I recently recommended The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life by Sahil Bloom. The book is a useful reminder that while money matters, it’s only one form of wealth—and after a basic threshold, chasing more can quietly crowd out the things that make a good life: time, relationships, health, and a sense of purpose.
So the real question isn’t “How do I build more financial wealth?” but “Am I building a life where my wealth actually shows up where I want it to?”
Bloom’s framework expands the traditional definition of money by identifying five types of wealth that together shape a well-lived life: time, social, mental, physical, and financial.
A challenge with self-improvement frameworks is that they can feel like yet another system to adopt. So rather than overcomplicate it, I’m going to summarize each wealth type through a practical, career-and-life lens, and suggest one realistic action you can take in the next thirty days to strengthen it.
Time Wealth: The Most Finite Wealth Type
Time is a finite resource, and how you control your calendar largely determines whether it’s spent on what actually matters. This becomes especially clear when you think about time with the most important people in your life.
Time with parents and siblings peaks in childhood and declines sharply after the teenage years. By the time your kids turn eighteen, you’ve already spent up to 90% of the total time you’ll ever have with them. Time with friends follows a similar pattern. The one relationship that grows over time is with your partner—so, as Bloom notes, choose wisely. Megan Gorman made a similar point when we discussed her personal finance book All the President’s Money on the podcast.
Bloom distills this reality into six simple reminders:
- Family time is finite – cherish it.
- Children time is precious – be present.
- Friend time is limited – prioritize the real friends.
- Partner time is meaningful – never settle.
- Coworker time is significant – find energy.
- Alone time is abundant – love yourself.
When I think about time wealth today, one obvious presence-killer comes to mind.
Yep, you guessed it.
The iPhone.
The 30-day action item I’m suggesting is to put the damn phone down. Don’t start your day with it. Leave it face down in another room whenever you can. Get your Screen report number to plummet. Replace the time spent staring at your screen interacting with the people who matter most, improving both the quality and quantity.
Social Wealth
Relationships are essential to healthy aging and long-term physical well-being.
“The single greatest predictor of physical health at age eighty was relationship satisfaction at age fifty. Loneliness is worse for you than regular tobacco or alcohol use.”
You need to invest in those relationships early so they will last decades.
Bloom frames social wealth as three things: deep connections with a small group, a broader circle that provides belonging and support, and earned admiration and respect from peers.
This is the second book I’ve recommended recently that emphasizes how critical relationships are in retirement. The first was Christine Benz’s How to Retire (reviewed here).
This section inevitably makes me think about Florida residency in retirement. Many clients consider it to save on taxes and enjoy the climate. If you’ve always wanted to retire there, great—go for it. But if you already have a solid financial plan (and very few plans hinge entirely on lower state income taxes) and taxes are the only real motivation, it’s worth pausing.
Otherwise, you may simply be creating a larger pile of money for your kids and grandkids to divide later. That matters—but not at the expense of meaningful relationships and day-to-day quality of life. If moving undermines those, it isn’t worth it.
The 30-day action item here is modeled on something I did during the darker Covid days. I called one person each week I hadn’t spoken to in a long time and set up a weekly steak night with friends. Take the lead in nurturing relationships. Make phone calls. Organize something.
Mental Wealth
For Bloom, mental wealth centers on curiosity—giving yourself the time and space to discover purpose, pursue lifelong learning, and live your own life rather than someone else’s version of it.
This wasn’t my favorite part of the book. It feels overly prescriptive.
The other wealth types encourage us not to waste time, maintain relationships, focus on health, and be smart with money—all of which rest on solid footing. I’m not arguing against curiosity or growth, but I don’t think they have to look like Bloom’s version or be pursued for his reasons.
Not everyone is motivated by Steve Jobs’s Stanford speech—and that’s fine. Not everyone loves to read. Some people want to take classes in retirement; others want to golf or spend time at the beach.
The 30-day action here is simply to act on something you’ve been putting off. Want to read more? Get the book. Interested in a topic? Take the class. If you’re not living the life you want, start sketching a plan.
Physical Wealth
The importance of physical wealth is obvious. As Bloom puts it, “Treat your body like a house you have to live in for another seventy years.”
Hopefully, you live a long life—and are healthy while doing it. This isn’t a health and fitness book, so, as with the other wealth types, Bloom breaks Physical Wealth into three basic components:
- Movement: cardio, strength training and stability and flexibility
- Nutrition: prioritizing whole, unprocessed foods
- Recovery: sleeping well and prioritizing other recovery activities
The key here is discipline and consistency.
Speaking for myself, this hasn’t gotten easier with time—but turning fifty has made the stakes feel much higher. Failing to prioritize physical health could derail the retirement I’ve worked hard toward or limit what I’m able to do in the next phase of life.
The book includes a thirty-day challenge to help you start focusing on Physical Wealth. Bloom provides it on his website . There are three levels based on ability and starting point, a spreadsheet to track progress, and the option to move up levels as you complete each one.
Financial Wealth
The financial wealth formula is straightforward: create stable and growing income, keep expenses below what you earn, and invest the difference in long-term assets that compound over time.
Like physical wealth, the formula is simple—and when it comes to personal finance, I don’t think it can be beat for growing assets over time. It mirrors a favorite personal finance quote I’ve shared on my Investopedia Advisor Council profile:
“The best financial plan is to save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist.” – Morgan Housel
The gap you create between income and spending is the single most important tool for financial independence—and it’s largely within your control.
Bloom recommends building and sticking to a budget, automating savings once a rainy-day fund is in place, and avoiding the insidious, wealth-destroying phenomenon known as lifestyle creep.
Automating savings is an underrated tool in my experience. Clients who automate contributions—rather than periodically adding lump sums when the “time feels right”—consistently save more and see their balances grow faster over time. Instead of turning each potential investment into a referendum on market conditions or headlines, they simply put money to work as it becomes available. If it works well in your 401(k), there’s no reason not to extend the same discipline to your brokerage account.
To get your finances moving in the right direction over the next thirty days, you can use this Wealth Management Checklist I created based on my book Beyond the Basics: Maximizing, Allocating, and Protecting Your Capital. It’s organized into five easy-to-follow sections and covers the full spectrum of planning and investment topics most people need.
Conclusion
The Five Types of Wealth offers an expanded view of wealth without dismissing the importance of financial security. By encouraging better use of time, stronger relationships, continued personal growth, physical health, and disciplined finances, it makes a well-rounded contribution to personal finance thinking. Bloom also provides resources on his website, including a scorecard to help identify where you’re strongest and where improvement may have the greatest impact. It’s a useful way to assess—and improve—your overall wealth.
