The world is obsessed with finding out some one's "worth" and then placing them on the world's business or wealth hierarchy. Forbes ranks the world's richest people based of their 'worth' and this same worth is what a bank might look at to determine how much money they will lend you, if they'll lend you anything at all.

Do you know your worth? I think there is a fundamental problem with determining your worth based solely on your income or the proposed value of your assets. Say John makes $200,000 per year working for a large corporation, would you say he is worth $200,000? On top of that he has a property portfolio valued at around $1.5million funded by $750,000 in debt. Where does that take him? My answer: It depends.

The answer all depends on what 'worth' means to you (and John). Is it purely money or is it more than that? Is spending 70 hours per week in the office 'worth' it? Is answering to someone 'worth' it. Is being with your family and friends more often 'worth' it? What about traveling and enjoying the things you love to do... whats that 'worth' to you?

There needs to be a compromise between the monetary side of 'worth' and the lifestyle value of 'worth'. So how about we use this statement: For every day I am not working, I am worth $______.

Determining worth using this method allows us to take into consideration the quality of life aspect as well as the monetary side to determine someones worth. So let's get back to John. If John stops working his 9-5 then he will stop making money. That's no good. Luckily he has enough equity in his property portfolio so that he doesn't need to worry too much about needing a big income to support his debt repayments. In the end if John doesn't receive an income (income greater than repayments) from his property portfolio then his worth would be relatively neutral. He can't borrow off his equity because if he quits his day job, he can't afford to make the repayments. Plus his assets have no liquidity therefore in terms off 'worth' (using my calculation) John is worth very little (not worthless though!). However if John had $1.5million in investments which brought him a steady return and he received rental income greater than repayments then it would increase his 'worth' substantially.

David on the other hand owns a website bringing in $10 a day from advertising revenue and $80 per day in sales. David is not burden with debt and has overheads of about $400per week. His income is automated and regular and is based on good content and a steadily growing user base. If David stopped working for a week he would make $630. That means for every week David decides to do nothing, he will have in his pocket $230 more than last the previous week after overheads.

John's numbers sound impressive however when we calculate each persons whole worth, David looks to be in a much better position, even though he may only earn $90 per day. He can choose not to show up to work and still make money. At the end of the day David has produced the more sustainable approach to his worth and one which will continue to grow.

This is value. This is worth.