This week was all about the link between wealth and personal liberty. Understanding this link is key to deriving genuine life satisfaction from your wealth-building efforts. 

Let’s take a look:

The checklist

1. Why bother building wealth? 
   • Wealth gives you genuine control over your own time and enables the faster realization of your initiatives.
   • Both tangible and intangible assets contribute to this wealth. 
2. Building personal wealth makes the world a better place. 
   • People who build wealth automatically reduce their environmental footprint and direct more capital to the solution of major global problems. 
   • Financially secure employees cannot be exploited by capital owners. 
3. Financial resilience is the best measure of the personal liberty afforded by your wealth. 
   • Financial resilience is the number of years your wealth can sustain your lifestyle. 
   • The amount of financial resilience required for personal liberty differs from case to case.
4. The transition to liberty should be done responsibly.
   • A gradual transition from a strong base of valuable intangible assets can greatly reduce risk.
   • In this case, 1-2 years of financial resilience is enough to start the gradual transition. 

Wealth gives you freedom.

Most people instinctively want wealth to claim the freedom to consume whatever they want. But lasting happiness actually comes from the freedom to create what you want. 

This is what is meant by personal liberty: complete freedom to direct your own time and resources toward the realization of your inspirational dreams. 

You’d be hard pressed to find a more attractive goal to strive for.