The Connection Between Wellbeing and Wealth

Dr. T went LIVE on September 13 to discuss the connection between well-being and wealth and how you can pursue both in a fulfilling way by asking yourself a few questions.

The reality is that wealth DOES lead to some amount of well-being, though it’s no guarantee AND we need to ask ourselves how we can optimize the pursuit of wealth and wellbeing simultaneously. 

Read the top takeaways on the connection between well-being and wealth.

 #1: You MUST ask yourself how much is enough…for yourself, your company, and your family

Wealth isn’t just money, and well-being isn’t just happiness. Wealth can be assets, it can be time, and it can be resources, including family, love, nourishing food, or cars. Well-being includes your satisfaction at work, how much purpose you feel in your work, and the amount of stress you feel on a daily basis. And we’ve all heard “Health is Wealth,” so it’s a factor that seems to belong to both well-being and wealth. 

But ask yourself: how much wealth is enough for YOU? Where is the number where you’ll feel comfortable both providing for and being PRESENT for your family or loved ones? And are you self-aware enough to “give back” or invest in yourself, your health, your family, and your community when you reach that number? Or will you stay on the hedonic treadmill for another round, hoping the NEXT promotion will bring you happiness and security?

Ask yourself about the costs of continued pursuit of higher and higher wealth. Are there costs to your employees? Costs to your family? Costs to your own health when you don’t have time for healthy eating, restorative sleep, authentic relationships, regular exercise, and a stress management practice? Then decide which costs are worth it and where the inflection point is for YOU.

 #2: Financial wellbeing isn’t only about numbers, but also about the stories we tell ourselves about that money.

While life satisfaction tracks with wealth, emotional wellbeing only continues to rise up to about  $75k per year of income (measured in year 2010 dollars) then hits a plateau. At this point, emotional wellbeing may be more related to the stories we tell ourselves about our money…are we happy with how much we are making? Are we confident in our ability to generate revenue and provide for ourselves and our families?  And is there really an income number that will finally make us confident and content in our wealth…or are we tirelessly striving for a goalpost that is always moving? Simply becoming aware of the stories we tell ourselves is a powerful milestone in financial wellbeing and can set us on a path to improving our relationship to our money.

#3: Investing in wellbeing can improve your bottom line. Companies with higher well-being scores are more profitable.

Organizational wellbeing is also connected to wealth in some surprising ways. Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre assigned a work wellbeing score to thousands of publicly traded companies based on their teams’ sense of purpose, happiness, work satisfaction, and work stress. They then tracked these companies’ financial performance over a 2.5 year period. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, companies with higher measures of team wellbeing reported higher return on assets, greater profits, and higher valuations compared to the companies who scored lower. And if you’re suspicious of the directionality of that relationship, the report also addressed this: company wellbeing levels were, in fact, PREDICTIVE of current financial performance (vice the opposite) as well as future firm performance.

Where can YOU start?

Sign up for our FREE webinar training: Recharge YOUR Health, Retain your People on Oct 5, 2023

This training is tailor-made for business leaders and owners, fellow veterans or not, seeking solutions to the challenges of employee retention, customer attrition and business growth. Upon concluding this session, you will clearly see how leader well-being is a primary driver of workforce well-being and performance, and will have tools to cultivate resilience, enhance health, and boost happiness as a business owner or leader. This newfound competitive advantage will empower you to sustainably serve your employees, clients, family, and yourself – today, tomorrow, and far into the future.

Sign up HERE for the Recharge YOUR Health, Retain your People Training