How Do I Maintain Wealth in My Relationship?

MONEY CHANGES DOES WEALTH?

“I counted money in six figures when I met my wife. Allocations were simple. Buying a purse was easy as purchasing a loaf of bread. Throughout time things change. Where we once spent thousands on a simple outfit, now we confront the same amount to decide which credit card to pay. Credit once pristine is subpar. Some would say all our wealth evaporated. It has not.”

WEALTH IS DIFFERENT THAN BEING RICH

A long time ago a mentor taught me an important lesson. My mentor taught me how to measure wealth. He was very clear it was different than being rich. Rich people are easy to spot out. They enjoy luxury. They fly private planes. Their houses are twelve-bedroom mansions which house only two people.

I know people like this. My good friend Tony is like this. So is my friend Jeff. Another one is Chris. One of them can access over 9 figures. I’ve been around people like this since my early 20s.

But my mentor taught me a key difference. My mentor taught me some people are rich and others wealthy. A few are wealthy rich people. If you must choose, always choose wealth. For even a criminal can be rich but a criminal can never be wealthy.

So, I committed to understand what he meant by this parable. I chose a path towards understanding wealth. I would not understand fully right away. It would take the end of my first marriage to fully understand it. Let me spare you the heart ache of a failed marriage and 13 years of pursuit in these next five minutes.

WHAT IS WEALTH

Quite simply put, “Wealth is the ability to have what you have for the rest of your natural life.” If you are reading this, and you know me than you finally understand my saying “I am not money motivated.”

I have never been. For money cannot and will not last for the rest of your natural life. This is an impossible notion. Money is a finite resource that drains every moment of your life. When you turn on a light switch electric costs begin. When you open a faucet a water meter counts your debt. When you open the fridge warm air decays the savings for your next meal.

In all instances, money is flying away from you. So, what to do? Change the goal of your relationship to permeant wealth not fleeting riches.

Although this may seem like a money conversation — it is not. The largest single cause of divorce according to a national survey reported by Wilkinson & Finkbeiner in America was lack of commitment. The statistics came in at a staggering 73%. (2)

THE WEALTHIEST ASSET IS COMMITMENT

Virtue is a rare commodity which cannot be found nor owned by any other party except the soul. The soul is both a permeant fixture and a perpetual state of being. The body can be shaken, the mind clouded and the heart misled.

To quote a biblical verse Jermiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (3)

Mainstream society tells us to follow the heart. I think you should lead your heart. Lead it not with your mind but with your soul. The body is impulsive and a slave to impulse.

The soul itself remains unbothered or unaltered by any action. There can be no repossession of the soul. The can be no imprisonment of the soul. You cannot intoxicate your soul with substances, nor can you physically harm it.

The assets the soul owns are many and they are permeant. Unfortunately, few invest in the growth of these assets. These assets take the form of virtue. Virtues such as: fidelity, truthfulness, resilience, compassion, resourcefulness, creativity and commitment.

None of these items require money. None of these items can be removed. No form of collateral can lien these assets. Despite this reality few invest in them. What makes me wealthy is the virtue I possess not the treasure I hoard. I invest in these assets and show my wife how to invest in hers.

This is why people seek me out despite impossible situations, those who love me give me endless chances and why false narratives do not seem to affect their decisions to support me. Most who do not own any assets of the soul are completely dumbfounded by why people closest to me remain. You cannot buy loyalty. You must inspire it. This can only happen if you are wealthy in virtue. Those who are dumbfounded either lack virtue or have failed to spend enough time with me to witness it.

What This Response Does:

· It builds resilience. People have low tolerance levels of pain and discomfort. Accepting a negative experience as part of your life builds resilience. People want to have people in their lives who will not flake when times get hard. A hard time is inevitable. There is no easy life on Earth. A person who is resilient is a sought-after commodity. Nowadays nearly no one is resilient. Commitment means weathering very tough storms. Cancer, bankruptcy and illness require resilience.

· It hones the skill of perseverance. This is not a practice of, “oh well it wasn’t meant to be”. This means you try again. Persevering is about going against the odds. It’s about never giving up. It’s about trying again. Commitment means to preserve against all the odds and remain faithful. This is where fidelity comes in.

· It makes you the one no one wants to trade out. When you choose virtue, you become an irreplaceable commodity. Those who do typically live with regret. This does not mean someone will not trade you out. It means they will not want to. I am chosen over others not for my money, my skills or abilities. People can find comparable skill sets with less drama. What they cannot find is the virtue I possess without excessive drama. It is always their loss not mine. This comes not from arrogance but from a proper perspective. I have nothing to prove, nor do I gain anything by hoping they recognize me.

Three Ways To Invest In Wealth (Use Them)

1. Box Breathe. If you don’t know what this is it’s when you take a deep breath, hold it and slowly let it out. Some trainers in the military teach this technique to people during fire fights. It’s measured in intervals of 4s. This is how I breathe during extreme stress, violent situations or blind-siding events. It allows clear decisive action over impulse knee jerk reactions. This will permit you to work on exercising virtue when the situations present itself. This trains an important asset of the soul called — self composure.

2. Cold Shower. Strengthen Will with a flash of cold water during a shower. You can start in seconds and proceed to minutes. Do small, measured bursts where you are not overwhelmed. The point of this is to train yourself to not impulsively act the moment something upsets you, makes you sad, et cetera. This also trains an important asset of the soul which is — temperance.

3. Read Opposing Viewpoints & Explain Them. The point of this exercise is to open your mind to empathy. Empathy is simply trying to put yourself in another person’s shoes. Not to agree but to understand. It promotes an active skill to learn about others instead of only looking for someone to compliment yourself. Choosing written material makes you less reactionary. Writing an explanation of another’s written viewpoint in your own words forces you to ask critical intentional questions like, “What does this person mean?” or “Who is their audience?”. This trains one of the most important assets of the soul — empathy.

The Value of This Philosophy

· This will lower your stress level instantly when you do this. It is well researched and proven.

· Exposing yourself to voluntary discomfort suggests you will gain improved motivation for personal growth. (4)

· Intentional questioning is an essential skill to learning and sets up scaffold thinking a critical thinking skill. (5)

IN CLOSING

I do not wish my personal circumstances on anyone. It is for this reason that now I am the ultimate authority on what not to do. My much-anticipated new book “Turning Indictments To Dollars” talks about how to avoid the pitfalls I suffered. If you are accused of something you know you didn’t do — this book will offer you the path which grants you success. Trust me you will want to Sign up for free during the pre-release period to take advantage of unique $0.99 pricing on launch.

Sign up for free to listen free of charge to my chapter in “Many Paths To Profit”. You can pick up a copy of my international best-selling and award winning book, “I Made It Then I Didn’t” as well for a deeper insight.

The concept I teach in this article is free. Some of my personal stories are not free of charge as everything costs something. The techniques I discuss in this article I use. The purpose of reading this is to help those invest into assets of wealth which create stability in a relationship.

If you are worried about long term relationship success, it’s critical you read this. This is a time-tested philosophy I have personally deployed and taught to others. It shows you how to distinguish the difference between allocating resources to temporary resources over permeant resources. If you invest in temporary resources don’t’ be surprised when you only have a temporary marriage. Invest in permanent resources so you can have permanent marriage by using the techniques above.

To Your Knowledge Success!

Sources

1) The life of Christopher Knight Lopez a Professional Hustler turned International Best Seller and Published Author of “I Made It Then I Didn’t”.

2) Wilkinson & Finkbeiner. Divorce Attorneys Website. “Divorce Statistics: Over 115 Studies, Facts and Rates for 2024. Web Link: https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/. Accessed 9 April 2025.

3) Holy Bible.

4) Association for Psychological Science. “Embracing Discomfort Can Open Our Minds to New Ideas”. May 18, 2025. Web Link:

5) Thinking Skills & Creativity. “Intentional questioning to promote thinking and learning”. Angela K Salmon. June 2021. Vol 40 Iss 100822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100822

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Not a form of investment advice. Please consult a professional registered to give you advice about your individual circumstance. This article is for educational purposes and entertainment purposes only. Please do not email the author about advice on investing or strategies on making investments. Certain elements of this narrative may have been fictionalized to convey message points. This is a work of artistic expression not a narrative of fact. Strictly for entertainment and informational purposes only.

About Christopher: Christopher Knight Lopez is a Professional Hustler turned International Best Seller, Award Winner of the December 2024 prestigious International Impact Book Awards — a premier award program dedicated to celebrating and recognizing the exceptional work of authors around the globe and Published Author of “I Made It Then I Didn’t”. He is also a Co-Author with Kevin “The Shark” Harrington “Many Paths To Profit”. See more at www.christopherklopez.com.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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