I’ve never understood the grouping of “health and wealth.” Obviously they rhyme, so there’s that. And I guess if grouped together, these terms would represent what most of us are actively seeking every day. I think the problem is that we think they automatically go together, like “when I’m wealthy, then I’ll be healthy.”

Experience and research, however, tell us that these two rarely go together. Especially when you’re talking about emotional health. I have found that when most of us escalate our financial status dramatically, the expected peace of mind/happiness at the end of that rainbow rarely comes with it. Surely by now you’ve seen the multiple studies showing that when income exceeds $75-100k, it no longer relates to increases in happiness.

And yet we still chase the pot of gold, and pressure our kids into the best colleges so they can chase it. Like Elizabeth Taylor going to the altar an 8th time, we all fall victim to the triumph of hope over experience. And the triumph of wealth over health.

What if we pursued health first?