I realized there had been a topic I hardly touched on: wealth. Writing about wealth often doesn’t cross my mind because I’ve always seen it as a natural by-product of living a good, productive life. The path to getting rich should be common sense because it simply means working hard, having some talent, and putting it to good use. The Chinese word for wealth is “财“and is made up of two separate words – “贝” and “才” – meaning “valuable” and “skill”, respectively.
Wealth and money are one of the few aspects of life that virtually everyone wants to know about, and it has always been one of the hot topics in Chinese metaphysics and BaZi. Unfortunately, it usually revolves around acquiring it instead of our relationship with it.
The clients I’ve had come from vast backgrounds, and I’ve had the privilege of assessing their charts and witnessing firsthand how it shows up in real life. One aspect I enjoy about my job as a practitioner is that I always hear other people’s stories, and it’s always heartening to hear stories of success, grit, and redemption.
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I feel the value of metaphysics is not just in its application – the philosophy of it also matters. Sometimes, understanding its philosophy is more valuable than the application. This blog post explores what wealth means in the eyes of metaphysics and why certain BaZi chart-holders are destined to be wealthy.
What Wealth Is And Isn’t – Metaphysics’ View On Wealth
When people talk about wealth, it is always about the money and the number you bring home each month. The measure of one’s success or good life is merely about the number in your bank account.
The deeper question to ask is whether this is truly a good measure. Did our ancestors who created BaZi want a good life to be measured this way? No doubt, the amount still matters to a large extent, but the point I’m trying to make here is that we need to view this from a few different angles.
I’ve met many people who earn decent or very well, in fact, but they have very miserable lives. Some of these people either have a lot of family drama or don’t even have the time to spend their money or have some time for themselves. On the other hand, I also know many people who earn significantly less but are content, wholesome and fulfilled individuals.
Most people see only what they wish to see or what they desire.
Let’s take the example of starting your own business: Many of my clients are business owners, and they earn quite a bit more compared to my clients working in the corporate world. However, most of them feel burdened by the business and don’t have a better quality of life. The business becomes a burden instead because there is always a worry about covering overheads and whether there will be enough revenue the next month. This might sound surprising to people in the corporate world, but it isn’t. Sometimes, having your own business isn’t exactly a good thing.
We don’t have enough deep conversations with one another to realize these things.
Chinese metaphysics talks a lot about balance, and most lower-quality charts don’t appreciate the balance between one’s life and money. A chicken-rice seller can be wealthier than a banker or CEO. If you can appreciate this, you’d understand what having a balanced life or BaZi chart means.
Case Studies On Wealthy BaZi Charts
When BaZi enthusiasts try to interpret their charts, they are always very excited to see a lot of Direct Wealth (正財) and Indirect Wealth (偏財) in their charts, but right after this excitement, they begin to ask themselves, “Why am I not rich yet?” Assessing a person’s chart meant to be wealthy is not that straightforward, of course – BaZi analysis is never that straightforward. Certain conditions must be met before the wealth ‘gods’ in one’s chart mean anything. In most cases, having one extreme wealth ‘god’ or element is enough; having two or three weak ones is pointless.
There are also plenty of situations where having wealth ‘gods’ in one’s chart is bad, to the surprise of newcomers to BaZi. That being said, one does not always need wealth ‘gods’ in the chart to attain wealth per se, although it certainly does help. As long as the chart structure is good, and one’s talent can be fully realized and put to use, attaining wealth can be done with relative ease. One can even enjoy the process too. The most well-known chart structure would be the ‘Output Producing Wealth’ structure (食傷生財格), and people with such charts are known to be extremely successful businessmen. Other forms of chart structures can also do that, but perhaps not at the level of ‘Output Producing Wealth’. As long as you have a talent and are capable, wealth can be acquired, so regardless of whether you are a Direct Resource (正印格)， Direct Officer (正官格)， or even a Peer Structure (比劫格), you can still acquire wealth if you utilize your talents correctly, you can still acquire wealth. I will share some of the charts of people I’m familiar with. They are my friends who occasionally come to me for advice, and they’ve kindly allowed me to use their charts as a case study.
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The Yin Metal BaZi chart belongs to a friend of mine who has been an entrepreneur since his university days. He runs a highly successful food and beverage business with an annual turnover of over 5 million, and the business is expanding really well. You will see his restaurant in the high-end malls in Singapore, one of those restaurants where there is always a queue. His chart is a classic ‘Output Producing Wealth’ structure.
The Yin Earth BaZi chart belongs to his partner, who is also extremely wealthy by virtue of the business’s success. Still, you’ll notice that his chart structure is very different, with two Rob Wealth (劫財) ‘gods’ sticking out, known to be negative ‘gods’ in a strong Daymaster chart, which his chart falls into. If we were to speak purely from a wealth angle, both of them could be considered equally comfortable financially, just that, of course, the chart makes their personalities and the way they handle money very different and not to mention their backgrounds are worlds apart. People with 偏財 usually spend a lot more and can be magnanimous, which is why they make good businessmen sometimes because of the relationships they build. The restaurant chain’s partner is more ‘by the book’ kind of person. And yes, the ‘gods’ that appear in a BaZi chart can determine the personality and character of the chart-holder and how they deal with the world for sure, like how it can be done using Zi Wei Dou Shu (紫微斗數) by assessing the stars and which sector they end up in.
The above chart belongs to my client, whom I’m helping to design his landed property. His chart belongs to the Indirect Wealth structure (偏財格) but without the Eating God (食神) and Hurting Officer (傷官) to enhance the strength of the wealth element – not that he needs it to be honest as the presence of the Wood element is already pretty strong in his chart, and on top of that he has two ‘Wealth Vaults’ (財庫) appearing as the wei (未) Branch in his chart, his source of wealth is not only abundant, but he’s able to keep it for sure as well. On top of that, his Elemental Phases are such that the wealth element continues to strengthen, so the utility of the two ‘wealth vaults’ in his chart is enhanced. This is why, at his age, he can fork out more than $3.3 million for his house. Like the restaurant chain owner above, this client-turned-friend of mine is also an incredibly generous and friendly, and he’s one of the clients I enjoy working with.
This Yang Earth chart belongs to a female acquaintance. As you can tell, she’s not even 30 yet, but she already earns a 7-digit annual salary in the corporate world. She works as a private banker. The presence of wealth is extremely strong in her chart thanks to the Water combination that forms between 子 (zi), 辰 (chen), and 申 (shen). On top of that, her Daymaster is strong and worthy enough to acquire the wealth in her chart. Yes, she’s lucky to be born into a good family, but rest assured, she’s a very hard worker too.
I didn’t go into detail in breaking down the steps in the analysis when I touched on the above charts but I know that all of their Elemental Phases (运) are excellent, supporting their Daymaster and upholding the favourable structure of the chart. Not to mention that 3 out of the 4 charts have a ‘Wealth Vault’ (財庫) within it which is great for accumulating wealth.
The one chart without ‘Wealth Vault’ can acquire wealth, no doubt, but keeping it is the question. Not all wealthy charts are enviable, to be honest – health problems or marital woes plague some of them, and I have encountered plenty of those, but I won’t touch on them for now.
People With Wealthy BaZi Charts In Real Life
Most people will adopt the mindset: “These people are lucky, which is why they are wealthy in the first place.” Most people will also attribute it to sheer luck.
To some extent, the above is true, but only in the case of the private banker. Of the case studies above, one comes from an average family, one comes from a family plagued with family issues as the father was a gambler, and the other’s family has a wet market business. They didn’t get a huge headstart, but they are now more successful and wealthier than most.
The above chart holders are some of the most hardworking, down-to-earth, and talented people I know. They are also authentic and treat people well. They did not go into business for the sake of wealth itself. Their intent was different; you can feel it, and I can’t put a word to it. Yes, they may dislike the corporate world like most of us secretly do, but the point is that they were willing to start small and brush aside what society thinks of them, and they focused on what they enjoyed doing and the camaraderie that came along with it.
Most people would ask me, “Why them and not me?” The bluntest answer is that the people with non-wealthy BaZi charts do not have the willpower, capability, or raw talent to have wealth flowing to them.
When you’ve seen enough wealthy BaZi charts and have met these people in person, you’ll know that their wealth is simply a natural occurrence of who they are and a by-product of their hard work and years of sacrifice. When the time was right, Heavens granted them the wealth and success they deserved. People do not become rich without doing anything, and I don’t know why people assume that a wealthy BaZi chart equates to that. Even when striking the lottery, you still have to get off that lazy backside of yours and purchase a ticket. A chart is not a description of the things that happen to you arbitrarily, and I mentioned time, and again it is not about “luck”. Your chart describes your inner world and how you interact with the world, and the above four people truly deserve their level of wealth.
Looking At Wealth From A Metaphysics Perspective
I don’t want anyone to be mistaken that as long as their chart is roughly similar to the above charts, they stand an excellent chance to be rich. You might argue that some people are just born rich and don’t have to work at all, which is true. Still, honestly, if you stripped them of their privileges, the ones with the rotten attitudes brought on by a life that’s too comfortable would be unable to survive anywhere. I hate being around such people because it’s not exactly an inspiring friendship. Not everyone born into a wealthy family becomes a prodigal child, though, to be fair.
There is a reason for the saying “wealth doesn’t last three generations”. What the wealth ‘gods’ really represent in your capability, resourcefulness and character – that is the foundation of true wealth and a good life worthy of respect.
If you’re Metal Daymaster, Wood is your wealth; if you’re an Earth Daymaster, Water is your wealth. Out of all the possible interactions, people don’t usually think about why the Wealth Element in BaZi is the element your Daymaster controls and why the Chinese sages came up with this formula. Why can’t the Wealth Element is the element which controls the Daymaster instead or the one that produces it, given that wealth is seen as nourishing?
Wealth, at the end of the day, is what we can create and produce, which is why it is the element that your Daymaster controls. A tree or block of wood will remain as such unless Metal turns it into something valuable. A piece of metal ore is worthless until it’s put into the furnace to be forged.
You can keep talking about ‘luck’, but the world will not change for you so that you can be luckier. I’ve also mentioned in this blog post of mine that ‘luck’ is not what we think it is. I would encourage you to read that blog post after this entry.
Yes, some people have quite a good head start or foundation to give them a boost, whereas some really need to fight their way through. However, ultimately your ‘luck’, in my opinion, is still determined by your mindset and what you want your life experiences to mould you into.
I’ve argued many times that the people with an upturn in their Elemental Phases are fighters who are extremely resilient and positive. In contrast, those who self-victimize with a bad attitude will definitely reveal continuous negative phases in their BaZi Elemental Phases. There is a clear difference in the attitude and characters of people with good charts as opposed to those with bad ones. You can see your Elemental Phases as your mental state and attitude because this ‘luck’ that we always speak of is nothing but the interaction between us and the world, and each thought and action triggers a series of causes and effects that will lead to a certain outcome.
The prodigal people born into a wealthy family may have an excellent natal chart, or perhaps their Year Pillar is supportive. Still, if their Elemental Phases are horrendous, you will eventually see them fall from grace, and no matter how big their bank account is, you won’t see them inspiring faith of confidence.
Unethical Wealth That Brings Trouble – Is It Worth It?
There are a lot of cases where you will see someone get a windfall through unethical or illegal means, and people like to ask whether this is a good thing in the eyes of metaphysics. Of course, it’s not.
Wealth is supposed to make us feel safer or bring peace – not the opposite.
Do you wish to get a few million dollars but not be able to get a peaceful night’s sleep ever again, or maybe a few hundred million but be pursued by law enforcement for the rest of your life? Is that regarded as true wealth? At the end of the day, you’ll have to decide what your relationship with money should be like and what the numbers in your bank account mean to you.
The above is a thought experiment that I like to get people to do because it reframes how we relate to wealth so that we can pursue it more broadly. Wanting to be rich is not a bad thing, and it is not intrinsically evil, but my take is that it needs to be pursued in a balanced manner. This is also why in BaZi and Chinese metaphysics theory, having a lot of wealth elements appearing is not necessarily a good thing.
The Exceptional Cases
Of course, there would be outliers and cases of people turning into multi-millionaires by sheer luck, and this is one of the rare few times where I refer to the word “luck” but its literal meaning.
There are a few things to consider here. Is striking the lottery a good event? Some people’s lives did spiral out of control after getting a windfall because of their inability to handle money.
As for those who got rich with the lottery and went on to have great lives afterwards, well, let’s say that Heavens felt that they deserved it and were worthy of getting a lift from them. Certain things are still fated, and most of us aren’t worthy.
Before You Say “Yes” To That Higher Paycheque
I’ve had many clients tempted by a higher paycheque, only to join a new company and have their lives thrown into disarray. You’ll see that happening in many start-up companies that lure you in with a big pay bump, only to work you to death and ruin your career trajectory.
Sometimes, staying put and maintaining a stable state is the best thing to do. Going for that 20% or even 30% higher paycheque may not be worth it.
You will always hear me talking about balance, and this balance between effort, time, and monetary reward needs to have some form of balance, too, in my opinion. I was part of the working world too, and did I feel that my time and effort were worth my paycheque? Of course, I didn’t.
How do you put value on someone’s time? Time is priceless because you can’t buy a second of time even if you have a million dollars. Whatever this balanced state means or feels like, everyone must define it for themselves. Do not forget that a good life is more than just about your money because whereas I hope everyone is financially comfortable, I also hope you have a healthy body and a warm and loving family to go back to.
When you put someone with a wealthy BaZi chart beside someone not meant to be wealthy, you will be able to see the differences yourself. You don’t need to be a practitioner to be able to assess what makes them different and the contrast in their achievements.
The point of this blog post is to get everyone to re-look at what wealth means to them and to look hard at whether they are on the right track. Starting a business may not make your life better. Getting that higher paycheque may not be a good thing either, especially if you’re going into an unstable company with a toxic environment.
Most importantly, it is to ask yourself whether you are doing the right thing for true wealth to come. Whatever this means is unique to everyone, and I don’t have a templated answer. For some, it might mean being content with your current paycheque now and focusing your time on your family and health, and when you do, perhaps you might find that inner drive to want to do even better.
Whatever it is, I have never seen a wealthy person on ‘autopilot’ mode or being passive about life and what they do.
