Money Isn’t the Answer
Design a Deeply Soul-Satisfying Life
This post begins a series about reclaiming the original meaning of wealth — not money, but well-being, identity, cohesion, and the experience of living a life that actually feels like yours.
Today, too many of us feel fragmented, disconnected, and unfulfilled even when life looks “successful” on paper. That quiet sense that something is missing isn’t a sign of personal failure. It’s drift. It’s misalignment. It’s the slow erosion that happens when your inner world and your lived reality stop matching.
This series explores why that happens and how to correct it.
We’ll look at the deeper architecture beneath a soul-satisfying life, the frameworks that restore clarity and identity, and the practical scaffolding that helps you build a reality aligned with who you are, not who the world expects you to be.
If you’re ready for a new way of moving through your days—one grounded in coherence, intention, and a sense of rightness—you’re in the right place.
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⚠️ Caution: Danger Ahead.
Adulting should come with a warning sign. Danger: Potential Drift & Divergence Ahead – that insidious sensation that creeps upon you one morning or maybe mid-afternoon and leaves you questioning, “How the hell did I get here and what went wrong?” And you look around you and wonder, “Is this all that there really is? Working in my greyscale job, ticking off all the boxes of success on paper; juggling dinner with the friends and soccer practice, and dinner with the in-laws, and squeezing in that trip to [insert destination here] only to return to the same rat race, day-in and day-out, year after year, decade after decade.
That is, if you’re one of the lucky enough ones to realize that, maybe, just maybe, there is the potential for so much more in life than just going through the motions, working to pay the bills, and yearning for the fleeting glimpses of elation that tease you during the “good times.” If you’re unlucky, you never have this moment, and you sleep through what has the potential to be the best times of your life.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s say you’re one of the lucky ones and you have that aha moment. What’s next is up to you. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably keep on keeping on while wondering what’s missing and what you could do differently.
You might identify things you do to numb out the hollow sensation of living an empty life: binging (eating, drinking, shopping, Netflix?), chasing adrenaline-inducing thrills to feel alive, frequent travel to experience something other than the mundane.
Or, maybe, you’ve subscribed to the realm of excellence and are constantly chasing the next success: closing the next big deal, winning the next big thing, hitting the next milestone marker you’ve arbitrarily set for yourself. “Once I do [x]…” You tell yourself, “I’ll finally be happy,” or whatever it is that you’ll finally be.
Or, maybe, it’s a bit of both – living large and chasing glory. Mind you, none of these things are inherently maladaptive (well, maybe the binging, but, hey… no shade here), it is the reason that drives the numbing that’s the danger.
But what it really boils down to is that you have a choice. You can recommit, keep on keeping on, and keep doing whatever it is that you’re doing to make it all feel okay. Or, you can choose to become one of the few who live a deeply soul-satisfying life.
🥰 Signs of Soul Satisfaction
A satisfied sigh, a warming sensation deep in your chest, the inclination to just pause and take it all in, breathe deeply, and revel in life. The absence of that insidious itch that something is awry. To me, soul satisfaction is a feeling of deep contentment and peace, a knowingness that, in the moment, everything is grand and the future, while it may be unclear, has limitless potential. It’s having the time to pause, look around, and immerse myself in the moment. It’s having the capacity to sit still and truly, deeply think about what actually matters. It’s being able to pursue what I desire and the lack of pressure to perform to the beat of someone else’s drum. Kind of sounds like freedom, doesn’t it? While the moments marking soul satisfaction are transient, the underlying security of attunement and cohesion is permanent. It’s a sense of rightness that, for me, had been missing for quite some time.
Soul satisfaction occurs when you have the time to truly pay attention and engage with your family, friends, and community – to give them your complete, undistracted attention.
Soul satisfaction manifests when everything feels effortless, and you lose track of time because you’re so involved and fascinated by your work that the outside world ceases to exist.
Soul satisfaction shows up when you’re able to enjoy what it is that you’re doing for the sake of doing it without unrelenting reminders of the x, y, and z that are still on your to-do list and must be taken care of lest the world come to an end.
Soul satisfaction is a slow morning for the sake of enjoying your coffee and decadent breakfast while basking in the early light of the day, instead of hoovering down a bagel and cream cheese and guzzling your coffee while racing out the door, five minutes behind schedule, to sit in traffic.
Soul satisfaction speaks to your inner sense of self, showing up in those quiet moments when your thoughts are still for a time and you can simply be.
It’s not the glitz, glamor, and glee of Hollywood; it is a more fundamental, innate experience stripped of all the trappings of the physical world. It really doesn’t require much, but it does require a deeper understanding of yourself, your environment, and your connections.
💰Money Isn’t the Answer because It Emphasizes the Tangible
Now, this isn’t to trivialize the importance of money in our modern-day market economy because, money, after all, is integral to living comfortably, and we’ll explore money more later on, I promise.
Money serves three purposes: a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. You can trade money for things, save money for later, accumulate varying amounts of it, and use money as a place marker for value and relative worth. Nowadays, we also associate money with wealth.
Wealth has become synonymous with an abundance of material possessions and money. But it wasn’t always that way. Once upon a time, a long, long time ago (pre-1150), the precursor to wealth was wela or weal, which had several meanings, including happiness, prosperity, welfare, and well-being, as well as the modern interpretation of valuable possessions and riches. Unfortunately, this interpretation of wealth fell out of favor around the beginning of the 18th century, leaving us solely with the material account of wealth.
Wealth as Well-being
As it stands today, we’re left with one half of the puzzle: go to school, get a good job, earn a meagre living, start a family, and make the most of the time that you have. What’s missing are the more intrinsic aspects, which may be broadly labeled “the stuff they don’t teach you in school.” As a society, we’re experiencing a dissolution of identity and connection. You might be thinking, “Hey now… wait just a minute, I know who I am.” Do you now, really? Take a moment to describe yourself. Who are you?
Once upon a time, my answer would’ve been something like this, “Hi, I’m Amanda. I’m a Financial Advisor. In my free time, I like hiking with my significant other, Blaine, spending time with our two dogs, Baxter and Yogi, and our two cats, Jiminy Cricket and Tinker Belle. When I’m not outside or giving kitty cuddles, I like to read. I’m an amateur mushroom hunter and gardener.” Notably, I left out my education as I took an untraditional path, but this is a common identification marker as well. Family, occupation, and recreation – all, really, external to the I that wields them to define their identity.
😇 Your Internal I: Design Your Deeply Soul-Satisfying Life with the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth
The idea of the individual self can be segmented into five different aspects that come together into a cohesive whole: inner drive, identity, intellect, interpersonal connection, and impact. Each of these aspects emphasizes a key component that fortifies our sense of self and empowers a soul-satisfying experience. Collectively, they are the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth, which was designed to address the drift and divergence of the chaos of modern life.
Your inner drive is the identification and codification of what motivates you to do you. Throughout the history of humankind, this concept has appeared under different guises: the Japanese concept of ikagai, the French raison d’être, and the Stoics dubbed it purpose and duty. Whatever you decide to call it, your inner drive is the source of your resilience, your ability to trust and believe in yourself, and your capacity to find your inner well of calm and carry on.
Identity is the extension and curation of who you are at your core. It is the narrative that aligns your external experiences with your internal essence, encapsulating your inner drive, values, beliefs, and passions.
Intellect is commonly associated with academic achievements and pursuits. Yet, intellect isn’t merely your IQ and time spent in structured education – it’s the accumulated capability to understand, adapt, and choose with intention.
The various viewpoints and theories of intelligence tell us that intellect isn’t a single trait; it is a system of systems. Our cognitive intelligence influences how we process information; our experiential intelligence determines how we adapt and execute; our existential intelligence guides our perception of others, purpose, and meaning; and our meta-intelligence governs how we integrate the former three into our overall narrative and far-horizon strategies.
While the first three components of the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth focus primarily on the individual self, the next two, interpersonal connections and impact, explore the environments surrounding the individual.
The relationships we build and the people we interact with in our lives create our interpersonal connections. Various studies have shown that the quality of our relationships is directly linked to our overall well-being and sense of fulfillment in life. Expanding outward, these relationships begin with ourselves before moving to our family, close friends, and colleagues, and finally to our communities and society at large. The emphasis of interpersonal connections is on quality and depth, which creates quantity and breadth.
Lastly, what is the impact you desire to achieve in your life? The impact aspect of the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth focuses on the outcomes your actions help you achieve. It’s about finding a larger sense of purpose and meaning in your life, and aligning your actions to achieve it, because a life without meaning feels hollow, no matter how much money you have in the bank or what cool things you have lying around your house.
One of the most fulfilling points in my life was when I was working with United Way to facilitate planned giving campaigns to support early childhood education, end homelessness, and create accessibility for community safety nets, because I knew the work I was doing was making a change for the marginalized and underserved communities that had fallen on hard times.
The thing to note is that what fills my cup and makes my soul sing is not necessarily what’s going to tickle your fancy. The goal of the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth is to rediscover what makes *you* tick so it can be intentionally integrated into your life.
TL;DR: The I5 Model of Integrated Wealth is the innate architecture of a deeply soul-satisfying life: inner drive, identity, intellect, interpersonal connection, and impact. Each strengthens the others, resolving drift and restoring cohesion, so you can truly flourish.
The I5 Model of Integrated Wealth gives form to who you are and where you stand, while the SIMPLE Scaffold System gives you the structure to turn those intentions into real-world outcomes.
🌎 Your Lived Reality: Forge Your Integrated Self with the SIMPLE Scaffold System
Now we’re cooking: this is where the rubber meets the road, and your lived reality begins to take form and reflect your internal state, creating a level of cohesion and mitigating the chaos of modern life. The SIMPLE Scaffold System is a direct antidote to the drift and divergence that so often appear as we move through life because now each decision is guided by intention and grounded in an inner coherence established by the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth.
Simply put, (sorry, I couldn’t resist) the SIMPLE Scaffold System has six steps: strategize, invest, maximize, preserve, leverage, and endure.
Strategize, you probably guessed, is all about strategy. Where are the dislocations and divergences? What are the potentialities? How do we bridge the gap? This is about taking a critical look at where you’re at and where you desire to be and mapping the steps to get there. The name of the game is proactive, intentional design.
Now, when most people think of investing, they think about money. And, yes, this step does have a bit to do with money because, after all, money can buy you comfort and survival. When money is used with intention and by design, it becomes an amplifier of your inner coherence. When money, as you’ve probably experienced, is used reactively, it becomes an amplifier of chaos. When we say invest within the SIMPLE Scaffold System, we’re talking about all of the ways you can invest in yourself and your capabilities, in your peace of mind and security, in growing your monetary wealth through traditional financial mechanisms, in your relationships and community, in the impact you’ll have on society at large. So, we’re expanding the definition beyond money to include your time, energy, talents, and focus – your intrinsic capitals that bring your lived reality into coherence with who you are.
Maximize is about maximizing your available capitals, both intrinsic and extrinsic (a.k.a. money and other physical resources). For some, this might look like skilling up through further specialization in their field; for others, it might look like reconceptualizing their investment portfolio and preservation assets; and, for others, it may look like making the shift from corporatelandia to entrepreneurship. It’s about identifying opportunities and capitalizing on them. You’re either growing or you’re dying.
The next few steps are often overlooked by most of us. Just as there are offensive “active” approaches, there are defensive “passive” tactics to employ in almost every arena. Preserve, Leverage, and Endure primarily fall under defense and risk management. Yet, they are just as crucial as Strategize, Invest, and Maximize because they’re what ensure you don’t lose your shirt when the unexpected comes knocking.
The dreaded insurance (they’re all crooks *wink*), the neglected emergency fund and liquidity buffers, the emergency evacuation route and preparedness kit, investment portfolio hedging and risk management – all of these fall under the concept of preservation. Preserve is about taking stock of your vulnerabilities and making plans to address them. It highlights the weaknesses in your current operating model so you can proactively address them. So, when push comes to shove… well, it can keep shoving and you're still sitting firmly on the wall.
Leverage is the step that I find the most fascinating, and it is often the most villainized. How many of you have heard:
· “Debt is bad.”
· “You shouldn’t have any debt.”
· “Pay off your mortgage as soon as you can.”
And so on and so forth, this is the mantra of the everyday consumer. And, granted, some debt is bad and you shouldn’t carry large amounts of it because it can result in financial fragility. However, blanket statements that all debt is bad are sadly misconstrued. Some debt can be constructive. In the SIMPLE Scaffold System, Leverage is about employing debt strategically to maximize your outcomes.
Lastly, endure is setting up the structural systems, procedures, and processes to ensure your scaffolds continued attunement to your inner cohesion. It’s knowing when to recalibrate and re-evaluate and when to let things keep on keeping on. It’s the warning signs of when to adjust, where to tweak, and how to pivot that maintain your state of cohesion and avoid future drift and divergence.
TL;DR: The SIMPLE Scaffold System comprises strategize, invest, maximize, preserve, leverage, and endure. The six steps to attune your lived reality with your inner cohesion so you can create a deeply soul-satisfying life.
💎Reclaim Your Intrinsic Wealth
The shift starts with you. When your internal world gains coherence, your external world follows. As you architect a life that reflects your values, your motivations, and your meaning, you create a new center of gravity — one that steadies you and strengthens everything around you.
Once you’ve established this foundation, the I5 Model of Integrated Wealth and the SIMPLE Scaffold System extend naturally into your home. What begins as personal cohesion becomes family cohesion. What starts as inner clarity becomes household stability and legacy.
This is a return to the original meaning of wealth — the one our ancestors understood when they wrote their wills not just to pass on possessions, but to pass on well-being, wisdom, and continuity.
When the I5 Model and SIMPLE Scaffold work together, the shift is unmistakable.
· Drift becomes direction.
· Reactivity becomes rhythm.
· Fragmentation becomes cohesion.
· Survival becomes a deeply soul-satisfying life.
Money supports this work. Money amplifies it. But money is not the foundation.
Your intrinsic wealth is.
These systems give you the architecture to align your inner reality and lived reality: the sweet spot where meaning, strength, and stability take root.
Next up, we’re diving deeper into each component of the I5 Model and exploring how to begin integrating them into your day-to-day life.
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