08 Oct 2025 Your Wealth Doesn’t Have to Make You Anxious

Over time, I have become convinced that the number one side effect of wealth is anxiety. There are many, many reasons for it: the loneliness, the intangible, no-boundary “knowledge work” that typically accompanies wealth building, the proliferation of decision fatigue and complexity management, the tiresome and unreasonable cultural expectations of wealth, the guilt or arrogance at the emotional poles of wealth, and even the nagging suspicion that our wealth may be in charge of us, and not vice versa. 

The three most common ways people tend to deal with these symptoms are by 1) Ignoring them, 2) Losing the forest for the trees by obsessing over inconsequential financial minutiae and distracting shiny objects, or 3) Putting their heads down and building more wealth. Generally speaking, none of these strategies is very effective. 

A financial plan—an organized balance sheet, explicit saving or distribution targets, a cohesive and sound investment strategy, and the habits that hold those things together—is then primarily a tool to begin working together to take concrete, actionable steps toward reducing complexity and disorganization and confusion. These bits of the planning process are crucial, because over time they make space for you to deal with the financial decisions that exist on a higher plane of needs—the emotional and spiritual ones.  

How can we be more generous? How do we teach our children about money? What sort of spending maximizes joy instead of comparison? No one has the emotional energy to begin tackling these sorts of questions when the basics of their financial life have not been taken care of. 

Fear sells, so the our industry continues to sell it, and will go on selling it. But you don’t have to buy it. Instead, there’s a slightly more strenuous trail for the adventurous, one where, over time, it becomes possible for wealth—and the wealthy–to become something totally different, characterized by generosity, joy, and peace rather than anxiety. 

We’re always ready to take folks on that trail. Give us a call.