Growing Wealth You Can’t Measure?

Why the best investments for the "last third" of life don't involve a bank.

Mar 31, 2026

I’m a retired money manager, financially comfortable, and spend 4 to 6 hours a day building my wealth.

I am not trying to grow my net worth. I have enough money.

I am focused on growing the kind of wealth that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet.

I am in the last third of my life. I want to prepare to handle aging’s relentless losses. I want to choose my path forward from a wide range of options. I want to live an exceptional life. I don’t want limited choices because I have grown weak, confused, lonely, or out of touch.

That’s why I am working on building my physical capacity, growing wiser, nurturing important relationships, and staying vibrant in our ever-changing world.

Physical Capacity

I live my life in my body. I want to walk five miles a day when I visit New York City, go for bike rides with my children and grandchildren, and feel good when I wake up. That’s a tall order. I can’t stop the natural aging process, but I can slow it down with a robust strength, cardio, balance, and flexibility routine.

Exercising has always been hard for me, so I have added a lot of support in my fitness quest. I work with a trainer. He tells me to do an exercise that seems impossible. I grumble. I give it a shot and inevitably succeed. I get regular massages to soothe my aching muscles.

None of this is cheap. What better way to spend my money?

Growing Wisdom

I am not as smart as I used to be. My intellectual processing capacity has diminished. I can’t think as fast as I used to; it is harder for me to do math in my head.

I am becoming wiser. At 67, I have a plethora of life experiences that contain hidden nuggets of wisdom. To uncover those nuggets, I read insightful people on a broad range of topics and apply what I am learning to my prior life experiences.

Here’s an example. I repressed any feelings of sadness for decades, worrying that sadness would make me weak and vulnerable. I recently read that love and wisdom can grow out of sadness. It hit me like a sledgehammer! Pushing away my sadness during tough times isolated me from close friends and kept the wisdom hidden.

Today I am working on just being with my sadness, not pushing it away. Turns out that my friends see strength in sadness, offer their love and support, and our mutual connection deepens. Nobody thinks of me as a weak and vulnerable wimp.

I’m not surprised I repressed my sadness. Many men in my generation did the same. What’s surprising is how long it took me to internalize the cost.

Nurturing Relationships

My close relationships are my most valuable asset. I have many friendships filled with love, acceptance, vulnerability, and authentic communication.

To keep my relationships strong, I call people when too much time has passed since our last conversation. Sometimes my call comes at just the right moment. They are struggling and need to talk.

I frequently enjoy lunch or coffee with friends. Having a one-on-one conversation offers the time and space to talk about personal issues. Topics range from politics to sports to investments. When something is going on for me or my lunch partner, we are able to talk about it and support each other.

Staying Vibrant

The world is changing at a dizzying pace. I want people to value what I add to the conversation; not to listen politely to the old guy who used to be successful. The last thing I want is for my children or younger friends to groan inwardly when I pull out the same old story.

Most of my friends are roughly my age. I want to build closer friendships with people who are 20 to 30 years younger. I hope that being with bright, talented, caring people in their 30’s and 40’s will help me engage with the world as it is, and not as it used to be.

I’m not trying to extend my life at all costs. I’m trying to protect my ability to choose how I live it.

Life is short, precious, and unpredictable. I don’t know what is coming my way; I do know I want options as I choose how to live my life. I hope my continuing investments to build the wealth off my balance sheet will give me the options I crave.

How about you?…

Until our next conversation,

David

Small Steps & Worthy Questions

What options for yourself do you want to preserve over the next 10 years, and what would it take to protect them?
Invest in one form of support you’ve been resisting. Maybe a trainer, therapist, or life coach will enable you to make more progress.
Focus awareness on one emotion you habitually push away. Don’t try to fix it. Don’t analyze it. Just notice what happens when you let it be present.
Consider what forms of wealth you are still actively growing–and which you have been neglecting.

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