These Are All The Ways I Feel Poorer Than I Am

Financially, I’m doing pretty well.

My books sell more than you’d think books about ancient philosophy would sell (​actually, you can preorder the new one here​)…and it turns out that ​starting a bookstore in a small town in rural Texas​ was not actually the dumbest business idea in the world.

I was lucky to have a decent ten years in marketing before I became a full-time author, and I made some good investments along the way. I’ve saved and I try to live within my means.

So when I say that when I look at my life, I feel poorer than I’d like to be, I don’t mean I’m not doing well. This would be insulting to the single mothers out there, the people crippled by medical debt and to the underclasses that the modern economy exploits.

The reason I am thinking about this at all comes after a conversation I had with Sahil Bloom, who has a new book about the different types of wealth, on the Daily Stoic podcast (​you can listen to the episode here​ or watch it on YouTube). Along with financial wealth, there is time wealth, he says. And social wealth. And mental wealth. And physical wealth.

He’s right.

I’ve met some billionaires that I would have no trouble describing as poor — not just because they had an endless desire for more (​which was…