Sahil Bloom’s The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life is one of the most practical and heartfelt self-help books of 2025. Published by Ballantine Books, it takes aim at the narrow idea that success is measured only in financial terms. Bloom, a former investment professional turned writer, investor, and creator, builds his case through a mixture of personal story, research, philosophy, and hands-on tools that anyone can apply.

I first started following Sahil on X in 2020, and what stood out immediately was his authenticity. He did not just churn out motivational platitudes; his posts combined life lessons with action steps that felt usable. Over time, I watched him evolve into fatherhood, sharing openly about his family life, the trade-offs he made, and the importance of balance. Reading this book, it is clear that his framework for wealth is not wishful motivation. It is lived experience. He applies the very principles he writes about across all five areas of wealth.

The Premise
At its heart, the book is about redefining wealth. Bloom introduces readers to the idea of the “broken scoreboard.” Most people measure success by money alone, which leads to Pyrrhic victories, you can win financial battles but lose the larger war of fulfillment. He tells his own story of reaching financial success by 30, earning millions, only to feel hollow and disconnected from health, relationships, and meaning. A chance conversation in 2021, where a friend calculated he might see his parents only 15 more times before their passing, hit him hard and set him on a new path. He quit his job, moved across the country, and rebuilt his life around a broader definition of wealth.

The Framework
The book identifies five interconnected forms of wealth:

● Time Wealth: Freedom over your hours, the ability to use them intentionally with people and activities that matter.
● Social Wealth: Depth and breadth of relationships, from family and close friends to community ties.
● Mental Wealth: Purpose, growth, curiosity, and stillness of mind.
● Physical Wealth: Health, energy, and vitality that make life enjoyable and sustainable.
● Financial Wealth: Money as an enabler, not the end, built through income, expense management, and long-term investing.
Each type of wealth is unpacked in dedicated sections. Every section begins with a big question to provoke reflection, then moves into historical stories, research, three key pillars, and “systems for success” that are actionable. For example, in the Time Wealth section, Bloom encourages readers to calculate how many times they are likely to see loved ones again, which creates urgency to prioritize what matters. In Social Wealth, he asks, “Who will be sitting in the front row at your funeral?” In Physical Wealth, the question is, “Will you be dancing at your eightieth birthday party?” These questions are uncomfortable by design but they cut to the essence of a well-lived life.

Highlights and Strengths
Bloom’s biggest strength is how he makes big ideas simple and relatable. The book feels like a blend of memoir, life philosophy, and workbook. The Wealth Score quiz, Life Razor exercise, and goal versus anti-goal framework stand out as practical tools for achieving financial success. His storytelling style makes the ideas stick. He shares his own background, from his family’s intercultural history to his injury that ended a baseball career, to his struggles with fertility alongside his wife. These anecdotes make the advice feel grounded, not abstract.

Another strength is the evidence he brings in. He cites research from happiness studies, growth mindset psychology, and history. For instance, he draws from Harvard studies showing money boosts happiness only up to a baseline level, after which it becomes a treadmill. He uses the story of King Pyrrhus to explain why focusing only on financial wins can cause long-term loss. This combination of data and story makes the book credible and engaging.

Most importantly, Bloom models the life he describes. His transition into fatherhood, his visible prioritization of family dinners and health routines, and his openness about hard trade-offs show that these ideas are not just theory. He truly applies the five types of wealth in his own life. For readers, that credibility makes a difference.

Weaknesses
The book is long at over 400 pages, and at times it feels dense. For someone new to personal development, the sheer number of systems could feel overwhelming. Some ideas, like ikigai, compounding, or growth mindset, will be familiar to readers of classic self-help. The financial section is also relatively simple compared to specialist finance books. Those in financial hardship may feel it underplays the significance of money. That said, these weaknesses do not undermine the overall value. The book’s synthesis of ideas and the breadth of its framework more than make up for them.

Key Lessons
● Money is important, but it should be treated as a tool, not the scoreboard.
● True wealth is multidimensional, made up of time, social, mental, physical, and financial capital.
● Each life season brings different priorities. Balance does not mean perfect equilibrium; it means knowing what to focus on when.
● Asking big questions, like funeral visualizations or future-self letters, can spark life-changing clarity.
● A life can be transformed in one year through small but consistent actions.
In the end
The 5 Types of Wealth is one of those books that arrives at the right cultural moment. In a time when hustle culture is losing its shine, Bloom offers a framework that is ambitious yet humane. It will resonate most with people in transitional phases: young professionals chasing career milestones, new parents recalibrating priorities, or midlife achievers realizing money alone is not enough.

As someone who has followed Sahil for some time now, like him, i found the book to be both motivational and authentic. It mirrors the values he has modeled publicly and privately, particularly in his dad phase, where he demonstrates how to make space for all five forms of wealth. I finished the book convinced it is not just inspiration but a roadmap.

Babatunde Adeleke is a Nigerian writer, PR professional and poet. His works has been published in several media spanning print, online and audiovisual.

His poetry has been published in several anthologies and poetry magazines.