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Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

This is the secret to wealth. What is wealth? It's having plenty, right? It's that comfortable position where your assets exceed your wants. The variables in the equation of wealth are pretty simple. What you have, what you've got coming in and what's going out.

If those are in good relation to each other, you're covered. Except what we miss is another hidden variable that shapes this equation and that is our relative needs and wants. Clearly, most people try to accumulate wealth by earning a lot. That's why they work so hard, why they take so many risks, why they invest.

But the reason they do this is because they have told themselves that what they need is more and more and that what they have already. It's not enough.

Asanaka himself, a very rich man, did that. The astounding financial benefits of working for Nero had to be partly what attracted him to the tyrants service. If only he could have listened to his own advice, which he borrowed from Epicurus.

If you wish to make Pythacles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.

The Stoics would say that for a virtuous person, there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be wealthy. It can provide comfort, security, and quite possibly a platform to do good for the world.

They would just urge you to take a minute and think about what your definition of wealth is and whether you might already have a lot more than you think.

There's more than one way to solve that tricky equation. It may just be that subtraction is easier than multiplication in this case.

The change in your understanding of what being rich is might be more important and easier than adding to your bank balance.

I have really exciting news. Daily Stoke now makes our Memento Mori design in a Signet Ring. It's awesome. I wear it on my right ring finger.

I just absolutely love it. The Signet Ring is a piece of jewelry that dates back something like 6,000 years. There's a practical component of Rome in life.

We can imagine Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Cato, Cicero, and Epicetus all wearing Signet Rings. There was even a later Christian emperor who wore a Signet Ring with Marcus Aurelius' face on it.

This Signet Ring comes in gold or silver and it's got the skull on it, the flower, and the hourglass. It says Memento Mori, which means remember death and on the inside it has that famous quote from Marcus Aurelius.

You can leave life right now and then it comes to us to remember that we must let this affect and influence everything we do and say and think.

I hope you'll check out the ring. It's in the Daily Stoke Store. It's my favorite piece of jewelry now besides my wedding ring. I think you'll really like it. We worked very hard on it. I'm going to love it. Check it out. DailyStokeStore.com.

Hey, Prime Members. You can listen to the Daily Stoke early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today or you can listen early and add free with Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts.