The World of Wealth

I have been very fortunate to have never come across someone who would say to my face that women are not good at math and, therefore, cannot be good at building wealth or managing finances.

Having grown up in a matriarchal family structure, my mother and my grandmothers were responsible for managing our money. And even though there wasn’t much to start with, it was incredible for me to watch them make – out of nothing much – a life filled with travel, friends, family, and ticking items off the dream list. For my family, this meant often being aware of priorities and having a clear vision on how life should look – tomorrow, in a couple of years, and in a few decades.

But most women haven’t had the fortune to grow up with women managing the family money. And, let’s be honest -many people have never been taught how to manage money and build wealth and many struggle to even define what wealth means.

Interestingly, while looking for contributors for this issue, whenever I would bring up the topic of wealth, the first thing that would pop up was money.

Yet wealth isn’t money. Money is a vehicle for wealth, sure. But, wealth is so much more. And I really think that money playing the central role in most conversations about wealth is in itself a problem. Without the skills to understand why we need money and how we want to use it, we start by simply putting a price on everything!

So let me ask you right now to think about what wealth really means to you.

For me, wealth includes the community around me: the people who pick me up on days when everything seems to be going wrong, those who bring food to our house because they worry we have been too busy to go grocery shopping. Wealth is also, for me, the ability to travel and explore cultures. My heart fills with so much joy when I walk around streets I have never seen before.

Certainly, like most people, I would like to have more money, because some of the goals I have set will require additional financial means. But, just like in most of the conversations I had over the past few months while preparing this issue, I would also really like to be able to give more to others.

Growing Ziva Voices and amplifying women worldwide is really my mission. And I am clearly not alone. When they mentioned money, all the women in this magazine also mentioned that they would (or do) use it to improve other people’s lives. It was fascinating to see that it was always about using money to create something, and not once about buying something or using it for personal gain.

Now imagine a world in which the focus would not be the Porsche in the driveway or the Rolex on someone’s wrist, but instead, it would be the well-being of humankind overall: the creation of a better space for the communities around you, and ensuring that people are truly experiencing joy. Imagine the world we would live in as a world filled with abundance and lightness. That is a good start to having true wealth. 

I hope you will enjoy this issue, and end up, like me, with a more accurate understanding of not just your own ‘wealth’ but also of its immense potential in improving the world in our immediate communities and, ultimately, in the global perspective also.