Health is the abundant possession of valuable resources. So, if you have anything (valuable) in abundant quantity, you are wealthy. If a person has 100 apples in Mumbai, he will be worth R10,000 at least.
However, during the apple harvest time in Shimla you find apples lying on the road with no takers!
When you hear the word wealthy you normally think of a rich person with a nice income, a house, car, etc.
However, a person could be wealthy if he/she has good health, good knowledge, social standing, etc. Money does not have a monopoly over being wealthy.
We talk only about money as wealth because it is easy to measure. When someone says ‘My salary is R30 lakh per annum’ or ‘My house is worth R 7 crore’ – these are MEASURABLE wealth statements. However, unfortunately, other ‘abundance’ measures do not exist. Imagine asking someone ‘how much health’ do you have or ‘how much knowledge do you have’.
Let us consider a meeting of the top 30 scientists of the world – are people judged on the basis of their net-worth? Or a sports meet -say runners meet. You will be judged on how good a student you have been -in terms of training, mental strength, medals etc. – again not by money. Money has another problem – it starts giving pleasure after reaching a particular level – in the Indian context say R30 lakh.
Another problem with money is if you get it late in life, it is not likely to be very useful. If you got money at the age of 55, that money can’t be used for you to climb Everest, can you? When you are well reputed for your knowledge (say like Late President APJ Abdul Kalam) – we don’t judge him by the money he earned, but by the knowledge and a great human being that he was. Will we be able to say he was not wealthy?
Do we judge Sachin Tendulkar (or Vishwanathan Anand) by the amount of money they made or by their sports skill? Can you ask a person how much is your health? No. It can’t be measured. We judge and rank by easy to measure stuff like salary and net-worth. Do remember that compounding works in wealth. So, if you invest in health, knowledge, relationships, time management, etc. you will reap the benefits of compounding. Money can’t say that it is the only claimant to world wealth.
You can be wealthy in terms of health (gives you an option of how to use your leisure time and money), knowledge, relationships (you look forward to your retirement!). The greatest surplus that a wealthy man has of course is time.
A person who is rich has a lot of money, but a person who is wealthy has a lot of time.A person is wealthy in my eyes only if he/she has a balance of money, health, knowledge, reputation, relationships, in balance. What is the point in having a lot of money, and good health but such a bad reputation that nobody wants to be friends with you?