3 levels of wealth

Wealth is a topic that many of us spend significant time thinking about. How I think about wealth, has been inspired by Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr & Slack. Stewart in his interview with Guy Raz (starting at 54:12 mins) talks about the concept of 3 levels of wealth. This is how he defines each level of wealth:

Level 1:

You are not stressed about debt. You no longer worry about your credit card bills or student loans.

Level 2:

You don’t worry about what stuff costs in a restaurant. You no longer choose one meal over the other because of its cost.

Level 3:

You don’t care what a vacation costs. You don’t care how expensive a hotel is or what flight you go on.

Stewart then adds, that once you are past level 3, money does not necessarily make your life any better. In spite of being past level 3, he does feel stressful at times. He does find it difficult to hold himself together. He still loses sleep at night.

This brings-up an interesting question..

What wealth can and cannot do for you?

Wealth certainly cannot buy you everything or solve all your problems. However, it can make your life a lot easier.

At a very basic level, wealth provides for essentials such as food, shelter and healthcare. It also gives you a sense of safety and security. At a much higher level, it gives you freedom. Freedom to do what you want and when you want. It also gives you the ability to control your time. It provides for optionality.

What wealth cannot necessarily guarantee, is a life with zero stress. It cannot guarantee a life full of happiness or one filled with love. It also cannot guarantee good health or sound sleep.

Note: I would like to thank Ben Carlson, whose blog post introduced me to the concept of 3 levels of wealth.