Book of the Month: The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom

It’s easy to be consumed by the need to build financial wealth. Regardless of income, education, or socioeconomic status, many of us are driven by the desire to provide for our families, grow, and live fuller, more enriched lives. Money can help make that happen.

Legendary comedian Jim Carrey once said, “I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that’s not the answer.”

In his book, The 5 Types of Wealth, author Sahil Bloom offers a comprehensive guide for establishing a more well-rounded portfolio of wealth. Bloom, a former pitcher at Stanford University, spent his early professional career in finance, establishing an upward trajectory in pursuit of the financial independence most Americans seek.

However, Bloom recalls an encounter with a friend that changed his perspective on life and inspired a book that has been a NY Times Bestseller and mentioned as one of Amazon’s Editor’s Best Books of 2025.

At the time, Bloom and his wife were living in California with young children, across the country from their families on the East Coast, where both he and his wife grew up. His friend, who had recently lost his father, asked Bloom how often he’d traveled back to see his aging parents.

“Once a year,” Bloom replied.

His friend calculated the age of Bloom’s parents with the average lifespan and mentioned to him, “So you’re going to see them fifteen more times.”

That moment impacted the rest of Bloom’s life, initiating his return to the east coast and his career as an author.

5 Types of Wealth establishes an in-depth view of the ways in which individuals can attain greater prosperity, with financial wealth named as the last of the five types of wealth behind:

Time Wealth

Social Wealth

Mental Wealth

Physical Wealth

When it comes to the 5 types of wealth, we may recognize our own strengths and weaknesses or be able to identify these categories in others we admire, but Bloom makes the argument that in order to enhance financial wealth, we need to lock in on the other four. Backed by research from numerous scholars and authors, Bloom’s book provides an abundance of references and strategies for anyone inclined to seek more knowledge in a particular area.

Lately, I’ve been very hung up on time wealth and have written about it recently. I’ve been more deliberately tracking the amount of time I spend working, driving, exercising, meditating, writing, on my phone, watching soccer, with others, all in an attempt to quantify my use of time and find ways in which I can leverage it. I don’t consider myself a time-oriented person and would never be known as always time efficient.

My college coach Barry Gorman’s first team rule was Be on Time.

Former Eagles player, NFL coach, and ESPN analyst Herm Edwards used to say, “Early is on time, and on time is late.”

Former Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban said, “Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own.”

When we’re young, we’re considered time billionaires. It’s taken me half my life to understand the greater value of time, yet I’m still trimming wasted time like unnecessary words in a draft.

Bloom writes that there are three pillars to time wealth: awareness, attention, and control. Here he describes the significance of attention:

In 1666, when the bubonic plague was devastating London and its surrounding cities, forcing universities to shut their doors and send students home, a twenty-three-year-old at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge fled to his small village fifty miles away. Just as in the early months of our COVID-19 pandemic, young students were forced by unfortunate circumstances to pause their lives and enter a state of lockdown.

But rather than wallow away while isolation, this particular bright young man ran with the forced constraint and spent the year in a perpetual state of creative and intellectual flow. Despite the absence of formal educational requirements, he immersed himself in his books, studies, and experiments, pursuing his curiosities with intense focus and fervor.

During the single year of his confinement, the young student made groundbreaking discoveries in fields across science and mathematics, among them:

 ·      Developing the initial principles of calculus

·      Formulating the law of universal gravitation

·      Defining the three fundamental laws of motion

·      Laying the foundation for the behavior of light

·      Designing a reflective telescope

The young student was Isaac Newton, and the year 1666 became known as his annus mirabilis (Latin for “miracle year”), a nod to the breadth and depth of his output over such a short period. In a single year, he produced the output of several incredible lifetimes.

We don’t all need to focus our time on groundbreaking theories that will alter humanity, we just need a sustained presence in things that matter to us. Time blocking is a modern behavior strategy touted by many athletes, artists, businesspeople, researchers, and scholars as a way to establish a routine for uninterrupted deep work. When giving important tasks our undivided attention, we’re able to produce more in shorter amounts of time, essentially bending time in our favor, a concept that goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks and beyond.

Time is only one of the five types of wealth that can enhance our lives. Bloom offers additional anecdotes and research to support a more deliberate approach to improve the other areas as well. To find out more on building emotional, mental, physical, and financial wealth, find Bloom anywhere on social media these days. He’s had a great run on numerous popular podcasts as of late and offers his insights in a weekly newsletter The Curiosity Chronicle.

Building wealth for tomorrow comes from prioritizing desired behaviors today.