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Wealth moves through your life in many forms—cash, interest, dividends, health, energy, attention. Some flows are visible and measurable; others are subtle and deeply personal. By mindfully observing these exchanges, you can begin to see how external assets and internal well-being continually influence and shape one another. Whether you are investing in stocks or nourishing your body, each decision reflects a transfer of value.

While time ticks away in one direction only, your wealth never stays constant for even a minute and will change in either direction in a manner that you can have some control over. In my TEDx Talk, I shared ideas about the business of living. In a recent conversation, I focused on one specific aspect of that – your end goals for wealth, i.e. your Wealth at Your Time of Death. To reach those end goals for wealth, I spoke more recently about boundaries around and interfaces for various forms of your wealth. Today, I will speak about the transfer of value, i.e. flow, between the different forms of wealth through those interfaces. In this conversation, I invite you to pause, carefully observe, reflect, and explore how conscious choices might redirect that flow to align your wealth — both internal and external — with what truly matters.

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Contents

Background Motivation
Wealth – Hierarchy and Definitions
1234External Wealth
1234Internal Wealth
1234Stock vs Flow
Wealth Flows
1234Partial Views
12341234External to External
12341234Internal to Internal
12341234Between Internal and External
123412341234External into Internal
123412341234Internal out to External
It is a Network…
…Combined with the Flow of Time
Mindful Observation (Axioms)
Managing the Network of Flows
Warning Signs to Observe in Your Flows
Take-Home Message
Parting Message

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Background Motivation [top]

In life, wealth often becomes imbalanced. While many exceed their external wealth needs, they fall short on internal well-being, raising the urgent question of how to achieve a more harmonious state.

During our second conversation about the business ideas in my TEDx Talk, I discussed the topic of Wealth at Your Time of Death. Why? Because with any endeavour, it is better to know what ideal state we are working towards. Even if we never reach that ideal state, without defining that goal, we are, by lack of construction, directionless from the start and at all points of the journey.

Defining an ideal wealth state at death is not enough; the path to it depends on deliberate choices made today, given life’s strong path dependency. Maximizing total pleasure minus total pain across a lifetime requires shifting focus from short-term gains to long-term fulfilment.

We are perpetually faced with the practical challenge of closing the Implementation Gap and, in this case, appropriately investing our Healthy Time, the years of vibrant living, to grow both internal and external wealth. Healthy Time is the true currency of life, and its wise use can yield invisible yet profound returns. Having articulated what your goal is and appreciating that deliberate choices made every day will determine outcomes, a natural question to ask is, “What are the flows between different forms of my wealth between now and that future time?” Today’s conversation unpacks that.

First, a quick refresher on terminology and framework.

Wealth – Hierarchy and Definitions [top]

Following a “slave-master hierarchy”, at the lowest level, you have external wealth, which should serve as a slave for the benefit of your internal wealth, its master.

External Wealth [top]

Your external wealth sits outside you – unconnected to your physical body, and can exist without your existence. This has forms like cash (in the bank), bonds (earning interest from lending to governments or companies), real estate (e.g. offices, warehouses, farmland, residential homes), equity (ownership of companies around the world through the public stock markets or shares in private companies), commodities (e.g. gold, sugar, oil), art (e.g. paintings, sculptures) and other collectables (e.g. rare stamps and coins, antiques)

Internal Wealth [top]

Of the 4 forms of internal wealth, physical health is the easiest for us to understand. Then, we have your mental health, which encompasses, as a subset, your emotional health. Your spiritual health is the most important of the 4, but it is also that which is least well understood.

Stock vs Flow [top]

The value, at this very moment in time, of the house that you live in, is a “stock variable” – a single number at a very specific snapshot in time. It is what someone else might pay to take over ownership of the house from you.

And if you own a second home that you are renting out, then the rental income you see flow into your bank account is a “flow variable” – and if you are paying for maintenance expenses, e.g. to a building maintenance company, that is also a flow variable, but flowing in the opposite direction to the rental income you are earning.

Today, we will not focus on value but instead on flow. Flow is a transfer of value. The transfer of value is a flow.

Wealth Flows [top]

Understanding how wealth flows is easier to understand, first, from a partial view perspective. The reality of a network of flows is then easier to understand.

Partial Views [top]

Let us look at some point-to-point examples of flow. First, between various forms of external wealth. Then, between various forms of internal wealth. And then, between external and internal wealth.

External Wealth to External Wealth [top]

Let us say you go onto your stockbroker’s website and buy some shares. By the next day, you have money flowing out from your bank account to settle the purchase transaction, but your equity portfolio has increased in value from the flow of more shares into it.

When you sell some gold you own, your cash pile is a bit bigger as money flows into it in exchange for the gold that flowed out.

Internal Wealth to Internal Wealth [top]

Internal wealth also flows from one form to another, with temporary reductions in one domain fueling growth in another. A clear example is the investment of physical effort or voluntary discomfort to expand mental, emotional, or spiritual reserves. When the body endures strain during sustained cardiovascular exercise, physical energy is “spent,” yet this expenditure elevates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and stimulates neurogenesis, thereby increasing mental wealth. Similarly, physical movement metabolizes stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, transforming physical exertion into emotional resilience, stability and antifragility. Even spiritual wealth can be cultivated through physical sacrifice – pain – a temporary reduction in internal wealth: the effort of climbing to a vantage point to witness a sunset, or the shock of plunging into cold water, both involve physical discomfort that silences mental noise and opens space for profound spiritual connection.

Between Internal Wealth and External Wealth [top]

You are an agent in an environment – wealth flows into you, and out of you into the environment.

External into Internal [top]

External wealth should serve as a tool to support internal wealth, which is its true master. Such beneficial flow occurs when financial assets are used to enhance physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual well-being. Money can fund education to expand mental capacity, purchase nutritious food and access to workout facilities to sustain physical health, or secure comfort through housing and transportation that ease emotional strain. For those who live in crowded cities, it also enables access to nature or peaceful environments, enriching spiritual and emotional reserves. By outsourcing some of your tasks, financial wealth can free up Healthy Time for exercise, rest, or reflection. Even at life’s end, external resources convert into immediate comfort and peace, underscoring that external wealth’s highest purpose is to nourish the internal.

Internal out to External [top]

Internal wealth can flow outward to generate external wealth in several ways. Investing time and resources into study builds mental wealth, which can later be converted into higher pay or entrepreneurial success. Productive labour channels physical energy and mental focus into jobs or businesses, earning you a salary or a share of profits. Maintaining strong health through lifestyle protects external wealth by avoiding the heavy payments to the sickcare industry that often arise later in life. Finally, a high stock of internal wealth—combining vitality, sharpness, and spiritual purpose—enables sustained productivity even in old age, allowing continued financial returns and the creation of a lasting financial and non-financial legacy.

It is a Network… [top]

To understand a complex system, it is useful to consider the impact of X on Y in isolation. For example, the impact of drinking freshly squeezed orange juice instead of alcohol on the quality of sleep you will have.

However, everything in the universe exists within a network. Visualize your total wealth forming a network having nodes of various forms of your wealth. For example, your cardiorespiratory fitness, your cash in the bank, your muscular strength, your stock market investments, your cognitive abilities, your holiday home, your dental health, etc. Each node has a connection to one or many other nodes via a path. Then there are events that occur. For example, a vegan feast at the end of a prolonged religious fast, or a large drop in the stock market you are invested in. An event at one node of the network creates a flow of wealth that cascades out through the network to other nodes. The strength of flow through the path between any two nodes varies across the network depending on the nodes you consider. The negative impact of ice cream on your gut microbiome will be different from its impact on your dental health. In addition, the flow from one node to another can have multiple paths – directly between nodes, and through the path of multiple nodes between them. For example, a large drop in the stock market reduces that part of your external wealth immediately. But, if its impact on your emotional state was such that you made a decision that was financially incorrect, then you would have another shock via that pathway, and your external wealth would drop further.

…Combined with the Flow of Time [top]

Given the definition of flow, rather than a single snapshot in time, we need the passage of time to observe or measure the flow. However, the passage of time is important within our network regardless of whether we care to observe the flow or not. This is for two reasons. Firstly, because the action at one node has both immediate and cumulative effects on other nodes. Those who choose fruit as their daily dessert over cake impact their wealth positively – something that would be particularly visible over the longer term. Secondly, the impacts of some actions are dependent on their duration. For example, a 20-minute mid-afternoon nap has a different impact (and purpose) than 7¼ hours of solid sleep at night.

Mindful Observation (Axioms) [top]

A mindful observation of flow would thus include an awareness of the following truths – I would like to call them axioms. Awareness that you are a network of systems within you, and that network is part of a larger network that lies outside you. Awareness that in the network of wealth, there is a boundary between internal and external wealth. Awareness that it is your physical wealth that is the interface to, not just the external world, but also other forms of your internal wealth. Awareness that the flow never stops across the network. Awareness that observing what flows down only one path will typically miss the bigger picture, and you need to observe the flow across multiple paths. Awareness that the network is living and dynamic, ever-changing. Awareness that external events influence flows. But also, the awareness that your actions can strongly influence the state of your wealth across the network. And, finally, awareness that all of this happens with the passage of time.

These axioms blend, merge and overlap with the Axioms of the Internal-External Divide.

Managing the Network of Flows [top]

If our goal is a long and joyous life free from pain and disease, then we know that managing the flows within your network is your responsibility. An important primary task within that management is for you to mindfully observe the flows and be aware of the axioms above. With that habit as a foundation, the management of flows can be engaged with – a topic for another day.

Warning Signs to Observe in Your Flows [top]

Let us consider this in 3 parts.

Part 1: Even if you need to work to make money, when the flow of value inverts the natural hierarchy—where your Healthy Time is spent as an expense to chase external assets rather than those assets nourishing the internal “master”—it signals imbalance in the business of living. You will not receive an email from the universe telling you that you are in this state of imbalance – you need to observe it yourself! This inversion often leads to what I call the Zero Billion state: a condition where vast external net worth fails to translate into joy because declining physical or mental units can no longer absorb or convert wealth into vitality. In effect, total wealth collapses to zero. How many such zero-billionaires does your country have? Many! So, observe your flows.

Part 2: A deeper failure in the wealth network emerges when flows are hijacked by the Unholy Trinity – streams of short‑term pleasure that function more like a tax on future internal wealth [and on future external wealth], than an investment in long‑term resilience. The signs are everywhere: clogged physical flows, such as a sluggish glymphatic system leaving toxins unflushed and the mind fogged; or emotional units unmoored from physical regulation, like a heart rate spiking uncontrollably under stress. Once again, you will not receive an SMS telling you that these are a sign of imbalance; you must be able to observe and correctly assess what the root causes are. How many around you give in to short-term pleasures at a cost to their well-being? Many! So, observe your flows.

Part 3: Perhaps the most subtle warning is of being directionless. Without a clearly defined Ideal Wealth State at Death, daily actions become driven by fear – fear of mounting sickcare costs – rather than guided by a deliberate accumulation of internal vitality. In this way, wealth ceases to be a flow toward flourishing and instead becomes a hedge against decline. This fear of future costs is so easy to observe in most people, but that need not be the way for you to feel. But remember, you will not receive a message on WhatsApp that forces you to have a clear vision of where your life should be heading. And so, how many see themselves heading to an old age of pain, discomfort, and medication when they need not? Almost everyone! So, observe your flows.

Take-Home Message [top]

Wealth is not static — it is a continuous flow between your external assets and internal well-being. True prosperity emerges when you mindfully observe these exchanges and ensure that your external wealth serves its proper purpose: nourishing your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Without conscious awareness of these flows, you risk becoming a “zero-billionaire” — abundant in assets yet bankrupt in vitality. Observe your flows daily, for they reveal whether you are investing your Healthy Time in what truly matters.

Parting Message [top]

While time only moves in one direction, you have control over how your wealth flows.

It is your smallest of habits that define who you are today and who you will be tomorrow. If everything you do is consistent with your core beliefs and desires, then a long and healthy life of joy is pretty much guaranteed to be yours. If you would like detailed guidance, you know how to reach me. If you found this useful, please do share it with others.

Puru

Dr Purnendu Nath spends his waking hours focusing on helping individuals and organizations reach their goals, to make the world a better place. He speaks, writes and advises on topics such as finance, investment management, discipline, education, self-improvement, exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, leadership and parenting.