Building wealth. Living your values.
By Robert Newstead

We Planned Two Years. Eight Years Later, We’re Still Here.

When my family moved from the United States to the Netherlands, we thought we were coming for two years.

Eight years later, we’re still here. We now plan to stay.

Our children have grown up through important stages of their lives here. We’ve experienced a different education system, built relationships, and made the Netherlands home.

A temporary move became a lasting choice.

I think about that when I consider what financial progress is supposed to accomplish.

I’ve spent much of my career arranging real estate financing and investing. Across that career, I’ve financed approximately $2 billion of real estate and participated in more than 150 private investments.

I enjoy the work. Evaluating an opportunity, finding a financing solution, and building something worthwhile still interest me.

I also value being present for my family, staying healthy, traveling, and having some control over my days.

Recently, those priorities collided in a seemingly ordinary place - the weekly schedule in my calendar.

I was trying to make room for financing clients, evaluating new deals, managing existing investments, consulting, and creating this publication.

I wanted consistent income. I wanted to keep building wealth. And I wanted freedom of time.

But each activity required a place on the calendar.

That raised a question I’m still working through.

If my financial activities keep expanding, when do they create more choice, and when do they consume it?

Giving ambition a purpose

My four core values are family, wealth, health, and lifestyle.

Wealth belongs on that list. Financial resources help us meet obligations, withstand setbacks, support people we care about, and pursue opportunities.

But family, health, and lifestyle need attention along the way.

Defining “enough” helps me connect them.

What does our desired life require financially and emotionally? What financial reserves would help us feel secure? What future responsibilities should we prepare for? What would we like to experience or give?

Those answers provide a foundation. They can also change as our circumstances change.

I know that I can define what enough means to me and also remain ambitious.

I may continue building because I enjoy the work, see a worthwhile opportunity, or want to contribute more. Knowing why I’m doing it should help me choose more deliberately.

Three questions before the next commitment

Here is a framework I’m developing for investments, business opportunities, and decisions about work.

1. What does this make possible?

Be specific. Additional income might fund family spending, strengthen reserves, support a future goal, or give us the ability to work less.

More money is a starting answer. I want to understand what that money would do.

2. What does this require?

Consider capital, risk, liquidity, time, and attention.

A commitment may demand very little in an ordinary month and much more when something goes wrong. I want to understand both.

For a business opportunity, that includes recurring responsibilities. For an investment, it includes the possibility of delayed distributions, additional decisions, or capital being tied up longer than expected. It may even require an additional capital call.

3. What might this displace timewise?

Where will the time come from?

Could this commitment crowd out an existing responsibility, exercise, family time, or the flexibility I value?

Sometimes the tradeoff will be worthwhile. Sometimes I may need to delegate, reduce another activity, or pass.

The purpose of these questions is to make the tradeoff visible before I agree to it.

The goal is to continue building a life we want to keep living

Our move to the Netherlands reminds me that plans evolve. A choice made for two years can become part of a life you want to continue.

My financial decisions need to make room for that evolution.

That is the idea behind Net Worth Living.

Financial progress should increase our ability to live according to our values.

Each month, I’ll explore that through real stories, investment lessons, and practical decision processes. I’ll share what my experiences have taught me, alongside the questions I’m still trying to answer.

For this month, take one opportunity you’re considering and write three sentences:

• This would make ______ possible.
• It would require ______.
• It might displace ______.

Does seeing those answers together change how you feel about it?

Reply and tell me. I’d like this publication to become a conversation.

Robert Newstead
Net Worth Living
Building wealth. Living your values.

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Net Worth Living is provided for general educational and informational purposes. It is not investment, legal, tax or accounting advice, and it does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to purchase any security.