A former boss and mentor once shared that all people desire three things in life: joy, significance, and meaning. This universal principle has stuck with me ever since. In our pursuits of these ideals, our financial health plays a critical role. Good financial health allows for greater freedom and dramatically improved wellbeing.
Living a richer life is not about accumulating more wealth or assets but about gathering choices: where to live, our employment, the people we share time with, our hobbies and personal passions, and more. Creating and sustaining the power of choice is the key outcome of saving and investing.
A Rich Life Starts Small
Through simple but consistent acts, we take steps to create a fulfilled life. And while it’s tempting to compare our journey with the journeys of the successful people we see online, this type of thinking can contribute to envy or a feeling of missing out.
For the vast majority of us, a rich life begins with small steps, such as the discipline of a budget or the opportunity to participate in an employer’s retirement savings plan. For others, it starts with a financial education that opens a world of investing possibilities. Seeing and understanding these possibilities and making intentional choices with your credit, spending, and saving allows an emerging financial journey to begin.
Increase Confidence; Increase Success
As we make these small initial steps, confidence, not wealth, is the next stage in the journey. Confidence builds to include more education, more perseverance, and more success. As this new financial success takes hold, purpose and meaning emerge in our questions: Do I enjoy my job? Does it provide a sense of meaning and purpose? As one’s vocation is often closely tied to identity, this is often among the first questions people ask themselves as they begin to recognize the power of choice.
In the past year and a half of great upheaval, many workers have quit or are considering leaving their jobs to find something new. A recent Gallup poll found that 48 percent of workers are actively seeking new job opportunities. Stress and burnout are part of this drive to make a fresh start, but it’s also a clear sign of many people choosing to put themselves and their dreams first.
As financial freedom leads to early choice questions, our community intent begins to emerge next: Are my discretionary time and resources dedicated to activities, organizations, or causes that matter to me and serve my values?
Personal Fulfillment and Financial Fulfillment Go Hand in Hand
Throughout life, as we take a financial journey, our story is defined by our ability to make choices.
As individuals gain more confidence and trust in themselves, they have greater access to continue to question these big decisions: Am I in a vocation that fulfills my sense of personal identity? Do I live where I want to raise my children? Am I sustaining the organizations and causes that matter to my life? Can I give my family the power to make choices that I was once not able to? Can I spend my later years in life where I want and doing what I want?
These questions are as numerous as there are people to ask them. Ultimately, we are all tied together by the universal truth I learned many years ago, that all people desire three things in life: joy, significance, and meaning. The essence of a rich life and our financial journey are inextricably linked to our personal fulfillment.
David Knoch is CEO of Docupace a solutions provider focused on digitizing and automating operations in the financial advice and investment industry. David currently serves as the Immediate Past Chair of the Financial Services Institute (FSI) Board of Directors and has been voted one of the 25 most influential people in the Investment Advisory industry two years in a row – 2018 and 2019.
