The Surprising Way True Wealth Emerges

I had a moment last week where I was thinking back on my past and found myself surprisingly overwhelmed with gratitude.

I felt so grateful for having grown up poor, having been on food stamps and for growing up as an immigrant. I’m grateful for having gone to public school—I am grateful for growing up with these experiences because it helped me understand what wealth truly is and what it is not.

A couple of years ago, there was this term that went viral: FU Money.

The term FU Money was used to describe how a person could have so much money that they could tell anyone, especially their haters: “FU”!

I imagine those times when bigots would yell at me “go back to where you came from!” and I would shrug my shoulders and laugh at them as I hopped on my private jet.

Or, when my previous office landlord suggested that I would be more successful if I wear a skirt and smile more, I would use my fictional FU money to buy out the entire office building and lock him out.

FU money is like armor, it makes you untouchable.

But here’s the thing: when you’re truly wealthy, you don’t need to have that kind of money to feel invincible.

You don't need money to know your true worth or value.

True wealth does not depend on how much you have in the bank,

—even if that’s none at all— you still know who you are and people telling you who you are not doesn’t bother you.
And you know what?
Being poor is what taught me that.

It gave me such deep perspective on what personal value really is, and no one can take that away. And, if you are only depending on the dollars in your bank account to feel valuable or to feel like a contributor, then you are not looking at true wealth.

True wealth is having things that money can’t buy, like appreciation.

I remember when I was little, I would feel roaches crawling across my blanket at night (I still get the heebie-jeebies just talking about it!) To this day I am SO appreciative that I have a warm and comfortable bed. Every night when I go to bed and every morning when I wake up, I am so grateful for my warm bed. But would I still know the awesomeness of a cozy bed if I did not have that experience as a child?

How many of us have friends who have really nice cars, and homes, and can take all these lavish vacations, but find themselves unhappy or dissatisfied with it?

Don’t get me wrong, being able to take things for granted is a gift, but knowing the value and sacredness of all experiences is the greatest gift.

Being truly wealthy is feeling the fullness of everything and if I was born with everything, that fullness wouldn’t exist.

*So how do you start the path of true wealth?*

Strive to get to the point in your inner healing where you are truly grateful for all of the difficult experiences that you’ve had in your life.
Take all of the angst, anger, and bitterness from past hardships, the burning sense of injustice, the hurt of seeing hard-working people struggle and suffer and feel those feelings and seek to find genuine thankfulness for those lessons.
When you get to that point, you’ll know that you crossed a boundary.
You’ll know that you’ve healed those wounds.

You’ll know that you’ll never ever be desperate again.

That is true wealth: to be able to see the world with clear eyes.

You are confident in the connection to your own gifts and genius and you discover that suffering, just like gratitude is a choice. And gratitude opens many more doors than the former. Funny enough, at that point, you’d be a magnet for Abundance. You couldn’t stop it from following you even if you tried!

I hope that one day soon you can have a moment like I did where you can be truly thankful for all of the things you didn’t have because you realized what you really do have: yourself.

That’s something no one can take from you and that’s what we’re really after, the evolution into ourselves again.

Let me know what you think! I always love hearing your thoughts :)

Love,

Anna TsuiJanuary 27, 2021