I don’t often read the business pages of our local daily newspaper, the Adelaide Advertiser, but a heading last weekend caught my eye, “Five ways to be rich without a huge bank balance.”

In his article, journalist Anthony Keane noted, at the outset, that Australia ranks ninth globally in the number of high net-worth individuals (more than $15 million in assets), when on population numbers we rank 55th. That got me thinking immediately about how wealthy we are as a nation as a whole compared to the rest of the world. True, there is a lamentable and growing gap between rich and poor in most nations, including Australia, so our ninth ranking doesn’t mean we are all well off. But considering that some 690 million people, or 8.5% of the world’s population, live in extreme poverty (surviving on less than $3 per day) we are relatively wealthy as a nation.

But I digress.

Mr Keane wrote about five ways to calculate your wealth without looking at dollars. Here are my summaries of the thoughts that he offered.

1. Health. While illness strikes unfairly from time to time, a healthy lifestyle is at one’s call. After all, walking is free.

2. Love. Study after study finds that people with strong relationships live longer and are happier too. We know that the mortality risk of loneliness is comparable to smoking and physical inactivity.

3. Experiences. While money helps with travel and interesting memory gathering, most don’t need money at all, like sunset watching, beach walks, and visits to museums and art galleries.

4. Helping others. Not only does volunteering provide valuable services to the needy, it enriches relationships between people. Volunteering is not only good for the soul, but for health and well-being too.

5. Freedom. We have freedoms in this country that half the world can only dream about. Our freedom to express ourselves, congregate together, and elect and hold accountable our leaders should never be taken for granted.

I would add a sixth to the list.

6. Spirit-led moments. Recall for the moment a dozen highlights of your life, and I would guess that some have had to do with participating in worship settings where tears have flowed, and stories have been shared. Some readers of this column might remember the communion service at Kallara Reunion a decade ago when Tahitian guest minister Kahealani Faatuarai (“Special K”) spent 15 minutes moving through the room, washing the feet of those who were about to partake of the emblems.

That morning we were rich indeed!

Rick Sarre

Adelaide