Living a Rich Life is not about Money

By Gayle Knight Colman, CFP®

During the first quarter of the year when the markets were nearing their decline and beginning a slow recovery, we offered a short list of activities and ideas to our clients about living a wealthy life. The list was different than you might expect because the rich ideas required little to no money.  As we enter the holiday season and gift-giving, besides nixing gift cards, I offer a wealth of ideas on living a rich life.  Perhaps the gift you want to share with your loved ones takes on a new form and costs little.

The change in our financial circumstances as depicted on our balance sheets and investment account values offers us a precious opportunity to not only consider what really matters but to also evolve our way of spending money.  Opportunities to maintain a “rich” living while sustaining our financial resources are available.  It really doesn’t matter whether you have cents, dollars or tens of thousands of dollars in the bank; creating and implementing ways to fulfill life pleasures without vast amounts of money is a worthy endeavor. It means that you are building the capacity to see and experience the richness of life, always.

Consider these activities to expand your capacity to live a rich life and consider giving one of these experiences to your loved ones as an alternative to a newly purchased object.

Abundance Activities:

• Read the books accumulating by your nightstand. Consider sending one of them to a friend if your desire to read it has vanished.
• Organize and enjoy the tea accumulating in your cupboard.
• Read to your (or a) child or grandchild.
• Sign up for Skype and connect with friends across the globe.
• Read poetry or get creative and consider writing some.
• Become a tourist in your own area. Visit local museums and parks.
• Go to your local library and check out books, movies, magazines, DVDs. Some libraries have family passes for discounts to local attractions.
• Listen to music.
• Dance to music.
• Sing to music or your own tune.
• Pretend you are a famous chef and required to use only the ingredients found in your refrigerator and freezer and pantry. What can you make for dinner this week? Be creative and use up all of your “old” food.
• Practice random and generous actions of kindness. Feed someone else’s meter. Call someone who may be lonely. Write a card or letter and mail it the old fashion way.
• Continue to make charitable contributions.
• Contribute your time to charity.
• Move your body with exercise, hiking, dancing, stretches, or lifting weights.
• Institute a family game night once a week or at least once in a while and play the cardboard games in your closet. Monopoly, Clue, Trivial Pursuit, Life and Risk are our favorites. Card games are another option!
• Watch your collection of DVDs.
• Make a sandwich and go on a picnic.
• Snowshoe in the winter.
• Garden in the summer.
• Create a “behavior improvement” jar. I confess we have a curse jar to improve our choice of words. For every curse, the jar gets a dollar.
• Write love notes to yourself and your loved ones on your mirrors in the bathroom.
• Practice offering positive feedback.
• And, what can you think of right now? Add to this list your own customized ways of living a rich life without money.

As the holiday season unfolds and we turn the corner to another year, I wish you abundance in all forms.