Yanwen’s blog

On Sunday morning, my children came over. After breakfast, we headed to Tangram Mall in Flushing. On the way back, I mentioned that today was International Chess Day. The 2025 theme—Every Move Counts—reminds us that, on the board and in life, every decision shapes our journey.

Since July 15, I’ve been writing about The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom. This is my sixth piece in the series, and today I want to reflect on the fourth type: Physical Wealth—the foundation that supports all the others.

Bloom opens this section with a deceptively simple question: “Will you be dancing at your eightieth birthday party?”

It’s not just about mobility. It’s about whether your body, mind, and spirit will still be in sync with the rhythm of life—will you still have the energy to move with joy, grace at 80?

There’s a common metaphor that captures this well: health is the “1” before all the zeros. Without that one, the rest—money, relationships, purpose—loses meaning.

The three pillars of physical wealth are:

1. Movement

• Cardio: Brisk walking or jogging—30 minutes a day, at least 150 minutes a week. If you can only do one thing for your health, do this.

• Strength training: To slow muscle loss that comes with age. Add 1–2 sessions a week: bodyweight exercises, dumbbells, or weightlifting.

• Flexibility: To stay coordinated and prevent injury. Yoga and Pilates, 2–3 times a week, can help.

2. Nutrition

Focus on whole, natural foods. Avoid highly processed options.

3. Recovery

Sleep 7–8 hours in a dark, quiet, cool room. Morning sunlight helps, too. As The Stress-Proof Brain notes, this not only resets your body clock—it boosts your mood by activating your serotonergic system.

Finally, physical wealth is not about extreme routines or perfect discipline. It’s about consistency. Just like in chess, every move counts. And each walk, stretch, or early night is a move toward a future where, at 80, you’re still not just alive—but dancing with a proud smile on your face.

Since July 15, I’ve been writing about The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom. This is my fifth piece in the series, and today I want to reflect on the third type of wealth: Mental Wealth—the spiritual foundation of your life, the part that keeps you grounded and resilient, especially when the going gets tough.

Again, Bloom opens this chapter with a question:
“What would your ten-year-old self say to you today?”

This question points us to one essential quality that many of us lose as we grow older: curiosity.

Curiosity is one of the key pillars of mental wealth. It keeps our minds open, flexible, and alive. When we’re curious, we’re more likely to explore new paths, forge deeper relationships, and rediscover wonder in our everyday lives. But as we age, routines settle in, fears pile up, and we begin to trade exploration for predictability.

The ten-year-old version of you, by contrast, is still wide-eyed—brimming with questions, imagination, and possibilities. Would that younger self recognize you today? Would they feel proud, puzzled, or disappointed? That question invites reflection. Are we still in touch with what once made us feel alive?

Growing up doesn’t mean growing dull and uninteresting. That childlike energy—openness, creativity, awe—can be reintegrated into adult life. That’s the message at the heart of mental wealth.

Drawing from Buddhism, ancient Greek philosophy, and Japanese aesthetics, Bloom reminds us of a universal longing: the desire to live authentically and meaningfully. Yet this longing often clashes with external pressures. Society rewards efficiency, conformity, and distraction. To live with mental wealth is to resist the gravitational pull of the ordinary.

And from that resistance comes inner strength, your mental wealth. It makes you antifragile—able to weather hardship without being broken by it, and to handle success without losing yourself in it. You keep moving forward with purpose, grounded in a deep sense of meaning.

The Three Pillars of Mental Wealth

1. Purpose – your personal mission or long-term vision that gives meaning to your daily experience.

2. Growth – your commitment to curiosity, learning, and change.

3. Space – time for stillness, solitude, and self-reflection.

Of these, purpose is the core. A strong purpose aligns your daily actions with your values. It doesn’t need to be grand or world-changing—it just needs to be yours.

Bloom says his personal mission is “to create positive ripple effects in the world through writing, entrepreneurship, and human connection.” That mission guides his decisions and simplifies his life.

This is what he calls a “life razor”—a principle that helps you cut away distractions and focus on what truly matters. With purpose, even the smallest step has direction. A blogger pledging to write one news story a day for 10 years may sound extreme, but such “big missions” act like lighthouses: they don’t move, but they help you navigate.

Your mission doesn’t need to match your day job. It just needs to tie you to something larger than yourself. So you’re not merely coasting from day to day—you’re moving with intent, toward a future only you can define.

Furthermore, having a mission benefits also your health. A US study of over 7,000 people found that after age 50, those with strong purpose and goals had significantly lower mortality risks. Another study showed elderly people with a clear mission lived an average of seven years longer, with better quality of life. As a famous saying goes: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

A Better Ending:

Mental wealth enables you to live with clarity, curiosity, and conviction. It’s about carrying your ten-year-old self forward—not to remain a child, but to stay alive to wonder, to remain open to change, and to keep asking the questions that matter.

Because when you’re grounded in purpose, fueled by curiosity, and protected by inner strength, you gain something rarer than wealth: a mind at peace, and a great life well-lived.

To be continued...

Since July 15, I’ve been reflecting on The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom. The five types—Time, Social, Mental, Physical, and Financial—invite us to rethink what it means to live richly. Today, I’ll focus on the second: Social Wealth.

Once again, Bloom opens this chapter with a question that cuts straight to the heart:
“Who will be sitting in the front row at your funeral?” Picture their faces. These are the people who truly matter.

Now ask yourself: What are you doing to cherish those people while they’re still here? How do they know they matter to you?

Your answers form the foundation of your social wealth. It’s not about how many contacts you have, but about how deeply you’re connected to those who will show up in life’s most important moments—and its final ones.

Social wealth matters because humans are inherently social creatures. We thrive in connection and suffer in isolation. Loneliness and social isolation aren’t just unpleasant; they’re dangerous. Studies show they increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and even physical and mental illness. A lack of social connection can be more harmful than heavy smoking or drinking.

Our brains evolved for interaction. In fact, we are human because we are social—and we are social because we are human.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest longitudinal studies ever conducted, confirms this. After tracking 724 participants and over 1,300 of their descendants for more than 86 years, researchers arrived at a conclusion:

“The single most important factor for a happy life is relationships.”

Good relationships make us healthier, happier, and longer-lived. One former director put it bluntly:

“The key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.”

In his TED talk—viewed over 50 million times—Dr. Robert Waldinger, the study’s current director, said:

“The best predictor of your physical health at age 80 isn’t your cholesterol levels at 50, but how satisfied you are with your relationships.”

Another insight that stopped me in my tracks was Bloom’s mention of “the magic years”—the first decade of a child’s life. During this time, you’re their most favorite person in the world. If you miss that window, no amount of later success will fill the hole. Bloom urges parents to prioritize time with their children during these years. A strong foundation, once built, can last a lifetime.

So how do we build and protect social wealth? Bloom identifies three pillars:

1. Depth

These are the deep, meaningful bonds with the people you turn to in a crisis—your closest friends and family. The ones who would sit in the front row at your funeral.

Deep relationships rest on three qualities:

• Honesty

• Support

• Shared experience

Bloom suggests using a matrix to assess them:

• Green zone: High frequency + supportive → protect and nurture

• Red zone: High frequency + demeaning → avoid if possible

• Opportunity zone: Low frequency + supportive → invest in

• Danger zone: High frequency + mixed attitudes → monitor carefully

2. Breadth

The second pillar refers to your broader community—people who share your values or interests. These relationships provide spiritual and cultural support and a sense of belonging. Join a group, show up, and contribute.

Three key elements of breadth:

• Shared values

• Active listening and thoughtful questioning

• Consistent follow-up

3. Earned Status

This is the respect and trust you gain from others—not due to wealth or position, but because of your character and actions. It cannot be bought. It must be earned.

Reflection

We tend to chase financial wealth because it’s measurable. But social wealth is what gives life its meaning—and gives us the strength to carry on when everything else falters.
You won’t regret spending time with your children during their magic years. You won’t regret calling an old friend just to say, “You matter.”
Because at the end of life, another measure of your wealth is who’s sitting in the front row—and why they’re there.

To be continued...

Since July 15, I’ve been writing about Sahil Bloom’s The 5 Types of Wealth: Time, Social, Mental, Physical, and Financial. Of the five, Bloom begins with what he considers most foundational—Time Wealth.

He opens with a gut-punching question:
“How many moments do you have remaining with your loved ones?”
His message is: everyone you love will be gone someday. When you allocate time, put your loved ones first, because one day you might wish you had.

Bloom believes that raising children is one of the best ways to reflect on the passage of time. Their presence, growth, and milestones mark time in the most vivid and heart-tugging ways. The laughter, chaos, and tenderness become time-stamped memories—reminders of how fast it all goes.

At the heart of Time Wealth are three pillars: Awareness, Attention, and Control.

1. Awareness

Awareness means realizing how finite time truly is. Without this awareness, we squander it. One simple question puts it into perspective:

Would you trade places with Warren Buffett?

Despite his unimaginable wealth and influence, most people would say no—because Buffett is 94. You may not be rich, but if you’re young, you have what he doesn’t: time. And that, ironically, is what someone like Buffett might trade his fortune for.

Investor Graham Duncan once coined the term “Time Billionaire.” At age 20, with about two billion seconds left if you live to 80, you are richer in time than any billionaire is in dollars.

Still, we often live as if we have unlimited time. As Seneca wrote,

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

2. Attention

Attention is where time gets spent. It is the true currency of life.

A practical tool here is the Eisenhower Matrix, a framework for organizing tasks based on importance and urgency:

1. Important and urgent → Do now

2. Important but not urgent → Focus here

3. Not important but urgent → Minimize

4. Not important and not urgent → Eliminate

Most of us live reacting to the urgent, not tending to the important. Yet if you ignore the non-urgent but important—like relationships, health, and learning—they eventually become urgent.

This is why Bloom stresses the idea of “slack”—built-in margins of time and energy. Just like investors want a “margin of safety,” people need buffers to stay sane and resilient. Don’t run at 100% all the time. Leave room for life to surprise you without snapping.

Nassim Taleb echoes this in Antifragile: without slack, life becomes a tightly stretched string—tense, fragile, and always on the brink of breaking.

Another helpful tool is time blocking. At the start of your day, assign fixed time slots for your most important tasks. Guard them like sacred appointments.

3. Control

The third pillar is about taking back control by saying no—to distractions, unnecessary obligations, and energy-draining noise. Don't ever lose control of your time.

If you can’t say no to a task, delegate. If you can’t delegate, use AI. If you must do it yourself, aim for “good enough” and quickly move on.

Time control isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less—but better.

To help readers anchor all this, Bloom turns to a practice from Ancient Rome:
When a victorious general returned from battle in a golden chariot, the Romans placed a man beside him, whispering:

“Memento Mori—Remember you will die.”

It wasn’t meant to depress but to humble, center, and clarify. Remembering our mortality can help us live with greater purpose, clarity, and urgency.

Final Reflection

In a world obsessed with financial wealth, it's crucial not to forget Time Wealth. As Bloom and Romans remind us, time is the only currency you can never earn back. You can't deposit it in a bank, or pass it to your children. You can only live it, moment by moment.

The challenge isn’t to optimize every second, but to spend it on what truly matters to you.

Yesterday I wrote about The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom. At the beginning of the book, Bloom shares a moment that changed how he saw his life—and his time.

A few years ago, he was catching up with an old friend over drinks. When asked how he was doing, he gave the standard answer:

“Good. Very busy!” He said it proudly, as if being busy were a sign of success.

But his friend replied that he was “making time for important things” because his father had been ill the year before. This unexpected honesty made the author admit that living in California left him feeling increasingly drained because his parents were growing old living far away on the East Coast.

Then came the conversation that truly shook him:

“How often do you see your parents?”
“About once a year,” Bloom answered.
“And how old are they?”
“Sixty-something.”

His friend paused. Then he said:

“So if they live up to 80, you’ll see them about fifteen more times before they pass away.”

Fifteen. Not fifteen years. Not decades of time ahead. Just fifteen visits. Not the simple truth—but the sudden realization was profound.

Bloom writes that this moment woke him up. It made him think not just about how he was spending his time, but what kind of wealth really mattered.

It reminded me of something Sam Harris once said:

“No matter how many times you do something, there will come a day when you do it for the last time.”

There will be a last bedtime story with your child. A last walk with your sibling. A last hug with your parents at a family gathering.

There's a touch of sadness but the real cruel part is: When those “last times” happen, we rarely realize it.
It’s only later—sometimes years later—that a moment returns to you, and you think: That was the last time.

This, Bloom says, is when he began to think more deeply about the true wealth of life:
Time. Relationships. Purpose. Health. And only then—money. 

To be continued...

Quote from the book:

"You're going to see your parents fifteen more times before they die."

All of what follows is the story of how those simple words changed my life--and how they may change yours.

On a warm California evening in May 2021, I sat down for a drink with an old friend. As we settled in at our table, he asked how I was doing. At first, I gave him the standard response that we've all grown so accustomed to: "I'm good. Busy!" I said with all the unintended irony of the modern era, where busy is a badge of honor, as if being more stressed is something to be proud of. When I asked the same of him, instead of replying with typical busyness one-upmanship he replied that he was "making time for the important things," since his father had gotten sick the prior year. The unexpected vulnerability in his words knocked me off the typical conversation track that defines these "catch-up" encounters. He had opened a new track, and rather than resist, I walked down it, adding that living in California had begun to wear on me, it being so far from my aging parents on the East Coast.

...

FRIEND: How often do you see your parents?

ME: Maybe once a year right now.

FRIEND: And how old are they?

ME: Mid-sixties.

FRIEND: Okay, so you're going to see your parents fifteen more times before they die.

...

Gut punch.

I had to take a deep breath to avoid an instinctively angry response.

...