project, which you can do as well! If you go to the Leaderboard, you can share the custom link with your friends and get some sweet rewards!

Would you be awesome like Chenell and share with a few friends?

Share The Wealth Letters

Thank You for Your Support

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

Please reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 23rd edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Please read or listen to the manifesto before reading the collection of letters to better understand this project’s purpose.

The following is an open letter written by Sahil Bloom on June 26, 2022 to his 1M+ readers on the 5 types of wealth you must understand.

About Sahil

Sahil graduated from Stanford University with an M.A. in Public Policy (2014) and a B.A. in Economics & Sociology (2013). While at Stanford, he was a four-year member on the Stanford Baseball Team (2009-2013), twice helping to guide the team to NCAA Super Regional appearances (top-16 finishes).

Additionally, Sahil earned two PAC-12 All-Academic Team awards and twice received the Bruce R. Cameron Memorial Award, given annually to a student-athlete exhibiting excellence in athletics, academics, and leadership. Academically, Sahil was advised in his pursuits by former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

Today, Sahil is a husband, father, entrepreneur, creator, and investor. He is the owner of 10 cash-flowing businesses, including an investment firm that invests in the most compelling early-stage start-ups in the world, and a bi-weekly newsletter read by over 500,000 people.

Sahil is a true polymath (an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems).

The 5 Types of Wealth You Must Understand

By: Sahil Bloom

You’ve been told that money is the only type of wealth. This is a lie. The 5 types of wealth you MUST understand:

Wealth is about more than money. There are 5 types of wealth:

• Financial

• Social

• Physical

• Mental

• Time

But if you're not careful, the blind pursuit of financial wealth can rob you of the others. Let’s walk through each to form a more comprehensive view of wealth.

Financial Wealth

This is the most commonly understood type of wealth. It's generally what people mean when they say someone is wealthy. Financial wealth is all about money—the money or financial assets that an individual has accumulated.

Financial wealth is an alluring measuring stick for success. Why? You can boil down someone's existence into a single number—their net worth. Net Worth = Value of All Assets - Value of All Liabilities. For those with a competitive streak, net worth offers a simple scoreboard.

Most people assume that financial wealth creates happiness. I used to see people with money and assume everything in their life must be amazing. I was wrong. Money is scientifically correlated with happiness—but only up to a baseline level of life that's lower than you think.

Once above this baseline, incremental financial wealth does not create incremental happiness. So if your goal is happiness:

(1) Focus on getting above this baseline

(2) Focus on other drivers of happiness

Which brings us to our other types of wealth.

Social Wealth

Social wealth is about our connection to others in our respective worlds—our relationships. The combined BREADTH and DEPTH of our connectivity to those around us governs our social wealth. True social wealth requires depth—a few unbreakable social bonds.

Some people seek to accumulate social wealth via their financial wealth—through acquiring social status. They buy status via memberships to exclusive clubs or organizations, hosting events, etc. This is a road to nowhere—because money can buy breadth, but not depth.

Social wealth is built through the cultivation of meaningful relationships. Spend time building a T-shaped web of connectivity—broad and deep. Build an army of mentors, friends, and evangelists. Cultivate deep relationships, but also embrace the power of weak ties.

Physical Wealth

Physical wealth is about your health, fitness, and vitality. It is perhaps the most critical—and under-appreciated—type of wealth. Without physical wealth, it is effectively impossible to experience and enjoy the benefits of any of the other types of wealth.

Physical health is built through the long-term compounding of daily actions. There are 3 broad buckets:

• Exercise—daily movement

• Nutrition—mostly real foods

• Sleep—good sleep habits

It's never too late to start building—or restoring—physical wealth. Health is wealth.

Mental Wealth

Mental wealth is about mental health, mental fitness, and an ability to wrestle with the tangible and intangible questions in life. It may include (but isn't limited to):

• Mental Health

• Knowledge / Wisdom

• Mindfulness

• Spirituality / Faith

Mental health is often overlooked—particularly by those in the pursuit of world-changing endeavors—but it is SO important. Talk to someone, ask others for help, and take actions to improve your mental health on a daily basis. Never sacrifice mental health for any reason.

Mental wealth also includes the long-term accumulation of knowledge and wisdom. I think of this as "mental fitness”—the flexing of your brain as a muscle and the continued growth of that muscle over time. It's the most important muscle to flex daily! Read, write, talk, learn.

Mental wealth also covers an ability to wrestle with the intangible or unanswerable questions in life. Generally achieved through: Mindfulness—an awareness of ones self built through meditation, breathing, or other practice. Spirituality and faith—formal or informal.

Time Wealth

Time wealth is about the freedom to choose:

• How to spend your time

• Who to spend it with

• Where to spend it

• When to trade it for other types of wealth

Time wealth is also about an appreciation for the precious nature of time—of its value and importance. When you're young, you are a "time billionaire”—rich with time. Too many people fail to realize the value of this precious asset until it is gone. Treat time as your ultimate currency—it’s all you have and you can never get it back.

Time is cruel. You’ll love it with all of your being, but the reality is that time doesn’t care about you. It is the ultimate unrequited love. By accepting our time as finite, we are able to live.

NEVER let the pursuit of financial wealth rob you of your time wealth. This is a dangerous trap that far too many people fall into. Learn to use financial wealth as a tool—to increase your freedom to choose.

To summarize, there are 5 types of wealth:

• Financial (money)

• Social (relationships)

• Physical (health)

• Mental (health, spirituality)

• Time (freedom)

The pursuit of financial wealth can rob you of the others. Don't let that happen.

- Sahil Bloom

Further Reading

• The Wealthy South-Georgia Native (Jack Raines) talks in depth about the 6 types of wealth

• Jason Vitug wrote the National Bestselling book, Happy Money Happy Life, which covers the overlapping and interconnected nature of your well-being and how to improve every aspect of your 8 wellness dimensions.

More from Sahil

Website

The Curiosity Chronicle

LinkedIn

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 22nd edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

Please read or listen to the manifesto before diving in to the collection of letters to better understand this project’s purpose.

The following is a letter written by Austin Kleon on July 26, 2023 to Jordan Olmscheid (me) in response to a letter I wrote to Austin asking if he would provide his thoughts on what true wealth is in his life.

If you read my letter to my daughters, one of Austin’s quotes from his book, Steal Like an Artist, was the opening line of my letter (which is why I wanted to write to him, and pretty pumped that he was nice enough to write back).

Photo credit: Clayton Cubitt

About Austin (From AustinKleon.com)

Before reading or listening to Austin’s letter…

Be willing to be vulnerable and open your mind to ideas and suggestions that have proven worthwhile in another’s journey. Do not blindly accept any and all advice given, but rather take in the information and distill it down to if & how it can be applied to YOU and your unique self.

“Michael Jordan said that he imitated Dr. J. Kobe Bryant studied and imitated Jordan. But, they mixed in their own uniqueness.” - David Senra (Founders Podcast)

True Wealth

By: Austin Kleon

Jordan -

Hard to improve on this:

“I’m rich! And I don’t mean money-wise. I mean that I have figured out how to never be around a$%holes at any time in my personal and professional life. That’s rich.” — John Waters, Make Trouble

re: true wealth

Best,

Austin

Below is a picture of the actual letter I received from Austin. As you can see, he lives up to his description of himself when he says:

Further Reading

Austin followed up with a post he wrote on Real Wealth that he wrote on August 3rd, 2018. His post reads:

“Real wealth is never having to spend time with a$%holes.”

I think about that John Waters line all the time.

Only trouble is, he never said those exact words. He said this (from Make Trouble):

I’m rich! I don’t mean money-wise. I mean that I have figured out how to never be around a$%holes at any time in my personal and professional life. That’s rich. And not being around a$%holes should be the goal of every graduate here today.

The late Anthony Bourdain also had a “No A$%hole” rule:

It is truly a privilege to live by what I call the ‘no a$%hole’ rule. I don’t do business with assholes. I don’t care how much money they are offering me, or what project. Life is too short. Quality of life is important. I’m fortunate to collaborate with a lot of people who I respect and like, and I’d like to keep it that way.

In an earlier interview, he said it even more succinctly:

I want to keep the a$%holes in my life to an absolute minimum, if not zero.” That’s worth real, real money — to not have a$%holes in your life.

Real wealth = no a$%holes.

My Takeaways from Austin

1. I think it is pretty clear that Austin wholeheartedly values strong relationships in his life of people whom he loves and respects (and those who also love and respect him). If you read his bio on his website, you will see that he is an extremely busy person, and so it makes sense that he does not (and will not) devote any of his time and energy to a$%holes if he can help it. I don’t think Austin could have spelled it out any clearer for us what TRUE WEALTH is to him.

   What are your takeaways?

   I would love to hear what stuck out to you. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts!

Connect with Austin

Website

Newsletter

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

Your ideas and feedback are always welcome…Share YOUR lessons or story and be featured in The Wealth Letters!

Please reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 21st edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

If you haven’t done so, please read or listen to the manifesto before diving in to the collection, as it will give a clear vision of the project; the Who, What, and Why.

The following is an open letter written by Jack Raines to his readers at Young Money on September 1st, 2022, where he covers the six types of wealth (hint…it isn’t just a money thing).

Read Jack’s full bio

Before reading or listening to Jack’s letter…

Be willing to be vulnerable and open your mind to ideas and suggestions that have proven worthwhile in another’s journey. Do not blindly accept any and all advice given, but rather take in the information and distill it down to if & how it can be applied to YOU and your unique self.

• Michael Jordan said that he imitated Dr. J.

• Kobe Bryant said he studied and imitated Jordan.

• But, they mixed in their own uniqueness.

While not everything will relate directly to one’s current situation at the exact moment, there may be some gems that will be worthwhile in time.

The following letter is fully attributed to Jack Raines. Original letter can be viewed here.

Six Types of Wealth

Being rich isn’t just a money thing.

By: Jack Raines

Wealth/welTH/noun: An abundance of valuable material possessions or resources (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

What comes to mind when you think of wealth? A list of America's ten richest people? Your neighbor with the bigger house, nicer car, and mountain home in Aspen? The multimillionaire CEO of your company? The professional athlete, musician, or movie star?

Sure, all of these people are, in a financial sense, "wealthy."

But money doesn't have a monopoly on wealth. Wealth is defined as "an abundance of valuable material possessions or resources," but nowhere in this definition is money listed as the singular valuable possession or resource.

Which resources you consider valuable is just as important as the abundance of resources themselves. The key is optimizing for the right form of wealth.

Money

Money is the simplest, most obvious form of wealth, because it can be quantified.

• How much is your salary? $100,000.

• How expensive was your house? $500,000.

• How much was your kid's college tuition? $50,000.

• How much is your portfolio worth? $250,000.

Forbes tracks the world's richest people in real-time, so everyone can see just how much money the uber-wealthy have. A hedonic scoreboard for a game that never ends.

Because monetary wealth is so visible, it becomes a point of comparison. Money is the only form of wealth that allows you to look at your neighbor and say "I am richer/poorer than him."

Subconsciously, money becomes a competition. Like any other competition, we want to beat our peers. Make more money. Acquire more possessions. Indulge in more pleasures. Anything to win the game.

What gets missed is that beyond a certain point, money is a seductive scoreboard but a poor measure of wealth. It has diminishing returns. We expect satisfaction from money to look something like this:

But in reality, it looks more like this:

Don’t believe me? A study by Purdue University determined that happiness derived from additional income flatlines after $105,000. That's not to say you won't be happier with $500,000 than with $105,000, but the extra happiness derived from every additional dollar falls to near zero. You have to really work to move the needle as your income increases past this critical point.

If you stop and think about it, it makes sense. Additional dollars have an outsized impact on your lifestyle when your income is lower. It becomes easier to pay rent. You have a safety net. You can afford a vacation or two.

However, as your income continues to scale up, you can buy bigger houses, nicer cars, fancier meals, and better clothes, but you can’t go anywhere or do anything new. You just spend additional money on more lavish renditions of your current lifestyle. If you can cover your bills, spend money on experiences, and save/invest the rest, you are in a great place. Everything else is extra.

There is actually a negative paradox associated with having extravagant amounts of wealth:

Some luxuries won't make your life any better, but losing them after having experienced them will certainly make your life worse. - Nassim Taleb

The biggest problem with pursuing monetary wealth over everything else is the opportunity cost associated with it. How many hours will it take to scale your income from $250k to $500k? $1M? $10M? Will any amount of money ever be enough? What other forms of wealth will you have to sacrifice to get there?

Is this really the game that you want to win?

Knowledge

Knowledge, like money, is an accumulated form of wealth. However, unlike money, it is difficult to compare "knowledge" from person to person. The polyglot, the master chef, and the world-class investor are all rich in knowledge, but their knowledge takes different forms.

Mispronouncing different Spanish phrases for hours and hours is how you acquire knowledge. Making dozens of disgusting dishes before the recipe *clicks* is how you acquire knowledge. Sucking at a sport, attempting to scale a business, playing a thousand games of chess, and exchanging stories with others are all activities that help you accumulate more knowledge.

You receive knowledge for working to build your own skills and expertise, and you receive money for leveraging these skills and expertise to help others.

But knowledge isn't merely a tool used to create wealth, it is wealth in itself.

Knowledge shouldn't simply be acquired to help you reach some other goal. Knowledge is a worthy goal in and of itself.

Time

If money is the most obvious form of wealth, time is its antithesis. A form of wealth that you can't see. Time doesn't flash expensive possessions and large salaries. Time is so nonchalant that you would hardly notice it at all.

If monetary wealth is best displayed through luxury possessions, a wealth of time is best displayed through nothingness.

Monetary wealth displays itself on a scoreboard for the world to see, but time is measured on an hourglass that no one, not even you, can view. Monetary wealth climbs higher as we make more money, but time slowly ticks lower and lower. You are the most time-rich when you are the most financially poor, but we rarely notice when we have an abundance of time.

We only become aware of the value of time when ours is almost gone.

Theoretically, money has unlimited upside. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is worth upwards of $200B right now. But one day, someone (maybe Musk!) could be worth $500B, or even $1T. Why not?

Time is the inverse. There are hard limits on our time, and unlike our money, which generally increases as we age, our time decreases. You can't buy more of it, and you never know how much time you have left. The relationship between money and time looks something like this:

When wealth is measured in increments of time, the young are richer than anyone else. Sure, having $100B would be great. But if you are young, how many of your years would you sacrifice for Bezos's wealth?

How about we flip the question around? How much money would Bezos sacrifice to switch places with me, a 25-year-old who will never be a billionaire? Maybe all of it. He’s already shown that he wants to invest billions in life extension technology.

Like oxygen, we ignore time when it's abundant, but we desperately want more as it becomes scarce. If you blow all of your money, you can make more. When your time runs out, it's game over.

Opportunity costs are everything, how much is your hourglass worth?

The clock is ticking.

Health

Health is the cousin to time. Much like time, we rarely think of health while we have it. And when we are young, we tend to have plenty of health. Eat like shit, never work out, it doesn't matter, you're young. You'll bounce back.

In college, for example, whether you treat your body like a temple or like a dive bar, you'll probably be alright.

But decisions compound.

In finance, compound interest is a powerful force. The person who invests an extra $200 per month might not see a difference in their early years, but they will be hundreds of thousands of dollars richer in 30 years.

But compound interest isn't solely reserved for finance. In fact, its most valuable application is in your health.

The person who doesn't take care of their health in their youth might not notice any effects early on, but a laissez-faire approach to one's well-being is catastrophic as you grow older. What you ingest begins to matter more. Whether you exercise begins to matter more.

As you grow older, your looks fade, your metabolism slows, and your potential health problems grow more severe. At this point, the decisions that you have made regarding your health begin to snowball.

Much like time, we rarely think of health while we have it. But once you lose it? It is the only thing that you can think about. Confucius put it best when he said, "A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one."

And that sick man rarely finds his wish granted.

Health's greatest value is the optionality it gives you.

When you are healthy and broke, you have a world of options. If you are bedridden and rich, what's the point? What good is a billion dollars if you are incapable of enjoying it?

Relationships

Every other form of wealth is irrelevant if you have a scarcity of relationships. What good is that money if you have no one to share it with? Sure, you can go further and further down the path of singular materialistic pleasures, but it won't bring fulfillment.

Time and good health are only as valuable as your capacity to spend them with those you care about. Otherwise, you are wasting your open calendar and able body on frivolous distractions.

A wealth of knowledge is all right and good, but knowledge is best used when it is shared with others. The only difference between a master and a hermit is the presence of students.

We are social creatures, and relationships are critical for the soul. We need others with whom we can laugh and cry. Exchange dreams, stories, and fears. Fall in and out of love. Forge new memories. Drive a Uhaul 1,000 miles across the east coast of the US.

To be clear, this photo is in reference to the Uhaul, not the other stuff.

Every little thing we do comes back to relationships.

A life that is rich in all other regards but deficient in relationships is hollow at best, and depressing at worst. What's the point of having the world if you have no one to share it with? Do you really want to be king if it means residing in a castle of one?

Experiences

One of my Twitter friends, Fed Speak, once said, "The purpose of life is to experience things for which you will later experience nostalgia."

I tend to agree. Life is one ~90-year experience defined by a variety of other, smaller experiences throughout. We are fortunate to live in an era where experiences are more accessible than ever before.

You can travel anywhere in the world in under 24 hours for $1,000 or less. You can learn anything, from foreign languages to exotic recipes, on the internet. For the first time in history, we can quite literally do anything. Meet anyone. As one of the first generations that doesn't have to spend every waking moment simply fighting for survival, we can form deep relationships, pursue a higher calling, and straight up have fun every once in a while.

Out of the 100 billion humans who have walked this Earth, we won the timeline lottery.

What better way to spend your money, use your time, leverage your knowledge, take advantage of your good health, and maximize your relationships than doing cool stuff with those you care about?

At the end of the day, our experiences are all we have.

Experiences are our opportunities to cash in our other forms of wealth for something memorable.

Some experiences cost money, but the most valuable experiences aren't defined by their price tags. I don't remember how much it cost to visit Tromsø, Norway. But seeing the Northern Lights? Priceless.

A night spent with cold beer, loud music, a hot fire, and good friends is priceless.

Engaging with Argentinians in their native tongue is priceless.

Taking a road trip across the western US with my best friend was priceless (except for the Polaris RZR I wrecked in the desert, which was $1200).

Of all the tradeoffs one can make, exchanging financial wealth for experiential wealth is one that you will never regret. But missing out on experiences because you are "too busy with work?" Rarely worth it.

Money is an infinite resource, but experiences, like time, are finite.

How many opportunities do you have to grab dinner with your grandparents? Take a ski trip with your best friends? Visit a new country on a whim? Learn a new skill that always interested you?

Money is best used to fund the experiences that you desire. The fun stuff. The stuff that sets your soul on fire.

Imagine spending 40 years minimizing a higher form of wealth (experiences) to maximize a lower form of wealth (money), before spending your twilight years vainly trying to recapture the experiences that you missed.

The goal is a life rich in experiences, and sufficient in finances.

At the end of your life, would like rather look back fondly on fun times with those you care about, or will you be satisfied that you didn't "waste your time and money" on such trivial pursuits?

Can't take it with you.

- Jack

My Takeaways from Jack

1. Right from the get-go, Jack provides what the Merriam Webster dictionary says as the meaning of wealth. We must think alike because if you read the letter I wrote my two daughters, you will see that I provided what the Cambridge dictionary defined as wealth. Both dictionaries defined wealth similarly in that it is an “abundance of resources.” But, as Jack pointed out, wealth does not have a monopoly on money alone. Rather, the key is finding the correct balance of resources (i.e. the 6 types of wealth Jack lays out).

2. Jack states that, “When wealth is measured in increments of time, the young are richer than anyone else.” If you read the 6th edition of The Wealth Letters, you’ll see that billionaire Felix Dennis wholeheartedly agrees with Jack when he wrote, “If you are young, you are infinitely richer than I ever can be again. Money is never owned. It is only in your custody for awhile. Time is always running on, and the young have more of it in their pocket than the richest man or woman alive.”

3. Jack cuts to the nitty-gritty when he says, “Every other form of wealth is irrelevant if you have a scarcity of relationships.” At the end of the day, we were created to be social, to build community, and to help better those around us. Yes, we must have money & resources in order to focus on our relationships most effectively, but it’s important to understand that our relationships are not (and should not) be dependent on money & resources.

   What are your takeaways?

   I would love to hear what stuck out to you. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts!

Connect with Jack

Young Money Blog / Newsletter

Twitter / X

LinkedIn

Email: jack@youngmoney.co

Thank You for Your Support

Would you consider sharing The Wealth Letters with a friend? That would be so much appreciated:

Share The Wealth Letters

Want to share your own Wealth Letter and be featured in the collection?

• If that sounds interesting to you, here is a link to write your letter for the collection.

• If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly).

I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!

Reach out via email: support@thewealthletters.com or by commenting on this post.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jordan

Welcome to the 20th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.

If you haven’t done so, please read or listen to the manifesto before diving in to the collection, as it will provide a clear vision & goals of The Wealth Letters.

The following entry is a collection of message notes from Pastor Tom Lundeen on a series of four sermons he gave to the Riverside Church campuses of Big Lake & Sauk Rapids, MN.

The sermons, and corresponding message notes focus on how we handle money and how money handles us. It is highly advised to view the sermons so as to better understand how the message notes can be applied to each one of us.

The original sermons can all be viewed in their entirety here:

The Ultimate Financial Planner

Money No-No’s

I Can See Clearly Now (Part 1)

I Can See Clearly Now (Part 2).

Who is Pastor Tom Lundeen?

Bio credit: https://myrc.church/

Before reading or listening to Pastor Tom’s message notes…

Be willing to be vulnerable and open your mind to ideas and suggestions that have proven worthwhile in another’s journey. Do not blindly accept any and all advice given, but rather take in the information and distill it down to if & how it can be applied to YOU and your unique self.

• Michael Jordan said that he imitated Dr. J.

• Kobe Bryant said he studied and imitated Jordan.

• But, they mixed in their own uniqueness.

While not everything will relate directly to one’s current situation at this precise moment, there may be some gems that will be worthwhile in time.

From Stress to Rest: How We Handle Money & How Money Handles Us

By: Pastor Tom Lundeen

There are probably fewer topics that have more spiritual and practical implications for our lives, marriages, families, culture, nation, and world than how we handle money and how money handles us.

• 80% of Americans are in debt

• 41% of millennials spend more on coffee than retirement plans

• 62% of couples who argue have disagreements about money

• Infidelity and money issues are the top reasons for divorce

Even more significantly, Jesus made it clear that how we handle money has eternal implications.

Luke 16:11 (NIV):

^“So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”

God measures our spiritual maturity by how we deal with money. Jesus focused on this topic so much not because He was obsessed about money or wanted us to have a lot of it, but because He knew money is always a heart issue and one of the most likely reasons for someone to either follow Him or to give up on Him.

Matthew 6:19-21:

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”

What are God’s principles for financial freedom?

1. Keep Good Records

Proverbs 27:23 (NIV):

“Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.”

We need to know where our money comes from and where it goes. Often money doesn’t talk…it tends to slip away quietly and doesn’t give a forwarding address.

Proverbs 23:23 (NIV):

“Buy the truth and do not sell it—wisdom, instruction and insight as well.”

I need to know what I own, owe, earn, and where it’s all going.

Write it down!

2. Budgeting

A budget is simply planned spending. It helps you tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

Proverbs 21:5 (NIV):

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

Your yearnings will always exceed your earnings.

Proverbs 21:20 (NIV):

“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”

“If you want to control your debt, you’ve got to nip it in the budget.” - Pastor Warren

3. Save

Proverbs 20:21 (NIV):

“An inheritance claimed too soon will not be blessed at the end.”

• 30% of Americans have no savings

• 70% have less than $15,000 saved

Proverbs 6:6-8 (NIV):

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

One of the unspoken reasons we don’t save is envy. The problem is most people we envy are also in debt and envying others. We have to stop comparing/competing and decide to do the right things with the money God has entrusted to us.

Note Proverbs 13:11 (NIV):

“Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

4. Generosity

Proverbs 3:9-10 (NIV):

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

Whatever you want God to bless in your life, put Him first. A great starting point is to tithe 10%…God owns it all anyway!

Malachi 3:10 (NIV):

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

Practicing generosity reminds us that everything is God’s:

• Give with gratitude

• It helps make God our first priority

• It is a declaration of faith

1 Corinthians 16:2 (NIV):

“On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”

5. Contentment

Ecclesiastes 6:9 (NIV):

“Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

We can be so focused on getting more that we don’t enjoy what we have. The truth is, things will “settle down” when we choose for them to settle down.

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV):

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Philippians 4:10-13 (NIV):
 ^“I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

I know these principles work, but there are 2 conditions:

1. You have to do them all

2. You have to do them in God’s order

Here’s what most people do:

1. Earn it

2. Enjoy it

3. Repay it (past)

4. Save it (future)

5. Give/tithe it (eternal)

Here’s the order that God blesses:

1. Earn it

2. Tithe/give it

3. Save it

4. Repay it

5. Enjoy it

Out of control finances are symptoms of an out of control life.

We need a life manager = Jesus Christ. Behind all our financial problems is unbelief.

We need Jesus to be first the CEO of our lives, and then the CFO too!

Job 31:24-25, 28 (NIV):

“If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’
if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.”

Money can dominate our lives and money influences our lives for good or bad. If you don’t learn to manage your money, it will manage you, which is why money and financial issues cause so much stress in our lives.

What is Jesus Talking About?

Note the Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16:1-13 (NIV):

“Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

 “‘Nine hundred gallons^[a] of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushels^[b] of wheat,’ he replied.

“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Jesus isn’t praising dishonesty. But, He is pointing out that there are always things to learn even from people we may disagree with!

Luke 16:14-15 (NIV):

“The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”

Jesus wants us to think about money differently because so many of us aren’t very good at managing it. God wants you and me to learn to be Biblically shrewd with our money for the rest of our lives.

Don’t Squander Money

Luke 16:1-2 (NIV):

“Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’”

Luke 15:13-15 (NIV):

“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.”

Everything we have and are belongs to God. We are not owners, we are only managers.

Deuteronomy 8:18 (NIV):

“But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”

Deuteronomy 10:14 (NIV):

“To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.”

Exodus 19:5 (NIV):

^“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession, although the whole earth is mine…”

Job 41:11 (NIV):

“Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.”

Don’t Love Money

Luke 16:13 (NIV):

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. It’s impossible to have 2 number one priorities. And loving money has serious consequences in many areas of life, including spirituality.

1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV):

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Don’t Rely on Money

Luke 16:3 (NIV):

“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—”

Never put your trust in anything that can be taken from you. The only thing that you can never lose is God’s love for you.

Proverbs 23:5 (NIV):

“Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

Don’t Expect Money to Give Your Life Meaning

There is no agreed to number in survey after survey about how much money is enough.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV):

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”

Luke 12:15 (NIV):

^“Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Your net-worth doesn’t equal your self-worth. Your valuables are not your value. My worth and value and yours is because God made us; Jesus died and rose again for us; and the Holy Spirit wants to take up residence in us.

Money is a tool and we’re to use it the way God designed it to be used. When we’re using money God’s way, we’ll have less stress and much more rest. And, we’ll use money the right way when Jesus has His rightful place in our lives.

Everything Belongs to God

Everything ever created belongs to God.

Psalm 24:1 (MSG):

“God claims Earth and everything in it. God claims World and all who live on it.”

All we have is on loan. Jesus wants us to understand we are all in middle management positions. Everything we have is a gift from God, and God is very interested in what we’re doing with what He’s entrusted to us.

James 1:17 (MSG):

“Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of Heaven.”

If I’m in charge and the master of my destiny, then I’ve got to worry about where I’m going to get money and how I’m going to pay for everything. But, when I know God owns it all, the full weight of every money issue/challenge/opportunity isn’t just my concern.

Matthew 6:25-27 (MSG):

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference?”

How well are you taking care of God’s property?

As pastor Warren said, “Whenever I waste money, I’m wasting God’s money.”

God Uses Money to Help Me See Myself

Life is a test and God uses money to test us. God uses money to help me see:

A. What I love most

You spell love —> G.I.V.E. (you can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving).

Matthew 6:19-21 (MSG):

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”

B. What I trust the most

Proverbs 11:28 (MSG):

“A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.”

C. If God can trust me

Unmanaged finances reveal an unmanaged life. Jesus directly connects spiritual maturity with money, spiritual power with how we handle stuff/things, and God’s blessings with my dollars.

Luke 16:10-11 (MSG):

“Jesus went on to make these comments: If you’re honest in small things, you’ll be honest in big things. If you’re a crook in small things, you’ll be a crook in big things. If you’re not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store?”

Money is Simply a Tool

Money is neutral.

We’re not to love money, but to use it. God wants us to love people and use money, not love money and use people. We need to use money to honor God. The shrewd manager isn’t praised by Jesus for his dishonesty.

But, he did 3 things God wants us to do with our money:

1. He Focused on the Future

Luke 16:3 (MSG):

“The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan.”

• Japanese save an average of 28.8% of their income.

• Europeans save an average of 12% of their income.

• Americans save an average of 3.4% of their income.

If we’re living beyond our means, we’re not thinking about the future.

Proverbs 14:8 (MSG):

“The wisdom of the wise keeps life on track; the foolishness of fools lands them in the ditch.”

2. He Planned

Luke 16:4 (MSG):

“Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.”

Proverbs 16:9 (MSG):

“We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.”

3. He Was Decisive

He didn’t procrastinate or say, “someday…”

• Do you have a financial plan?

• A budget?

• A plan for dealing with our debts?

• It starts with making Jesus the CEO of your life

A Quick Review:

1. Everything belongs to God

2. God uses money to help me see myself

3. Money is simply a tool

There are 3 remaining life-transforming truths that will help us experience less stress and more rest in our lives:

1. One Day I’ll Face the Ultimate Audit

Whether we have comparatively a lot or a little, God is very interested in what we’re doing with it, and if He can trust us with more.

Luke 16:2 (NIV):

“So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’”

One day for all of us, our time in middle management will end, and God will ask us to show what we did with the mind, gifts, abilities, health, freedom, and resources He gave us.

Did we just focus on ourselves, or did we honor God with everything?

1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV):

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

1 Peter 4:11 (NIV):

“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen”

Colossians 3:17 (NIV):

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Romans 14:12 (NIV):

“So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”

2. Faithfulness With a Little Opens the Door to God Trusting Me with More

Luke 16:10 (NIV):

 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

Matthew 25:14-30 on the Parable of the Bags of Gold (NIV):

¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸ But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹ “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²² “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

²⁴ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“Faithfulness in little ways produces fruitfulness in big ways.” - Pastor Warren

Generosity is God’s plan to become financially healthier. Ask yourself this question: “Can I do better with 100% of my money, or can the God of the universe help me do better with 90% of my money?

2 Corinthians 9:6-11 (NIV):

 ^“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
    their righteousness endures forever.”^[a]

¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

Luke 6:38 (NIV):

 ^“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

3. The Best Use of Money

Note Luke 16:9 (NIV):

“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV):

 ^“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.”

2 Corinthians 5:8 (NIV):

“We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

Is anybody going to be in Heaven because of the way you used your money and practiced generosity?

You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead by investing it in the lives of people who your gifts help in them saying ‘YES!’ to Jesus as Lord.

No matter what you may have in your earthly IRA, it pales in comparison to what you could have in your eternal IRA.

Give your first and best to God. He didn’t give his 3rd string for us…He gave us His one and only Son!

One day, you and me will face the ultimate audit.

- Pastor Tom Lundeen, Riverside Church

My Takeaways

1. “If you don’t learn to manage your money, it will manage you, which is why money and financial issues cause so much stress in our lives.” - Pastor Lundeen

2. “We have to stop comparing/competing and decide to do the right things with the money God has entrusted to us.” - Pastor Lundeen

3. Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. - Ecclesiastes 5:10

4. “Your net-worth doesn’t equal your self-worth.” - Pastor Lundeen

5. GENEROSITY. We are called to be generous. We should give our FIRST and our BEST to God.

What were your takeaways from Pastor Tom?

Connect with Pastor Tom or Riverside Church:

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Jordan